PBS NewsHour: Mixing art with criminal justice has become increasingly common in the U.S. The work often tackles complex subjects of redemption and reform. Jeffrey Brown recently traveled to Philadelphia for a look at a new program bringing art to an unexpected part of the justice system: the office of the city’s top prosecutor.
5 comments:
This man!! For one thing, he is incredibly talented both technically and imaginatively. I love his style of having random differing color palettes within one piece. His artistic talents aside, his mentality on the justice system and human beings is far more progressive than a lot of our leaders. He is right. If our actions have consequences, we learn. However, if those consequences include an indefinite suppression of our humanity, society begins to crumble. It is not everyday that a district attorney and a former inmate can sit down and talk about the justice system in the light of reform. James committed a crime that he felt he needed to be punished for, but since his humanity was still fostered by art, he came out of prison after twenty-seven years, a man who changed for the better. I find it pretty difficult to deny someone their humanity; it is a near impossible feat. Yet, justice systems across America do it every day. The progress that Philadelphia's DA is making is heartwarming and optimistic.
I am and will always be amazed at people being good people. The United States has such a broken system of imprisonment, so when this system does what it is supposed to and something really great comes out of the situation, it makes my heart happy. I really like how James Huff, the man who helped launch this program from inside prison, noted that he recognizes what he did was wrong but that the prison system helped him realize his potential and he grew from it. I am also happy that his case specifically had the opportunity to be relooked at because he was originally supposed to be in prison for life starting from a 17 year old. In this case, he genuinely was being punished too harshly for a crime and taking up resources for way too long with no opportunity to ever provide for the community. He never was given the chance until this happened and I am thankful that this happened for him, but I sit here and wonder how many more people are sitting in prison in a similar situation. I wonder how many people could have their cases looked at again and retried. I also love the mural project and hope that this can be implemented in other cities, especially my own because we have a high prison population and many buildings that murals would look stunning on.
Wow. This man is so incredibly talented. Those murals were absolutely breathtaking. I think arts are an incredible form of healing, and should be present in any and all forms of rehabilitations because creating art opens up a window to the soul and allows for more productive and meaningful introspection that can truly help a person heal, rather than just slap a bandaid on a wound. I saw some really powerful words the other day that equated this situation of at-home quarantine and self isolation to a really generous and cozy prison experience. We have all been home for about two weeks now, and I know we are all feeling the mental and even physical struggle of such limited interaction with our world. Yet, people spend lifetimes in prisons with no phones, no family to comfort themselves, and no freedom to even decide to go on a spur-of-the-moment hike. I know in this hard time a lot of us are turning to art to help us process, and that is exactly what these inmates are doing, and I hope this situation we have found ourselves in can allow us to have more sympathy for these people sentenced to live their lives like this.
Wow! Two things I'm super passionate about right here: art and criminal justice! The other career path I was considering was actually law! I went to a pre-law high school and wanted to be a defense attorney. So, I really love this story. The justice system in America is so incredibly flawed and seeing stories like this gives me a lot of hope. The fact that a 17 year old can legally be sentenced to life in some states is absolutely appalling and I'm so glad James Huff has been had the opportunity to have his case looked at again. We need to remember that people who have made mistakes are still humans who have so much to contribute to society. So often, the DA in an area is not making a lot of effort to improve prison life or decrease the prison population. A lot of DA offices focus so much on "winning" cases and not on truly trying to improve the community. So, I'm glad that the Philadelphia DA is open to improving the lives of everyone in the community, not just the convenient ones.
Rehabilitation, not incarceration!!! I will say this whenever I can until the end of my days! Prisons should not be the absolute crap-hole that they are in the United States justice system. We should be working to acclimate offenders into society as productive and lawful citizens, and I am a strong believer that continued education and an introduction to the arts is an important part of that process. Leave it to me to connect a non-corona virus article to the corona virus, but look at us all stuck in our houses these past few weeks. What has been keeping our sanity? Music, TV, movies, the ARTS. People who are offenders do not need to be subject to conditions that fuel insanity. I am so happy that this man (I already forget his name, sorry) had the opportunity to help create such a beautiful mural and actually be released in time to see it. What a beautiful, inspiring story about how well rehabilitation works.
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