Creating Behind the Razor Wire: An Overview of Arts in Corrections in the U.S.

“Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code” (2005) by participants in Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. (Photo courtesy of Rehabilitation Through the Arts)

I am a newcomer to this field of arts in corrections. As a recent college graduate with a degree in Spanish and Portuguese and a love of Latin American culture, I enter this field not as an artist, but rather as a student and a researcher. My only experience with arts in corrections before this project was the rejection of a proposal to facilitate creative-expression workshops at the women’s prison in New Jersey. While attempting to start these workshops, I did not know whom to talk to, what was already out there, or how to go about gaining access. I assumed that there must be other individuals and organizations providing arts programs in correctional settings; I simply had not discovered them yet. I longed to transform my frustration from that experience into a resource for others working in the field. With the help of Victoria Sammartino, I developed a proposal for the ReachOut 56 fellowship, a grant from Princeton’s Class of 1956 that funds two graduating seniors each year to complete an independent, self-designed project in affiliation with a small nonprofit organization. I proposed to work with Sammartino’s Bronx-based organization Voices UnBroken to research the arts in prisons, jails and juvenile- detention centers across the country in order to enhance communication among people working in the field and to increase awareness of the current work and past history of arts in corrections.

Thanks to this fellowship, I have spent the past six months reading about prisons and their arts-based activities, visiting certain programs to observe their work, interviewing people involved in prison arts projects, and recording this information. This research has taken me across the country, from the Arts-in-Corrections’ rooms in California’s New Folsom and San Quentin prisons to the auditorium of Sing Sing in Ossining, New York. I have had an unparalleled opportunity to see programs in action and also to talk with practitioners, both past and present, about their experiences in this vast field that provides creative writing, drama, visual arts, music, dance and other arts-based programs in correctional facilities throughout the United States. Based on my research and personal experiences of the past months, I have attempted in the paragraphs that follow to paint a picture of the current scene of arts in corrections in this country. My hope is that this account serves as a starting point for continued dialogue among the many people working in this field, separated by physical distance yet connected through their work.

The Struggle for Existence

“Self Portrait” by Anthony James, participant in Buzz Alexander’s Prison Creative Arts Project at University Michigan, who has been “painting seriously for about 20 years — most of my period of incarceration” (Photo courtesy of Prison Creative Arts Project)

Given the current climate of limited funding and a punitive corrections mentality, one could mistakenly assume that arts programs in correctional facilities have disappeared. While arts in corrections may not be thriving or as organized in the United States as in other countries like the United Kingdom, individual artists, nonprofit organizations and university professors are carving out spaces for innovative and inspiring arts programs in correctional facilities. In 2001, Grady Hillman painted a similar picture of arts in corrections, mentioning that while more inmates in the U.S. may participate in arts programs now than did 20 years ago, a smaller percentage of inmates have access to these cultural resources due to an astronomical growth in the number of prisons relative to the growth of arts programs.[1] Hillman noted some promising practices and models for sustainability five years ago, including California’s Arts-in-Corrections and increased support from state arts councils for correctional programs, which barely continue today due to serious budget shortfalls that impacted arts funding across the board. As Hillman lamented five years ago, there is still no national program to support and promote the arts in correctional settings. In fact, the National Endowment for the Arts in association with the Federal Bureau of Prisons no longer funds pilot programs in federal correctional facilities.

Decreased state and federal funding for arts in corrections, combined with the 1994 crime bill that abolished Pell Grants for inmates to attend college, could have left a deep chill over arts and humanities programs in correctional facilities. While these changes in funding left a large artistic and educational gap as community colleges were forced to abandon their prison classes, new programs and approaches have developed in an effort to fill this void.[2] These emerging arts programs cover the spectrum of artistic disciplines, from the more traditional creative-writing workshop to integrated, multidisciplinary arts projects. They receive funding and other necessary support from a variety of sources, ranging from the government in a few cases to nonprofit organizations to universities. In spite of their differences, all of these programs provide inmates with the tools and opportunities for artistic expression.

Measuring the Benefits

In the years since California first institutionalized its Arts-in-Corrections program with a line item in the state budget and staff positions within the Department of Corrections, various studies have investigated the value of arts programs for incarcerated populations.[3] The often-cited 1983 Brewster Report, written by California State University San Jose sociology professor Lawrence Brewster, reviewed four institutions, showing that Arts-in-Corrections produced $228,522 in measurable benefits as compared with a cost to the department of $135,885. Among inmates who participated in the arts programs, Brewster found a 75 to 81 percent reduction of incident rates.[4] The validity of this report has been questioned, yet it is one of the few quantitative reports supporting the practice of the arts in correctional facilities.

The positive benefits of the arts in terms of recidivism rates have also been noted in both formal studies and anecdotal accounts. From December 1980 to February 1987, the California Department of Corrections studied parole outcomes for 177 randomly selected inmates who had participated in at least one arts-in-corrections class per week for a minimum of six months. Arts-in-Corrections participants had a higher percentage of favorable outcomes than the total population studied for the same periods.[5] It is impossible to claim that only the arts programs were responsible for the reduction in incident rates and recidivism. Other factors, including who chooses to participate in arts programs, their education levels, job training and family support, also influence these statistics.

Participants from Voices UnBroken address a conference at Columbia University, New York City, by Critical Resistance East conference, dedicated to ending the Prison Industrial Center. (Photo courtesy Voice UnBroken)

During my conversations over the past six months, artists working in correctional facilities mentioned the low recidivism rates of their students based on informal observations. For instance, Leslie Neal of ArtSpring Inc. in Florida has tracked 30 women who participated in the InsideOut program and have been released back into the community on parole. Of those women, only one was returned to prison and has since been re-released to become a productive member of society. The director of Shakespeare Behind Bars in Kentucky, Curt Tofteland, cited no recidivism among the 35 program participants who have been released. Similarly, Katherine Vockins, the director of Rehabilitation Through the Arts at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, has kept track of 12 ex-participants who have been released and are living in the New York City area. Of those men, ten are leading what Vockins describes as perfectly healthy and problem-free lives. While these artists acknowledge that other factors impact recidivism rates, they suggested that their arts programs could have contributed to the reduced recidivism among their former students. Based on statistical studies and anecdotal reports, it is difficult to refute the value of the arts for incarcerated men, women and children.

An even stronger voice of support for these programs comes from the inmates who have participated in them. In his memoir “A Place to Stand,” the now renowned poet Jimmy Santiago Baca describes his path from illiteracy to poetry and self-discovery during his incarceration in an Arizona state prison. One of his early poems, titled “It Started,” highlights the importance of writing for him and other incarcerated men:

A little state-funded barrack
in the desert, in a prison. A poetry workshop,
an epicenter of originality, companionship,
pain and openness,

For some,
the first time in their life writing,
for others the first time saying openly what they felt,
the first time finding something in themselves,
worthwhile, ugly and beautiful.[6]

While Baca illustrates the value of the writing program, he spent his imprisonment in isolation and could not participate in the workshops. Richard Shelton, who has facilitated poetry workshops in Arizona state prisons for over 30 years, told me that he responded to Baca’s letters and writings with written criticism. Even though Baca never participated in Shelton’s workshops, he recognized Shelton as a friend and a mentor.

Another prisoner serving a life-without-the-possibility-of-parole sentence in California, Spoon Jackson, similarly expresses the value of words, poetry and workshops in his process of “self-rehabilitation.” While imprisoned in San Quentin in the 1980s, Jackson studied poetry with Judith Tannenbaum, played the role of Pozzo in Jan Jonson’s 1988 production of “Waiting for Godot,” participated in basic education and college-level courses, and discovered the power of words. As he explained in a recent editorial published in the San Francisco Chronicle,“Words would be what self-rehabilitated me and my thinking. I learned a few new words each day, and each new word brought forth a geyser erupting inside my mind and soul. The more words I read, studied and pondered, the clearer life became. I became richer and deeper inside. I could see, taste, feel and touch the growth taking shape inside me, and understood things I had never understood before.” Jackson further suggests that:

If the word “rehabilitation” is to be more than a meaningless string of 14 letters, the state must muster the resources and will to offer again a wide range of programs such as those offered in California prisons 20 years ago. These are the programs that allowed many of us to change ourselves. For ultimately, rehabilitation is always self-rehabilitation. Prison had to offer the programs, and I had to make myself active in these programs and in my own self-directed studies. Self-rehabilitation works. I had to choose to change, which meant to get to know myself and find my niche, bliss and myth in life. I had to till the endless gardens in my mind, heart and soul. I had to become anew, despite being in prison.[7]

Both Baca and Jackson acknowledge the mesmerizing power of language and literature for the discovery, transformation and “rehabilitation” of oneself, while also recognizing the contribution of writing workshops and other prison programs to this process of change and growth.

Although Jackson laments that many of the programs he enjoyed 20 years ago no longer exist, the presence of arts and educational opportunities has not been completely eliminated from correctional facilities across the country. Individuals, organizations and universities continue to fill this thirst for the arts in a place that may seem inhospitable to creativity on the surface, an institution designed to dehumanize and punish its imprisoned population. Art finds room to blossom even in the most horrific environs of a prison. Marty, an inmate at California State Prison-Sacramento (“New Folsom”), illustrates this presence of art and artists in what many consider an unlikely setting:

Long before there was any money, before there were art “programs” of Arts-In-Corrections or whatever money made, there were artists in prison. There were poets and writers and painters. There were musicians and singers and composers. Where there was no paint there came paintings made from coffee, from Koolaid, from crushed chalk. Things were sculpted in soap, and sometimes when the poet had no ink he used shoe polish in his pen. And these people all knew each other, shared ideas and materials, shared books, collaborated and competed. There was a community… And where there is a community of these wall painters, these storytellers and singers, there is also the true, and only, heart of this society. Art is necessary the way love is necessary.[8]

A Vast Range of Approaches

Women of the Cross, an a cappella group, performing in “Time In,” a collaborative piece with Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble and the Women of York in Hartford, Conn., November 2006 (Photo courtesy of Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble)

While some artists may find a way to create without programs or workshops, as Marty suggests, opportunities in the arts, from writing workshops to collaborative performances to juried art shows, help individuals with little exposure to the arts discover their creative spirit as they find a way to express themselves. Arts-in-corrections programs currently represent a vast range of artistic disciplines, pedagogical models, formats, funding sources and facilitators. Due to the diversity and quantity of arts in corrections across the country, this article cannot provide a comprehensive list of all current programs, but will instead highlight noteworthy programs that feature distinct, yet successful, approaches.

As previously mentioned, California is unique in that its Arts-in-Corrections program has been institutionalized as part of the Department of Corrections. While still in existence nominally, the fine-arts model of Arts-in-Corrections no longer receives enough funding to hire contract artists in each facility or to purchase supplies. Every prison still has an “artist/facilitator,” yet this employee is now responsible for the Bridging education program that provides educational packets to inmates undergoing initial processing. At California State Prison-San Quentin, artist/facilitator Steve Emrick has continued to pay contract artists, like Patrick Maloney who teaches a portraiture class, and to purchase supplies for visual arts classes and instruments for the yard bands. Grants from the Kalliopeia Foundation, MarinLink, the Marin Arts Council, William James Association and other local nonprofit organizations, as well as funds raised during the twice-a-year food sale, have allowed Emrick to sustain a similar level activity in his Arts-in-Corrections program as when it received full funding from the state.

Another California artist, Beth Thielen, continues working as a “contract artist” who teaches book arts two nights a week to women at the California Rehabilitation Center, thanks to funding from the Kalliopeia Foundation, channeled through the William James Association. The artist/facilitator at California State Prison-Sacramento, Jim Carlson, has transformed his arts-in-corrections room into a space for continued creativity and learning where prisoners teach each other the arts. Spoon Jackson facilitates creative writing workshops, Marty works with the musical groups, and the prisoners learn from their peers’ artistic skills and ideas. When I visited “New Folsom” last July, I encountered this supportive creative community, a safe place to share and grow as an artist and a person. While a few artist/facilitators have maintained high-level arts programs in California’s prisons without significant funding, Arts-in-Corrections could better serve the imprisoned population of California if the state properly funded it.

MAP: Model of Government Support

In spite of its current funding difficulties, California’s Arts-in-Corrections remains a unique example of an institutionalized, statewide program where the Department of Corrections worked in collaboration with the William James Association and other nonprofit arts organizations. California’s Arts-in-Corrections is particularly noteworthy because its funding became a line item in the state budget, which secured government funding and a certain degree of stability for the program. However, it is not the only program to receive government funds and support. For instance, the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia is associated with the city government, emerging initially in 1984 when mural artist Jane Golden began to work under the auspices of the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network.[9] In 1996, the city recognized the Mural Arts Program as a separate entity with an affiliated nonprofit organization to support its endeavors. The program’s main objective continues to be using mural-making and arts education as a means to combat and prevent crime. Under the directorship of Golden, the Mural Arts Program offers a wide array of mural-making projects for adult men and women at three correctional facilities in the Philadelphia area: the State Correctional Institution at Graterford, Riverside Correctional Facility for women, and Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility. The Mural Arts Program also works with adjudicated youth in the Philadelphia area.

The program views mural-making as a way for the adjudicated youth and incarcerated adults to discover self-exploration and transformation through art, to work as part of a team, and to give back to the community, offering some inmates the opportunity to convey a message of hope in a tangible and meaningful way. Through the artistic form of murals, the Mural Arts Program is bringing beauty and hope to the city of Philadelphia and to the lives of the incarcerated. As one of the current leaders in the field of arts in corrections, this program also realizes the importance of forming a national network of individuals and organizations providing arts programs in correctional facilities. They are currently organizing a national arts-in-criminal-justice conference to be held in Philadelphia October 2007, an important opportunity to further the conversation about the role of arts in corrections and to strengthen the fledgling network of prison arts organizations that currently exists.

Nonprofits and Foundations Take the Challenge

Given the relatively limited funds allocated by federal, state and local governments to the arts in general and specifically to arts in corrections, nonprofit organizations and other foundations have become crucial figures in the field of arts in corrections. In the past decades, individual teaching artists could have received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts’ artists-in-residency programs in federal prisons, state arts councils, community colleges, writers-in-the-schools programs, or, on rare occasions, from the department of corrections. However, these funding sources have all but disappeared, so individual artists working in correctional facilities often have to apply for grants and align themselves with nonprofit organizations.

“Only the Dead Can Kill: Stories from Jail,” a 2006 Community Works/West collaboration with writer Margo Perin (below), who teaches in the San Francisco County Jail

For example, Margo Perin, a writer who teaches in the San Francisco County Jail, received a grant from the Creative Work Fund in collaboration with the nonprofit organization Community Works/West to publish “Only the Dead Can Kill,” an anthology and CD of writing.[10] As a writer and a teaching artist, Perin maintains an affiliation with Community Works/West, yet often raises her own funds through artists’ grants and other sources in order to continue facilitating her workshops at the County Jail #7, which are based on personal exploration through writing. Similarly, Hettie Jones, who facilitated the Creative Writing Workshop at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility from 1989 to 2002, shared with me how she entered the prison as a volunteer and had to raise her own funds to support her workshop. Poets & Writers gave her funding for a few years in a row; in the late 1990s, she received a $10,000 grant from George Soros’ Open Society Institute. Since Jones was a volunteer according to the prison and not receiving monetary compensation for her time, the prison workshop was only one of the courses she was teaching any given semester while continuing her own writing.[11]

Artists Organize Things Their Way

Occasionally, individual writers facilitating workshops in correctional institutions have difficulties securing funding for their work or establishing a partnership with larger nonprofit organizations. Victoria Sammartino encountered these hurdles when facilitating a creative expression workshop for the girls on Rikers Island as a volunteer. She thought an existing nonprofit would incorporate her project into their organization. When established nonprofits refused to support her Rikers workshop, she decided to start her own nonprofit organization, Voices UnBroken, with funding from the Union Square Awards in 2001. This organization provides traditionally under-heard members of the community with the tools and opportunities for creative self-expression through writing workshops at Rikers Island, Bayview Correctional Facility, the Children’s Aid Society, Exodus Transitional Community, and other alternative settings. Sammartino wants to nurture the inherent need of all people to tell their stories, which she believes leads to personal development and eventually community growth. As a small, yet growing, organization, Voices UnBroken realizes the importance of developing and sustaining connections with other individuals and nonprofits working in this field. Small nonprofit organizations akin to Voices UnBroken exist across the country, creating artistic opportunities in settings where creative expression is so often stifled.[12]

Inmates Judith Clark and Kelia Pulinario with playwright Eve Ensler (r.) at a writing workshop at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York (Still from documentary on the workshop, “What I Want My Words to Do to You.”)

For more famous writers, like Eve Ensler and Wally Lamb, funding their prison work through grants or the establishment of a nonprofit is not a primary concern. Ensler facilitated a creative writing workshop at Bedford Hills, overlapping slightly with Hettie Jones before the prison informed Jones that they no longer had room for her workshop. While facilitating her workshop, Ensler produced the documentary “What I Want My Words to Do to You” about the women’s writings and a subsequent performance of their pieces by well-known actresses, including Glenn Close, Rosie Perez and Marisa Tomei.[13] Although this documentary has drawn attention to the writing of imprisoned women, other facilitators have questioned the writing prompts, such as “Write about the night of your crime” or “Write about a scar,” posed by Ensler. For legal, as well as pedagogical reasons, most experienced facilitators, including Jones, would never ask their incarcerated students to write about their crime or other issues for which they could later be incriminated.

Wally Lamb and the Women of York Correctional Facility, writers of "Couldn't Keep it to Myself: Testimonies From Our Imprisoned Sisters." (Photo: Gale Zucker, courtesy of On Point Radio)

Wally Lamb has also garnered attention for his prose-writing group at the York Correctional Institution for Women in Niantic, Connecticut. Since 1999, he has facilitated writing workshops in the prison, helping the women to discover their voices and refine their written words. In 2003, Lamb and the women published “Couldn’t Keep It To Myself: Testimonies from our Imprisoned Sisters,” a collection of memoir pieces written by eight women who participated in Lamb’s workshop.[14] The book was fairly successful, and while the majority of the proceeds went to a nonprofit organization, the women received a small amount of monetary compensation, a supposed violation of Connecticut’s “cost of incarceration” law. The state of Connecticut billed the women for the cost of their incarceration, but Lamb and the women, with the help of PEN, defeated the case.[15] Lamb remained committed to his students, supporting them in the lawsuit and continuing to facilitate the writing workshop. The women’s recent writing will be anthologized in a forthcoming book titled “I’ll Fly Away.”

With a Little Help from Friends

Lamb is not the only volunteer facilitating the arts at the York Correctional Institution. In recent years, artistic activities and opportunities have thrived at York, due in part to the institution’s librarian, Joe Lea, who has served as a strong ally for the arts in the facility. Lea believes that:

Individuals who participate in arts-based programs may be involved in creating a painting, writing a story of learning a dance sequence; however, they are also learning valuable skills in concentration, order and sequencing, memorization, evaluation and analysis. Each of these skills is invaluable to the student throughout their educational program. Therefore, arts based programs can have a direct impact on the effectiveness of the overall learning process.[16]

Due to these convictions, Lea has supported arts-based programming during his 11 years as an educator and library specialist at York. For instance, Lea has been an ally to Makenna Goodman and her fellow Wesleyan students who facilitate creative writing workshops as volunteers at York. Through their organization, the Wesleyan Prisoner Resource and Education Project (WesPREP), Goodman and her colleagues hope to offer a degree-granting college program. Until that becomes a reality, they will continue to facilitate creative writing workshops with the help of Lea.

Collaborations, Inside and Out

Lea also helped to coordinate the recent collaborative arts piece between the Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble (JDPE), the a cappella group Women of the Cross (WOTC), and the women of York. Beginning in January 2006, Judy Dworin and Kathy Borteck Gersten of JDPE and Leslie Bird of WOTC volunteered their time to work with the women in the existing prose, poetry, movement and choir groups to understand their view of time and to craft this performance piece. This collaboration resulted in an incredibly emotional performance by the 36 participating imprisoned women and the members of the Hartford-based performance troupes inside the prison for other inmates, prison staff and selected guests from the outside. Since that June performance, the women of JDPE and WOTC worked to refine the piece in an effort to represent the women on the inside and their stories. This process of revision and rehearsal culminated in the moving performance of “Time In” at the Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford on November 2-4, 2006. I was fortunate enough to attend the opening night performance, which was introduced by Wally Lamb and followed by a talk back among Lamb, the performers, Dworin, two women formerly incarcerated at York CI, and the audience. Through its innovative mix of song and dance, the performance brought humanity to the complex lives and emotions of women behind bars. Dworin and her performers gave voice to the women incarcerated at York and in prisons across the country who are too often rendered voiceless. The show moved everyone in audience; with tears in our eyes, we enthusiastically honored Dworin and her company with a standing ovation.

Performing members of “Keeping the Faith - The Prison Project” by Seattle’s Pat Graney at Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor (Photo courtesy of Pat Graney Company)

In addition to Dworin’s work, other women have brought movement and music workshops to female correctional facilities across the country in an effort to help women express themselves and share their voices. Pat Graney, the founder and artistic director of the Pat Graney Company in Seattle, began “Keeping the Faith: The Prison Project” in 1995 at Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor. For the past two years, Graney has facilitated the program at Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women in Belfair. While Graney comes from a dance background, her prison project follows a multidisciplinary artistic approach taught by dance/movement, visual arts and writing facilitators in collaborative teams. The company teaches a three-hour class twice a week, working toward the development of a final performance piece, which the general public can attend.

I attended the recent performance at Mission Creek on December 1, 2006. When I entered the facility with Graney and company early on the performance day, the women prisoners were excited and nervous as they carefully prepared their hair and makeup, put on their costumes, and got into the rhythm of their piece. Graney and her interns had worked with the women over the past ten weeks to create a piece that explored their pasts, and affirmed their humanity and the possibilities for a brighter future. Like other people working in arts in corrections, Graney laments that funding is hard to come by, yet “Keeping the Faith” remains a multifaceted program. In addition to its annual residency program, it also includes an intern training, a national/international model and a performance series that brings guest artists into the prisons to perform and conduct workshops.

Leslie Neal of Florida’s ArtSpring Inc., on the cover of High Performance magazine in 1996. Her cover story: “Miles from Nowhere: Teaching Dance in Prison”

On the other side of the country in Florida, another woman with a background in dance, Leslie Neal, has developed an interdisciplinary prison arts program that emphasizes movement while incorporating writing, visual arts, music, storytelling, meditation and performance as transformational tools for self-reflection and personal change. Neal, the founder and executive director of the nonprofit organization ArtSpring Inc., began teaching in the Broward Correctional Facility for Women in 1993. With its ten faculty artists working at the three state-run prisons for females and other juvenile-detention centers, ArtSpring continues to serve primarily institutionalized women and girls through its two principal programs: Inside Out and Breaking Free. Although Neal also struggles with funding, she has received grants from the Kalliopeia Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts for a 1997 artist residency in the federal prison in Tallahassee, and other private donors. In the past year, Neal has taken advantage of opportunities that arose, starting a program for imprisoned men when the right instructors came along and receiving a contract from Miami-Dade County’s Juvenile Services to incorporate their arts programming into an already existing community program with tutoring and pregnancy-prevention components.[17] By adapting to the needs of the community and the funding climate, Neal maintains strong interdisciplinary arts programming that serves the incarcerated and traditionally underserved women, girls and now men of Florida.

The Bard Behind Bars and Other Performances

Inmate “Big G,” who cast himself as Caliban in “The Tempest” (Big G seen above as Hamlet, from “Shakespeare Behind Bars,” a documentary on the program at Luther Luckett Correctional Center in Kentucky)

Other forms of performance exist in prison settings across the country, serving not only incarcerated women but also imprisoned men and adjudicated youth. With the recent release of the documentary "Shakespeare Behind Bars," a 2005 Sundance Film Festival selection, the work of Curt Tofteland at the Luther Luckett Correctional Center in Kentucky has received well-deserved attention. Tofteland, the producing artistic director of Kentucky Shakespeare Festival and founder and artistic director of Shakespeare Behind Bars, has been running this program, which performs the works of William Shakespeare exclusively. He goes into the facility as a volunteer at least two times per week for 2 ∏ hours each day, and, as production nears, he is at the facility every day with the 30 men who participate in the program. The men cast themselves, which Tofteland believes helps the men build conflict-resolution skills and also connect more fully with their characters. The inmate actors form a community as they embody their characters and become emotionally involved in the process. According to Tofteland, full-length theater productions lead to a level of expression, development and community that does not occur in intellectual discussions. Over the years, the men have performed "The Tempest," "Titus Andronicus," "Julius Caesar," "The Comedy of Errors," "Two Gentlemen of Verona," and other Shakespearean works for the inmates and outside guests at Luther Luckett. They are currently working on "Measure for Measure" for an April 2007 performance. Thanks to a supportive warden, they have also had the opportunity to tour their performances at other correctional institutions in Kentucky. Tofteland's Shakespeare Behind Bars remains a relatively small program that is recognized as an organization by the prison, which means they can hold fundraising events, but they do not receive any state or federal funds.

Tofteland works only with Shakespeare, but he does not believe that his model is the only format for the performing arts in prisons. For instance, Agnes Wilcox of the nonprofit organization Prison Performing Arts in St. Louis, whose work he praises, has moved beyond Shakespeare to perform other plays and incorporate music and other forms of creative expression. Prison Performing Arts has served incarcerated adults and youth through its multidisciplinary literacy and performing-arts program in correctional facilities, juvenile-detention centers and the county jail in the St. Louis area since 1989. The artistic director Wilcox and the rest of the organization are dedicated to enriching the lives of incarcerated youths and adults through the creation and presentation of the performing arts in correctional facilities, a process that helps inmates learn the life skills necessary to succeed when they return to the community. Its current projects include long-term workshops where participants produce a full-length play one act at a time; three-week intensive workshops using improvisation and role-play; educational courses for adjudicated youth featuring improvisation, African drumming and movement exercises; and performances by professionals for youth in detention centers. While older populations may respond well to traditional plays, as evidenced in “Act V” on “This American Life” where Jack Hitt followed Prison Performing Arts’ participants as they rehearsed and staged a production of the last act of “Hamlet,” more recent and interdisciplinary art forms, like the hip-hop workshops facilitated by guest artist Dale Davis of the New York State Literary Center’s Communication Project, have a greater impact on the younger generation in juvenile-detention centers and county jails.[19] The range of programming allows Prison Performing Arts to continue working in a variety of facilities and provide services to a diverse population.

Traditional performances, playwriting and self-exploration through dramatic arts form the core of another prison arts program, Rehabilitation Through the Arts in New York. Working primarily at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, this nonprofit organization founded by businesswoman Katherine Vockins in 1996 has provided incarcerated men opportunities to work with theater professionals in playwriting, acting, set design and construction and technical components like lights and sound. Through this collaboration between Vockins, volunteers and the imprisoned men, Rehabilitation Through the Arts has produced 17 plays in Sing Sing, roughly one every six months. Outside guests are invited to attend the last performance night, thanks to the cooperation of the Sing Sing administration and correctional officers. This fall, the men performed a riveting production of the classic Greek play “Oedipus Rex.” At the November 10, 2006, performance, a number of community visitors filled the auditorium, enjoyed the play, and gave the men a standing ovation. Thanks to an invitation from Vockins during an earlier interview, I was one of the guests in the audience. While I was impressed by the performance, I was more interested and engaged in the art show at the back of the auditorium prior to the performance. The show displayed works by inmate artists, who were present to discuss their work with interested guests. The volunteer art instructor was affiliated with Rehabilitation Through the Arts, revealing a multidisciplinary aspect of the program.

Vockins’ program has given the men at Sing Sing an opportunity to express themselves, and to discover the joy of theater through performances of original works written by the men, as well as male-driven plays like “12 Angry Men” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Due to support from the Puffin Foundation, the Kalliopeia Foundation, the Community Foundation and individual donors, Rehabilitation Through the Arts has been able to maintain its presence in Sing Sing for the past ten years, as it expands its programming to Woodbourne and Fishkill Correctional Facilities through a collaboration with New York University’s Drama Therapy and Educational Theater Departments, and establishes another program at Greenhaven Correctional Facility. Vockins’ comments during the performance reflected her background as a businesswoman, a fact she emphasizes in her biographical information and interviews. She approaches this work of prison arts as she would any other business, perhaps placing a greater emphasis on final productions than seen in programs led by artists or university professors, which tend to focus more on the artistic process, pedagogical methods, and educational experiences.

From Campus to the Cell Block

While independent artists and nonprofit organizations provide many of the arts programs in correctional facilities, university professors and their students form another important component of the current field of arts in corrections in the United States. Although college involvement in prisons dropped dramatically after the abolishment of Pell Grants in the mid-1990s due to financial constraints, the presence of colleges and universities in correctional facilities is now on the rise again, even though fewer institutions offer degree-granting college programs.[20] Instead, professors and students have developed and implemented arts-based courses or workshops. The prison arts workshop may emerge as part of a community-based or service-learning course, such as the “Women, Writing and Incarceration” course developed by Ann Folwell Stanford at DePaul University in Chicago. Stanford offered this for-credit course through the School for New Learning as a “community-based service-learning externship” where students learned about issues of women and incarceration and received training before facilitating a six-week writing workshop at the Cook County Jail, Dwight Correctional Center or transitional centers for formerly incarcerated women.[21]

Other professors, like Tobi Jacobi at Colorado State University and Michele Lise Tarter at the College of New Jersey, offer similar courses and independent studies that provide their college students with the opportunities to facilitate writing workshops in correctional facilities. Another aspect of prison arts in university settings is the presence of prison literature courses in English departments. Professors such as H. Bruce Franklin at Rutgers University Newark, Jean Trounstine at Middlesex Community College (Massachusetts), Katy Ryan at West Virginia University, Katie Adams at Appalachia State University and Daniel Porterfield at Georgetown University, as well as Stanford and Jacobi, teach courses on the prose, poetry and other writing by prisoners in the United States.

Other university-affiliated arts programs in correctional facilities operate through centers for civic engagement or as student organizations. For instance, the Right to Write program at Sarah Lawrence College, composed of undergraduate and graduate students, facilitates weekly creative writing workshops at the Westchester County Jail. Originally developed and sponsored by a professor of sociology, Regina Arnold, the program is now coordinated by a graduate student assistant under the auspices of the Office of Community Projects. The students are volunteers who must apply, undergo training and participate in processing sessions in order to facilitate the workshops inside the correctional facility.

2005 graduates of the Bard Prison Initiative, founded in 1999 by Bard student Max Kenner, who belonged to a college club determined to bring creative writing workshops to local prisons (Photo by Roy Gumpel, courtesy of the Hudson Valley Chronogram)

Similar student groups exist on other campuses, yet they receive less administrative assistance and faculty support from the university. At Bard College, where the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) offers a degree-granting program, a small group of student volunteers under the auspices of BPI facilitate creative writing workshops at Beacon Correctional Facility. Once the programs’ volunteer coordinator, Dorothy Albertini, selects the students to coordinate the creative writing component, the student volunteers develop a loose curriculum and facilitate the writing workshops. At Wesleyan, WesPREP receives less university support, although it is a recognized student group dedicated to raising awareness of prison issues and providing resources and educational opportunities to prisoners. While some faculty members function as allies, the Wesleyan students organize and facilitate the creative writing workshops at York currently. The group hopes to formalize its relationship to the university and receive approval from the Department of Corrections in order to offer a degree-granting college in the prison program.

One of the most noteworthy examples of a college-affiliated program is the Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP) at the University of Michigan. Founded by English professor Buzz Alexander in 1990, its mission is “to collaborate with incarcerated adults, incarcerated youth, urban youth, and the previously incarcerated to strengthen our community through creative expression.”[22] Like other nonprofit organizations or university programs, PCAP facilitates arts workshops in juvenile-detention centers and correctional facilities throughout Michigan. However, its comprehensive nature makes it stand out among prison arts programs. In order to become a member of the organization PCAP, students must take one of the two English courses offered by Alexander or Art 454 taught by Janie Paul. Before enrolling in these courses, Alexander and Paul interview prospective students to make sure they understand and are prepared for what they will experience during the class. The courses begin with intense training in the first month in an effort to open students’ eyes to the issues of prisons, socioeconomic structures and pedagogical practices through discussion accompanied by readings of Jonathon Kozol, Paulo Freire and others. Following this training, students facilitate workshops in correctional facilities and other institutions. Throughout the semester, they have team meetings to discuss their experiences and the readings. Students also keep journals and meet individually with Alexander or Paul to discuss their plans for the workshops. They learn a great deal about themselves, prison issues and their engagement with the community.

After the course, students are eligible to join the student organization PCAP, which has a constitution and is led by an executive committee. Members of PCAP must undergo a half-day training that describes the organization and explores problems from past years before they go into the community to lead arts workshops in correctional facilities or juvenile-detention centers. Throughout the year, members of PCAP meet every two weeks to discuss issues that arose during the workshops and other concerns. While providing opportunities for artistic expression is the main focus of PCAP, the multifaceted project also includes a speaker’s bureau where the prisoners’ voices are brought into the community, the Portfolio Project where PCAP members work one-on-one with juveniles to develop a professional portfolio, and the Linkage Project, which encourages ex-offenders to continue reading and writing once they return to the community by pairing them with a mentor from PCAP. Another essential aspect of PCAP is the Annual Art Show. Through this juried show, which has featured the artwork of 247 artists from 44 prisons throughout Michigan, PCAP hopes to change attitudes and to help people realize the humanity and talent of those incarcerated. [23]

The depth of education, outreach and programs offered by the University of Michigan’s Prison Creative Arts Project is a testament to the vision and dedication of its founder, Alexander, who was recognized as the 2005 Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation. Alexander’s view of this work extends beyond PCAP to his belief that dialogue must exist among individuals working in this field, a process he hopes to facilitate through the opening of a Center for Prison Arts at the University of Michigan. He is currently exploring this possibility and developing a proposal for this center, which he envisions as a place for artists, activists, advocates and educators to discuss their work and issues of the criminal-justice system, host conferences, support research and provide trainings.

Conclusion

Through my investigation, I have discovered only a portion of the individuals, organizations and universities working in this field. The programs that I have found, however, are often not aware of the other arts programs in correctional facilities in the country. Forums for discussion, such as the October 2007 conference being organized by Jane Golden of Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program and the national Center for Prison Arts proposed by Buzz Alexander, will help to strengthen the loosely connected network of those working in the field. Further communication in such venues will help build bridges between the distinct clusters currently visible in arts in corrections. Individual artists, the nonprofit sector, and the university community would all benefit from sharing program models and pedagogical approaches, suggesting potential funding sources, discussing administrative difficulties encountered when working in “the system,” and exploring the emotional, mental and physical hardships of this work.

The field of arts in corrections has survived over the past decades, and will continue to thrive, through collaborations between artists, nonprofit organizations and government entities, like the department of corrections. In spite of the difficulties of access, funding and recognition, people wanting to provide creative opportunities to incarcerated populations have found a way to do so. Across the country, artists, nonprofit directors, university professors and college students have developed innovative programs in all artistic disciplines that allow the often-forgotten population of imprisoned youth and adults to express themselves creatively. Through the arts, our imprisoned brothers and sisters can re-discover their own humanity.

Krista Brune graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in June 2006 with a B.A. in Spanish and Portuguese. She received a ReachOut 56 Fellowship to research arts programs in correctional facilities throughout the United States, and also a Fulbright to study music and politics in Brazil.

Acknowledgement

I extend my deepest gratitude to everyone I have talked to and met with during this research. I would especially like to thank Judith Tannenbaum (www.judithtannenbaum.com), who has helped me immensely by providing initial contacts, suggestions for revision, and advice with the writing process. —KB

NOTES

Original CAN/API publication: January 2007