Elton Kalica

Elton is a human rights activist. Following his own experience of detention, he founded Italian Convict Criminology and co-manages the editorial team of Italy’s leading prison journal, Ristretti Orizzonti. He is a researcher and a member of the Scientific Committee of the Master’s programme in Critical Criminology at the University of Padua.

He is the author of several academic articles and published Farsi la galera (2018), the first book in Italy to demonstrate the importance of integrating the perspectives of incarcerated people into academic research. He also published La pena di morte viva. Ergastolo, 41 bis e diritto penale del nemico (2019), a book examining long-term confinement and life imprisonment in Italy. His research focuses on prison ethnography, convict criminology, prison research methodologies, and critical restorative justice. Since 2022, he has been developing a mentoring project at Padua Prison, delivering a programme on qualitative research methodology for mixed classes of incarcerated people and university students.