We Move Forward Together: A Prison Theater Exchange Program Among Three Universities in the United States and Brazil

Abstract

In 2013, the Prison Creative Arts Project at the University of Michigan and Teatro na Prisão at the Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro began an international exchange of university-based prison theater programs. The theater faculty at the Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina joined the exchange in 2016 and began a new prison theater program at a women’s facility in Florianópolis, Brazil. Together, these three universities not only share best practices and resources but form a community of support and understanding as they engage in a highly specialized and challenging creative process inside prisons.

The Limits of Rehabilitation and Recidivism Reduction: Rethinking the Evaluation of Arts Programming in Prisons

“…Perhaps most encouraging, the incarcerated men run the program, choosing and hiring the professional director and actors who collaborate with them each year (Hansen, 2014). To date, there have been no consistent and long-term theater or arts-based programs offered to incarcerated women in Canada (for examples of international prison theater programs see Biggs, 2016; Keehan, 2015; Lucas et al, 2019).…”

Rethinking Incarcerated Women's Leisure as Subjected to Coercive and Normative Prison Missions

“…Physical leisure covers sports and physical activities like weight training (see Martinez-Merino et al 2017;Woods, Breslin, and Hassan 2017). Artistic leisure includes writing, arts, crafting, theatre, choir, and other creative endeavors (see Cohen 2009;Dewey et al 2019;Finio 1986;Frigon 2015;Johnson 2008;Leeder and Wimmer 2007;Lucas, Fiche, and Concilio 2019;Merriam, B. 1998;Nugent and Loucks 2011;Ridha 2018).…”

“…From a human rights or social justice perspective, these suspensions can be dismaying. However, leisure's status as a right in prison has often been contested; leisure may instead be a privilege (Ambrose and Rosky 2013;Hensley et al 2003;Lee 1996;Lippke 2003;Lucas, Fiche, and Concilio 2019;Todd 1995;Walakafra-Wills 1983). If leisure is a privilege rather than a right, it can easily be denied by surveillance staff or suspended by prison administrators for internal or external motives.…”

Rethinking Incarcerated Women's Leisure as Subjected to Coercive and Normative Prison Missions

“…Physical leisure covers sports and physical activities like weight training (see Martinez-Merino et al, 2017 ; Woods et al, 2017 ). Artistic leisure includes writing, arts, crafting, theater, choir, and other creative endeavors (see Finio, 1986 ; Merriam, 1998 ; Leeder and Wimmer, 2007 ; Johnson, 2008 ; Cohen, 2009 , 2019 ; Nugent and Loucks, 2011 ; Frigon, 2015 ; Ridha, 2018 ; Dewey et al, 2019 ; Lucas et al, 2019 ). Indigenous ceremonies, spiritual, or religious practices in prison are grouped as cultural or spiritual leisure (see Desaulniers Turgeon, 2010 ; Duwe, 2017 ; Snodgrass, 2019 ).…”

“…From a human rights or social justice perspective, these suspensions can be dismaying. However, leisure's status as a right in prison has often been contested; leisure may instead be a privilege (Walakafra-Wills, 1983;Todd, 1995;Lee, 1996;Hensley et al, 2003;Lippke, 2003;Ambrose and Rosky, 2013;Lucas et al, 2019). If leisure is a privilege rather than a right, it can easily be denied by surveillance staff or suspended by prison administrators for internal or external motives.…”