Below is a list of programs using art in and around the criminal justice system. Please fill out a comment below to add a program or contact the blog admin.
Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project
Department of Psychology
226 Thach, Auburn University
Auburn University, AL, 36849
The Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project, in the the Department of Psychology in Liberal Arts at Auburn University, offers classes for continuing education units in the arts and humanities in Alabama’s state prisons.
Contact: Kyes Stevens, stevemk@auburn.edu
Artspring
PO Box 343432
Florida City, FL 33034
ArtSpring supports self-growth and effective life skills through art-making for underserved and institutionalized women and girls.
Contact: Leslie Neal, artspring@artspring.org
New York, NY 1001
Denney Juvenile Justice Center–Blanche Miller Trust Artist Mentor Program
Everett, WA
Blanche Miller, a former Snohomish County Juvenile Court Administrator and first woman in the state to be a chief probation officer for a juvenile court, designated a portion of her estate to be used for funding programs that serve court involved youth. One of the projects of the Miller Trust is the Art Exhibit Program which hires artist/mentors to work with groups of up to eight young people, taking them through a detailed art process related to the genre of the artist. The participants may be credited with community service hours and agree to share their artworks for exhibit for a period of two years. Youth at Denney Juvenile Justice Center have participated in poetry writing, fused glass, stained glass, blown glass, ceramics, painting, and mixed-media collage. A part of the Art Exhibit Program is used to fund an annual poetry collection which is distributed to the youth and the community. The poems are written in a weekly on-going workshop run by writer volunteer, Mindy Hardwick.
Contact: Mindy Hardwick, mindywriter@gmail.com
Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop
2201 P Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037
(202) 758-0829
Contact: mail@freemindsbookclub.org
Our mission is to introduce young inmates to the transformative power of books and creative writing. By mentoring them and connecting them to supportive services throughout their incarceration into reentry, Free Minds inspires these youths to see their potential and achieve new educational and career goals.
Contact: Jackie Gelfand at jackie@insideoutwriters.org
InsideOUT Writers works with incarcerated youth in Los Angeles County providing creative writing classes inside juvenile hall. We have also just begun a program for youth upon release that will continue the writing experience, and adding a case management and mentoring component in order to reduce recidivism.
JDPP, Inc.’s Moving Matters! Residency at York Correctional Institution
233Pearl St
Hartford, CT 06103
Contact: JDPPinc@gmail.com
LA Poverty Department
Los Angeles, CA
Contact:
Maine Inside Out
Portland, ME
Maine Inside Out is a performing and creative arts organization collaborating with incarcerated and formally incarcerated people to increase opportunities for active participation in meaningful creative work, the sharing of original work with our community, and the facilitation of dialogue to initiate social change.
Contact:
Music Theatre Workshop
Chicago, IL
Music Theatre Workshop (MTW) is a youth development arts organization that prepares young people to make positive life choices through the process of writing, producing, and performing original musical theatre inspired by personal stories. Current programs at Illinois Youth Center- Warrenville, Illinois Youth Center- Chicago, Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, West Pullman Park, Columbia College Chicago.
Contact: Alyssa Sorresso, alyssa.grace.sorresso@gmail.com
New York State Arts In Correctional Education Network
Rochester, NY
Contact: Dale Davis, 585-223-0784, ddavis@nyslc.org
PEN American Center Prison Writing Program
New York, NY
The PEN Prison Writing Program offers an annual literary competition for men and women incarcerated nationwide. See pen.org prison writing program for details.
Contact: prisonwriting@pen.org
Santa Barbara County, CA
Contact: Deborah Tobola
Workshops for ex-offenders in Santa Barbara County. A program of the William James Association, the Poetic Justice Project currently offers workshops in literary arts at the Santa Barbara County Jail in Santa Barbara and the Good Samaritan Shelter in Santa Maria. These poetry workshops are supported by Poets & Writers through a grant it has received from the James Irvine Foundation
Website: Poetic Justice Project
Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP)
Ann Arbor, MI
PCAP facilitates theater, creative writing, and visual art workshop in mens’ and women’s prisons, juvenile facilities, and urban high schools in southeast Michigan and curates the Annual Exhibition of Art by Michigan Prisoners.
Contact: Buzz Alexander or Sari Adelson, 734-647-7673, pcapinfo@umich.edu
Rising Voices of Community Works
Berkeley, CA
Contact: 415-734-2360, community_works@yahoo.com
The Shakespeare Prison Project
Contact: Jonathan Shailor
jonathan.shailor@gmail.com
The Art of Yoga Project
821 Waverley Street
Palo Alto, CA 94301
Thousand Kites Project
Whitesburg, KY
Thousand Kites is a national dialogue project using film, theater, radio, and web to spark community conversation and action around criminal justice
Contact: Nick Szuberla or Julia Taylor, 606-633-0108, thousandkitesproject@gmail.com
Voices Unbroken
New York, NY
Voices UnBroken is a Bronx-based non-profit organization that makes creative writing workshops possible in alternative and non-traditional settings, with a specific focus on working with incarcerated youth and adults.
Contact: Victoria Sammartino, 718-292-3018, executivedirector@voicesunbroken.org
Way Out/Stay Out
Crafty ideas for ex-prisoners in Auckland, New Zealand
San Francisco, CA
WritersCorps, a project of the San Francisco Arts Commission, places professional writers in community settings to teach creative writing to youth (including youth who are, or have been, incarcerarted in juvenile detention facilities).
Contact: Melissa.Hung@sfgov.org
Write & Rise
San Francisco, CA
Write and Rise provides the means for self-exploration through writing for adults and youth affected by incarceration to facilitate healing of individuals, their families, communities and the wider society.
Contact: Margo Perin, mperin@writeandrise.com
York Correctional Institution
Niantic, CT 06357
Joseph Lea, Library Media Specialist, brings in a tremendous amount of arts programming to the women at this Connecticut prison. See his blog post on this site.
Contact Joe Lea:
(860) 691-6814
(860) 691-6864(fax)
7 Comments
November 14, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Write & Rise
San Francisco, CA
Write and Rise provides the means for self-exploration through writing for adults and youth affected by incarceration to facilitate healing of individuals, their families, communities and the wider society.
Contact: mperin@writeandrise.com
December 2, 2008 at 2:06 am
Music Theatre Workshop
Chicago, IL
Music Theatre Workshop (MTW) is a youth development arts organization that prepares young people to make positive life choices through the process of writing, producing, and performing original musical theatre inspired by personal stories. Current programs at Illinois Youth Center- Warrenville, Illinois Youth Center- Chicago,Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, West Pullman Park, Columbia College Chicago.
Contact:
Alyssa Sorresso, Program Manager
alyssa.grace.sorresso@gmail.com
December 16, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Denney Juvenile Justice Center–Blanche Miller Trust Artist Mentor Program, Everett, WA.
Blanche Miller, a former Snohomish County Juvenile Court Administrator and first woman in the state to be a chief probation officer for a juvenile court, designated a portion of her estate to be used for funding programs that serve court involved youth.
One of the projects of the Miller Trust is the Art Exhibit Program which hires artist/mentors to work with groups of up to eight young people, taking them through a detailed art process related to the genre of the artist. The participants may be credited with community service hours and agree to share their artworks for exhibit for a period of two years.
Youth at Denney Juvenile Justice Center have participated in poetry writing, fused glass, stained glass, blown glass, ceramics, painting, and mixed-media collage.
A part of the Art Exhibit Program is used to fund an annual poetry collection which is distributed to the youth and the community. The poems are written in a weekly on-going workshop run by writer volunteer, Mindy Hardwick.
Contact: Mindy Hardwick, mindywriter@gmail.com
May 5, 2009 at 2:11 pm
I’d like to add a program- Free Minds Book Club and Writing Workshop works with youth charged as adults in DC Jail to introduce them to the transformative power of books and creative writing. By mentoring them and connecting them to supportive services throughout their incarceration into reentry, Free Minds inspires these youths to see their potential and achieve new educational and career goals.
July 6, 2009 at 2:11 pm
InsideOUT Writers would like to be listed as a resource and added as a program. We work with incarcerated youth in Los Angeles County providing creative writing classes inside juvenile hall. We have also just begun a program for youth upon release that will continue the writing experience, and adding a case management and mentoring component in order to reduce recidivism.
July 10, 2009 at 12:11 am
Hello! Thanks for your comment. Your program has been listed on our programs page and will be listed as a resource within the next few days. Keep up the good work!
Best,
Allie, for the Prison Arts Coalition
October 17, 2009 at 12:07 am
Please add Arts in Prison, Inc. to the list.
1333 S. 27th St.
Kansas City, KS 66106
913.403.0229
We provide educational and personal growth opportunities through the arts for the incarcerated, the recently released and at-risk youth.
We do programs in detention facilities in Kansas and Missouri.