I started this service in 2000, and one thing I noticed early on is that many inmates submitted self-portraits in place of an actual photo. When asked why, I was surprised to learn that many institutions do not allow inmates to take photos. Although most wardens don’t enforce such silly practices, creating self-portraits was certainly a way to circumvent the problem of not being able to submit a photo. In fact, the art work came in so regularly in place of or in addition to a photo, that we eventually created a section just for inmate artwork on our website. Here, those who view our site are invited to vote for the best inmate art. The highest rated art is displayed on our homepage, which provides some motivation for the inmates to submit their best work to us.

For years I have been amazed at some of the incredible work that has come across my desk, typically as tokens of appreciation from inmates. I have a prison cross necklace woven from two prison towels, baby shoes made of gum wrappers, and I have seen a prison cell reconstructed using only materials available within the prison. While officers may consider this contraband in some cases, I see it as a truly unique and incredible way of turning one’s world into a canvas. The ability to grow and express one’s talent while in prison is therapeutic. Many inmates have told us that honing their ability to paint, carve, draw, etc. has directly contributed to their survival while in prison. Some inmates will turn anything they can into art. We receive letters every day that have been drawn or painted on. We have even received correspondence where the envelope was opened at every seam, drawn on inside and out, resealed and sent to us. Yes, they have time on their hands, and surely this is a constructive outlet for some of that time.

We have also heard from countless inmates who have told us that they never knew they had talent until they were incarcerated. I still believe that after a hundred years behind bars my stickmen would be unlikely to evolve, but who knows? With time and desire, it seems, such feats are possible. In any case, it is a wonderful experience to be able to share inmate art with the world at large. I think many people will be surprised to find so much amazing talent residing behind our prison walls. I think art can also be a great tool in showing the rest of the world that inmates are simply people, too. They are regular human beings with regrets, dreams, challenges, and in many cases, artistic talents.

With the arts one of the first sacrifices in education budget cuts, I can’t help but wonder how many people may have taken a different path had their natural talents been given the opportunity to develop in the classroom. We know there is a higher illiteracy rate among inmates compared to the free world, but there also seems to be a disproportionately high percentage of talented artists incarcerated today. Many of my friends are educators, and all lament the focus on standardized tests vs. creative development. Could our education system be working against certain children by not fostering their unique talents? If taught and encouraged in the school system, would more children find themselves behind an easel rather than behind bars?

In the U.S., we have a nation inside our nation. In America’s prison-nation, mothers are forced to give birth in shackles and families are asked to pay exorbitant charges to telephone corporations in order to keep in touch with their incarcerated loved ones. As part of their Mama’s Day Special, Thousand Kites invites you to join two national campaigns: BIRTHING BEHIND BARS and PRISON PHONE JUSTICE CAMPAIGN.

Non-commercial radio stations can download the program and broadcast it without restrictions.  Contact Thousand Kites at team@thousandkites.org for additional information.

About five years ago my life changed forever when I struck and killed a bicyclist with my car on a dark night on the Big Sur coast highway. Until then I was living a peaceful, productive life as a marine biologist, underwater photographer and environmentalist when my future was irrevocably changed in an instant. I went to prison for 2.25 years as part of a lengthy plea bargaining process for my part in this tragic event.

While my contrition will never be complete, as a life-long educator I assumed I would make my contribution to “the system” by teaching while I was behind bars. In addition to being a teacher’s aid and clerk I developed my own education programs with what I know best and what is most absent in prison: nature and art. My most extensive program I called “The NATURE Project.” Remarkably, NATURE became the perfect acronym for this idea: Nature (and) Art; Truth (and) Understanding; Rehabilitation (through) Education.

I started the program by giving some of my underwater photographs of starfish, dolphins, octopus and other beloved sea creatures to my fellow inmate artists to reproduce as drawings. I then took their art and self-published two books as collections of their work, which I gave to them, and them alone. The exclusive nature of our project was critical to giving us all a sense of special accomplishment. As one artist said “we did this for ourselves, to show each other that we could make something beautiful.”

Instead of drawing skulls, women and swastikas, these men expressed their artistic talents with subjects inspired by nature and beauty. For many, our books are the first tangible evidence that they remain quite capable of creating something beautiful and good that can be shared with their friends, loved ones and now the world.

The work speaks for itself in the painstaking brush strokes of a sea otter’s fur, the colorful scales of a rockfish or the precise lines of a sleeping elephant seal (drawn with a “BIC” pen no less!). These and 87 other marine wildlife drawings represent the love of nature each artist found in himself as they connected with these gifts from the sea while stashed away in a California desert prison.

Through carefully planned and orchestrated discussions on a wide array of subjects I was also able to embed a multi-layered learning program in The NATURE Project that included topics from global warming to misogyny. These talking points demonstrated the universal attributes of nature and art to solicit thoughts and feelings about all aspects of life; an intellectual exercise most of us on the outside take for granted but one that rarely happens in prison.

Through this program I was able to see how nature and art can provide a prisoner with a psychological space filled with awe, beauty and good as opposed to emptiness, ugliness and evil. I saw how nature can act as an inspirational “trigger” to recover deeply buried feelings of love that can be expressed through art. Clearly, this is a fundamental aspect of humanity necessary for any form of rehabilitation and the road to a full, meaningful life.

The NATURE Project rekindled the innocent, childhood love for nature we are all born with in many of its artists. I watched grown men laugh, smile, rejoice and cry over a pencil drawing of a comical hermit crab or a rare skilfish they never knew existed until it swam into the day room for a Sunday morning art session. Out of these remarkable gatherings I saw a confluence of nature, art, knowledge and spirit flow together to form the cardinal virtue reverence. In the process we discovered our place in the universe and celebrated the good in the human condition.