Wednesday, January 30, 2019
'I get to feel human again': How arts programs in prisons are bringing new hope to incarcerated individuals
www.today.com: At Sing Sing Correctional Facility, one of the oldest and most notorious prisons in America, an arts rehabilitation program helps inmates process their emotions and prepare for life on the outside through the art of dance, music, visual arts and acting.
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7 comments:
I think the benefits of the arts is often highly overlooked by too many people. They are a good way to take a break from life and the world around you and just let your emotions come through a creative outlet. This video is a prime example of how the arts can positively impact people’s lives and change the for the better. About halfway through one of the inmates even mentions how it provides him with a positive escape, and a way to not worry about things that are to come, or what might happen next. Another man said that it helps him to become more patient and caring of others. Having dance liberates these men and has really changed them for the better. I think more prisons and facilities need programs like RTA. It could really help there to be a positive change across the US and lead to more successful society.
There are a significant amount of stuff wrong with the United States prison system, it’s refreshing to hear something done right, with the people as the first priority. The dedication of the former inmate to the program as an employee shows the programs impact on a personal level. On a general level dance and the arts are great ways to rehabilitate. You learn how to deal with failure in a low stakes environment. To me learning dance takes a huge pressure of my back to get things right. I’m a terrible dancer but I don’t care I love it anyways. I relate to the inmate who said that he gets frustrated when his body “doesn’t do” what the other peoples body’s do and through time we both were able to realise you have to “fight” or work hard to get things right, a skill directly applicable to everyday life. I’m proud of the work RTA is doing.
I have had the opportunity to see the benefits of arts in youth and people who do not have access to the arts in their community, so I really love to see articles like this about people working so hard to increase arts access to the world. I think RTA is an incredible organization because they are working so hard to see past what most people see when looking at inmates. The work they are doing is working so hard to help fix some of the many problems with the prison system. Something they talked about a lot in the video which I think is so important is that this program is helping inmates adjust better to the world when they get released. It was so nice to watch the interviews with the inmates in the program and hear how excited they were to be a part of it and to hear the ways this program has changed their lives personally was very touching.
The prison system in the United States is beyond inhumane. In most prisons, the treatment of inmates is abusive, and opportunities to reflect and grow as a person and member of society are few. When I see initiatives such as this one that are meant to improve the lives, confidence, and overall morale of inmates, I am glad that there are people working to make sure that this changes for the better. Because American prisons are failing to prepare people for life after prison, many people wind back up in prison later. This pipeline can be broken by programs like this one. I think that given these opportunities to learn team building skills and have a positive creative outlet while living in such a dismal environment will really make a difference. I hope the people participating in it feel like they have taken away something from it that will improve their lives.
This is not the first article I have read about arts programs in prisons. American prison systems are the opposite of what they should be. Instead of being focused on rehabilitation, education, and humanization, they are abusive and run-down. The arts provide an outlet that is creative, which improves morale and brings a little bit of joy to their current situation. They also provide a promise of rehabilitation. Exposure to great works, empathy, and a sense of community allow for future growth. I appreciate that this program supports each person exactly where they are and supports growth of any kind. Having the opportunity to work as a team to create something beautiful is a truly powerful experience. This program allows for prisons to become something more than they are, and grow into a place truly focused on rehabilitation. It is critical that programs like this not only continue, but allow for so many more opportunities to arise. If there were programs for STEM, languages, humanities, and more, it would create a much better system.
I thought this was really cool and really emphasized for me the benefit of arts in society. I always loved going to rehearsals and tech after school, when I was in high school, because it was a low stakes way for me to do something hands on and just relax and create something with a group of other people. Especially given how many issues there are with the prison system and how bad the treatment of inmates is, I think this program is really admirable and reinforces the idea that being imprisoned should include rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is one of the facets on which the prison system was built but it has gotten lost along the way, and the system now tends to debilitate it inmates, instead. I hope this arts program sets in example for other prisons and hopefully steers the country’s prison system towards one that is more geared towards rehabilitation.
I have been reading a lot over the past several years about the immense damage done to people in the prison industrial complex. I have also been reading a lot about programs like these, and I have known quite a few people over the years who are involved with programs like RTA. Most of the time, strangely and unfortunately, the volunteers seem to be doing it out of an exercise of their own goodness, scratching some kind of moral itch. The leaders in this video, however, express genuine care about the well being of the people in the program. The choreographer appears to have found a way to integrate space for self-expression with high expectations for performance. She expects the dancers to succeed, which is completely contrary to a great deal of the messaging they receive from other sources. I am particularly excited by the implication that Mr. Moore, who was incarcerated for many years, is being set up to run RTA after the current executive director retires.
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