by Jenifer Milner

Correction: n. 1a the act or process of correcting. b an instance of this. 2 a thing substituted for what is wrong. 3 N Amer. (usu. corrections) a the treatment of convicted offenders through incarceration, parole, etc. b the administrative system which oversees such treatment.
-The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 1998

Do arts programs belong in prisons?

According to the UK-based National Campaign for the Arts, "Violent incidents in jails which have arts programs are 60 to 90 percent lower than in those without such programs."1 And the reconviction rate for former prisoners who participate in prison arts programs is markedly lower than for those who don't participate.

But statistics don't tell stories. And it is through stories that we will best understand how the arts can change prisoners' lives. In The Language of Life, broadcast journalist Bill Moyers interviews award-winning poet Jimmy Santiago Baca. "An abandoned child, [Baca's] life on the streets led to a maximum-security prison in Arizona, where he taught himself to read and write. His first poems were written there."2 In a moving statement, Baca describes why he tried to read his poems at a parole board hearing. "It was my only way of telling them this is who I'd become-this is who I am... this is my record."3

Deltonia Cook is a former inmate at BC's Matsqui Institution. He has taken 260 hours of creative writing instruction through Surrey Continuing Education's (SCE) outreach classes, and he has encouraged other inmates to participate. In 1998, guards escorted Cook to the Surrey Writer's Conference, where he received the Special Achievement Award. SWC presents the award annually to an individual who has made a major difference in his or her writing community. Since then, Cook has been moved to another institution to await a new trial.

Writer Ed Griffin works at SCE, where he helps to organize the conference. He has also taught at Matsqui for several years. Griffin believes creative writing rehabilitates prisoners. "They start off with a screw-the-system attitude. But then they start writing about their childhoods and they begin to realize all kinds of things. It's a process of learning and of increasing self-awareness." Gordon Tanner, Matsqui's Director of Education, also champions creative writing and arts therapy programs. He believes they help inmates to heal, to change, and to replace anti-social behaviours with positive ones. Tanner says studies show that cognitive education-which most arts programs provides-reduces the risk of re-offending. The positive response to SCE's outreach program has resulted in its expansion into Mission Institution.

Matsqui and Mission are among the North American institutions now offering prison arts programs which run the gamut of artistic disciplines. But why give criminals these opportunities?

In The Expanding Prison: The Crisis in Crime and Punishment and the Search for Alternatives, David Cayley writes about the threat increasing prison populations pose to civilized society and personal safety.4 (Canada's inmate population grew by 22 percent in federal penitentiaries and by 12 percent in provincial prisons between 1989-90 and 1994-95.5)

Cayley says, "The product of imprisonment is a person who will require more imprisonment in future."6 He fears that many existing institutions "nurture and reinforce criminal conduct rather than deter and rehabilitate [it]."7

Others share Cayley's concern. The Federal, Provincial, and Territorial Ministers Responsible for Justice endorsed a statement of guiding principles in the 1996 paper, Corrections Population Growth. Two principles specifically recognize the limits of incarceration. One of these states, "The best long-term protection of the public results from offenders being returned to a law abiding lifestyle in the community."8

Arts programs are one means of achieving that goal. By increasing inmates' self-esteem and self-awareness, and by teaching them positive ways to make decisions, manage feelings, and change behaviours, arts programs have proven they belong in prison.

Jenifer Milner directs communications for the International Council on Active Aging. Since 1992, Jenifer has worked in Vancouver’s arts and cultural sector, most recently as communications manager with the Greater Vancouver Alliance for Arts and Culture for almost five years.

1. The National Arts Campaign website .
2. Bill Moyers. The Language of Life: A Festival of Poets. Doubleday, 1995.
3. Ibid.
4. David Cayley. The Expanding Prison: The Crisis in Crime and Punishment and the Search for Alternatives. Anansi, 1998.
5. Corrections Population Growth, Second Progress Report for the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Ministers Responsible for Justice. Solicitor General of Canada, October 1998.
6. Jeannie Marshall. "Turning Men into Monsters." The National Post, January 14, 1999.
7. Ibid.
8. Corrections Population Growth, op cit.

Last Updated: Tuesday, August 24, 2004