• 63 min. (57 min version available by request)
• Two-disc set includes discussion guide and video extras
• Aired on PBS stations across the country
• Price: $295
• Includes public performance rights where no admission fee is charged
• Visit our website for more information

We are excited to launch an open competition for next month’s Prison Arts Coalition website banner image. The banner image will appear on each page of the website and in the online Gallery, and a detailed description of the image and the artist will appear on the homepage. This is an excellent opportunity for prison arts programs to highlight participants’ work and for emerging artists to call greater attention to work that addresses the US criminal justice system.

Submission Guidelines:

Digital images must be sent via electronic attachment to pacoalitionadmin@gmail.com by December 20, 2011. Images should be sent in JPEG or similar formats. Image size may vary, but all images will be reduced to 930 × 198 pixels for the banner image. There is no limit on the number of images that may be submitted.

Anyone may submit to this competition, including artists currently incarcerated in US prisons or other secure facilities. All entries from incarcerated artists must be joined by a completed consent form, detailing that the artist is knowingly submitting his or her work for the competition. Please consult each facility for specific consent guidelines, or visit our Consent Form page for more information and a sample form. Submissions of collaborative or group projects will also be accepted. 

Please note if you would like your entry to be included for consideration as a future banner image after the competition, or added to the online Gallery. 

Prize:

The winning entrant will receive a complimentary copy of Inside This Place, Not of It: Narratives from Women’s Prisons. Published last month by Voice of Witness, this edited collection by Ayelet Waldman and Robin Levi vividly recounts some of the most egregious human rights violations within U.S. women’s prisons through the stories of the women who have experienced them. The book represents collaborative work with Justice Now and includes a brilliant forward written by Michelle Alexander (professor, civil rights advocate, and author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness). Susan Straight (Take One Candle Light A Room) has said of Inside This Place, Not of It, “I will never forget these women, or this book.”

Founded by author Dave Eggers and physician/human rights scholar Lola Vollen, Voice of Witness is a nonprofit book series that depicts human rights crises around the world through the stories of the men and women who experience them. The Voice of Witness education program, in partnership with Facing History and Ourselves, aims to bring socially relevant, oral history-based curricula into schools throughout the U.S. The Prison Arts Coalition is very grateful for support from Voice of Witness and their kind offer to donate a book for this competition.

THE PRISONER is a short film about imprisonment.  It is currently in its final hours of a campaign to raise festivals funds on IndieGoGo.  

The film follows a female visitor as she reenters a prison to see an inmate she met during her work as a corrections officer. Its genesis came during a non-contact visit between the filmmaker, Ria Fay-Berquist, her sister, and a family friend incarcerated in Pelican Bay State Prison in 2008. During the visit, a riot broke out.  The signs and implications that were so obvious to the inmates on one side of the glass were lost on the visitors.  As they were escorted off the grounds so prison personnel could respond to the situation, there was no evidence of what was happening beyond the walls.

The film highlights the stark contrast between different people involved in the prison system and how they experience it.  It aims to humanize the prison experience by examining how imprisonment can be psychological as well as physical.

SCF:            The Prisoner is a very open film that doesn’t clearly promote or condemn any of the parties.  Why did you choose to make it this way?

RFB:            I wanted to create a space for people to insert themselves in the story, or inject their own experiences.  Also, rather than making characters that fit into a good and evil binary, I wanted to show people as contradictory and complex, battling with their roles and innate desires.  People’s impulses can get subverted within a system, be it government, school, work, or prison, but people will revert to type in unguarded moments.

SCF:            Did the actors engage in any special training to get ready for the parts?

RFB:            Yes.  The rehearsal process was drawn from Stanford Prison Experiment, a landmark study at Stanford University 40 years ago.  Dr. Philip Zimbardo, a professor of psychology, ran an experiment on power where a dozen Stanford student volunteers were randomly assigned roles as inmates and corrections officers in a mock prison on Stanford’s campus.  The experiment was stopped after six days because students had so completely absorbed their roles that violence had erupted within the ‘prison administration’ and those selected as inmates began to believe they were truly incarcerated.    This incident was at the top of my mind as I read up on creating power dynamics between people.  I set up one big rehearsal for the cast with inmates, officers, and visitors.

On the day of the rehearsal, I told those playing officers that they could set all the rules for the inmates – how they should behave and what movements they could make.  I had had rehearsals with just the officer players previously, and we had taken a trip to San Quentin State Prison to prepare. I knew them to be very warmhearted, kind people, so I was amazed at the really powerful boundaries they created after consulting privately amongst themselves in rehearsal.  When they came back, they told the inmate players to remove their shoelaces, turn over their cell phones, watches, any sharp objects… they had even decided when inmates were allowed to talk and who they were allowed to talk to.  Those playing officers had basically stripped the inmate actors of any ability to protect themselves or communicate with others.  It was really powerful to watch.

The effect was really remarkable.  Those playing inmates complied without any real resistance, and you could see them begin to slouch and draw into themselves while the corrections officer actors seemed to grow bigger and stand taller.  Those playing visitors, whom I had told could stand around the sides and watch but weren’t allowed to interfere, began interacting less and less.  It was a very memorable experience to witness.

SCF:             Do you personally deal with walls and barriers in your life, or are you an outsider telling the story?

RFB:            Everyone encounters walls and barriers.  I think it’s interesting how we internalize barriers whether, whether they are physically concrete, or are belief systems we’ve inherited from family and community.  Many of our most debilitating limitations are mental, in terms of what we believe is possible. Unless we change our mindset, we can never break out of that mold.  It’s interesting how we hold ourselves back in these ways.  This is not to say that there aren’t real barriers in life that are exclusionary in a very real way.  I’ve experienced both.  But our perception is an enemy we cannot fight if we don’t see it hovering.

SCF:            What do you hope people take away from the film?

RFB:            I hope relationships between characters will interest them.  I ultimately hope that they understand the implicit riddle which is who, of the many characters in the film, are the true prisoners.

SCF:            Where can THE PRISONER be found?

RFB:            Coming soon to festivals, we hope.  In the interim, there are a lot of ways that people can follow and support the film.  First, they can check out our IndieGoGo site.  They can also:

➢    Like THE PRISONER on Facebook

➢    Follow the film on Twitter

➢    Tweet about the film (@prizefightfilms)

➢    Share the campaign with the IGG widget in an email, or on their blog or website

➢    Tell their friends!

Thousand Kites needs your help to produce “Calls from Home,” a special radio project that connects prisoners to their families.  With your support we are going to send voices through prison walls and over barbed-wire to the millions of our neighbors behind bars this holiday season.  

Sing a song, read a prayer, speak from the heart and let those inside know you are thinking about them. Call in a holiday wish now at 877-410-4863 to our toll-free 24/7 answering machine.

In the U.S., we have a nation inside our nation.  Children and family members are separated from their loved ones. Corporations make millions of dollars from their phone calls, these are profits collected from our most vulnerable families.

Visit our website to help spread the word and get important updates as we build this national effort.

One part media project and one part hustle, we will build “Calls from Home” together.  Please contact our team if you have any questions or ideas.

Hello prison arts educators!  I am the founder and director of the Champaign County Juvenile Detention Center Arts Project, and I’d like to share our new program with you.  Currently, we teach music to incarcerated youth, though we are in the process of expanding to include other arts disciplines, as well.  We are a unique group because all of our teachers are students at the University of Illinois, and we attract other students, professors, and community organizations to help us create meaningful experiences for our students.

Our organization began in early September after I taught music to incarcerated men through my first program at the Decatur Adult Transition Center in Decatur, IL.  My experiences with at the Decatur ATC inspired me to create a new program to reach out to incarcerated youth and give other college students the opportunity to teach in a correctional facility.  Since then, our program has been a huge success with a 100% participation rate, and I’m excited to see where it will take us.

Our Model

We structure our classes similar to a Catholic Mass.  Masses are made of two parts: the Ordinary and the Proper.  The content of the Ordinary is consistent in each mass, and the content of the Proper changes, depending on the seasons.  In our music classes, our “Ordinary” consists of learning, performing, and analyzing popular songs on instruments and voices with a preconceived plan, and our “Proper” consists of various composition activities in which our main plan is to see where our minds can take us.  By designing our classes this way, we a) give our new students a structured environment to facilitate participation and learning b) give our returning students elements of both consistency and surprise, and c) foster creativity and independent thought by allowing our students to steer our class’s direction during discussions and composition activities.

 Our Latest Project

In this post, I’d like to share our latest composition project.  Over two weeks, our students wrote a rap in collaboration with our teachers and CCJDC faculty members.  To do so, our students selected a topic and a mood to communicate, and then they shared their ideas aloud while we offered suggestions for improvement.  They chose to write about JDC, but to “make it funny” and “keep it light.”  After we wrote a chorus, verses, and a contrasting section, our students designed the overall form of the rap, which they learned how to do through our “Ordinary” activities of analyzing song forms.

These are the lyrics that they came up with in the form that they chose (ABABCBAC):

 JDC

CCJDC Arts Project

 JDC is not the place to be

Just stay at home, and you can watch TV

Don’t commit the crime, or you’ll serve the time

And if you eat the goose, it’ll taste like slime.

At JDC you get your trays in your room

During hygiene, you sweep your room with the broom

They come knockin’ on your door, talking ‘bout breakfast

When you open your bag, it look real hectic

And that’s what happens in the morning at JDC.

JDC is not the place to be

Just stay at home, and you can watch TV

Don’t commit the crime, or you’ll serve the time

And if you eat the goose, it’ll taste like slime.

We always play knockout and volleyball

Don’t forget about shootout, that’s the best of them all

When we start the stretches, we be doin’ up-downs

Runnin’ them laps, lookin’ like clowns.

JDC, JDC, Hey!

JDC, JDC, Hey!

JDC, JDC, Hey!

JDC, JDC, Hey!

Participate, cooperate, make your sure room look straight

Get more tokens, get more food on your plate

Do the best you can, so when you go to court

You got a better chance to get a good report.

JDC is not the place to be

Just stay at home, and you can watch TV

Don’t commit the crime, or you’ll serve the time

And if you eat the goose, it’ll taste like slime.

JDC, JDC, Hey!

JDC, JDC, Hey!

JDC, JDC, Hey!

JDC, JDC, Hey!

CCJDC Arts Project teacher Corinne Jones and I took the lyrics home, recorded it on Garage Band, put it on YouTube, and played it for our students on the faculty computers the following week.  Our students thought that our recording was the coolest thing ever, and it gave them a sense of accomplishment—especially because in this day and age, musical works are only official when they’re posted on YouTube (much like how relationships are only official when Facebook says so).

I should mention that “if you eat the goose, it’ll taste like slime” refers to one of their not so delicious meals.  At least it gave them something to write and laugh about.

If you are interested to screen the movie at a location near you, please contact Tobias Janson at tobias@story.se for more details. The film will premiere in Sweden on November 25, 2011. To keep up with the latest updates on Facebook, please click here. 

Fancy the chance to unleash your imagination and share a postcard of your own creation with thousands of people around the world? Want to be part of what could become the largest online collection of individually
created postcards celebrating the theme of Wellbeing?

Great, then put your idea on to a postcard and submit it to our online gallery by sending it to:

A Great Day Looks Like..
c/o Escape Artists
Studio 24
7-15 Greatorex Street
London E1 5NF
United Kingdom

How will you and your work be represented?

Postcards will be exhibited in a postcard exhibition at the Play’s the Thing Conference in London. They will also be displayed in the online exhibition at www.playsthething.org.uk . Play’s the Thing reserves the right not to display a postcard if is deemed to be inappropriate.

Are there any prizes?

Yes. The postcards will be judged by delegates at the Play’s the Thing conference. The card with the most votes will receive an Amazon.com gift certificate to the value of £30. The runner up will receive an Amazon.com gift certificate to the value of £20. Both winners will also receive a signed copy of Pat Kane’s ‘The Play Ethic’.

For serving prisoners who enter the competition there will be a special prize for the best entry. See Prison Arts – Postcard Competition for full details.

Explore an ever growing digital journey.

Every new postcard received for the ’A Great Day Looks Like..’ exhibition will be scanned and uploaded to our online gallery at www.playsthething.org.uk . You can start this journey by taking a look at some of the entries that have already been submitted (see above).

All postcards received by 21st November 2011 will also be exhibited in a postcard exhibition at Toynbee Studios, 28 Commercial Street, London E1 6AB, England on the 22nd and 23rd November 2011 as part of the Play’s the Thing conference on wellbeing.

How do I sign up?

You sign up just by sending us your postcard. It really couldn’t be simpler! If you have any queries, you can send us an email at andytgeezer@gmail.com

Who can participate?

Anybody aged between 1 – 120.

What should I include on the postcard?

Please include your name, a contact address and email if you have one.

We will endeavour to mention the names and towns of the contributors on the blog as they come in, but because of the expected number of participants it may not be possible to acknowledge everybody’s postcard.

How many postcards will be accepted?

There is no limit with regards to the online exhibition. The more the better!

Size

Submissions should be regular postcard sized (approximately 4” x 6” / 10cm x 15cm), e.g. you could cut out a bit of card board.

Medium

Artworks can be made using any medium (such as photography, crayon, paint, collage) but be aware that they will have to go through the postal system!

Theme

The theme is “A Great Day Looks Like..”

Deadline 

The deadline for us to receive your postcard for the Play’s the Thing exhibition is 21 November 2011.

Note:  Names have been changed to protect each individual’s privacy.

I would like to recommend my new e-book as a resource for your reading pleasure, review, and comment.  The e-book, entitled “Her Letters from Prison,” is intended for use as a self-improvement resource for ministries to women’s prisons and/or as an inspirational (tell-it-like-it-is) resource for drug prevention programs.  The book is non-fiction (it is what it is!), and the original letters are included as images for authenticity.  You can visit http://www.heather-heaton.com to purchase “Her Letters from Prison”.

A brief description of the e-book follows:

Breanna tells the true story of her experiences in prison through her letters to her friend Heath.  This is a story of survival and a quest to make a better life.  The letters describe the daily shocking events of prison life involving drugs, sex, utter devastation and humiliation, anger, hopelessness, despair, and finally happiness and hope.

Breanna’s truth stands still even as the world around her trembles and burns. Bad things do happen to good people, and Breanna is the perfect example of this truth.

Breanna’s inner strength and principles eventually win out over the corruption and evil that surrounds her.  With God’s help, Breanna survives the horrible experiences of prison life and regains her self-confidence and hope for a better life.

“Breanna” was an inmate at Tutwiler Women’s Prison inAlabamafrom 2007 to 2009.

“Breanna” benefited from women’s prison ministries and the LIFE Tech Wetumpka state-funded self-help program.

The Introduction of the e-book follows:

Introduction:

The story you are about to read is true.  Unfortunately, it’s my story, and the truth is often much more intriguing than fiction.  I have had to deal with this story (this situation) for more than the past ten years.  I started living out this story with all the hopes and dreams of most (if not all) young American girls; and I will finish this story by realizing most of those hopes and dreams, even though they have been interrupted for a time (in prison) that seems like time and time again.  Through it all, I have managed to learn some life lessons that I hope to give to you, and I am hoping that you can pick up on these lessons earlier in life than I have done.  I should have learned these lessons long ago.  If I had learned these lessons long ago, I assure you that I would not have written the material you are now reading.  My hope is that nobody else has to endure what I have endured learning life lessons that should be given to youngsters and adolescents early in life by the ones who truly love them.  But here again, there are probably other youngsters and adolescents, much like me, who will have to learn these life lessons painfully for themselves, the hard way – by experiencing them first hand.  Well, if you continue to read my story, here’s what you will experience – drugs, sex, violence, prison, utter devastation/humiliation, anger, hopelessness, despair, and finally happiness and hope!

If you don’t take me seriously and you follow in my path, you are going to experience false hope and disillusionment!  You are going to experience broken trusts, by those whom you trusted most!  You are going to experience pain and agony that brings you to the brink of self-destruction!  You will lose your freedom!  You will lose the right to think for yourself and to make your own decisions!  You will lose your sense of self-worth and self-dignity!  You are going to lose your ability to support yourself!  You are going to lose your self-confidence!  You are going to be victimized, and you can do little to avoid this!  You will struggle and struggle and struggle just to get yourself back onto an even keel!  But if you can ever manage to muster a tremendous mountain of stubbornness and determination, and if you can begin to think better of yourself, you will be able to recover most, but not all, of your ability to manage your own affairs while regaining some of your self-confidence and feeling of self-worth.  I am just about to accomplish this in my life!  Being just about able to accomplish this in my life is what has led me to (it has allowed me to) share my story with you.  At first, I didn’t think I could ever share my story with anyone.  But, I really don’t want you to actually share (live through) my experiences, even if you think you can handle it.  Just read this story and do something positive in your own life.

Dedication:

This work is dedicated to Valrise Bendolf (Clay County Dept. of Corrections Holding Facility), Jackie Ratliff (Kilby – Montgomery Womens’ Facility), Fawn Romie/Mr. Roberts/GaryParsons (Life Tech) and all of Mr. Robert’s little roses that he so diligently cultivated.  For all their good works, these people saved my life!

I hope that you find this e-book both interesting and helpful.

Sincerely,                         

Heather Heaton

heatherheaton@rocketmail.com

http://www.heather-heaton.com

http://www.herlettersfromprison.com

The reflections that exist here are the thoughts of a career educator, poet, writer, and human being, a piece of humanity that searched and is most likely still searching for pieces of the same, somewhere, perhaps still in the same place – inside.

Command Call:

Razor blades, depending on the day,

mail, maybe,

a message from the captain,

perhaps the beds weren’t made in accordance to the accordion

of expectations, depending on the oversight

the desired level of diligence can eaaassily, be adjusted…

Discomfort.

Command call,

An upright, out front, stand in front of your home

Line up situation,

Where you shut the fuck up,

and listen.

It doesn’t matter

what you think,

made obvious in the tone, manner, or message,

most days.

Hopefully not all,

Mail,

Razorblades,

Depending on the day.

Most days start the same.  I-40 West to a street with a changed name, for reasons I’ve yet to ask, and could care less about in regards to where it leads me, either way it leads, to nowhere.  Westside Albuquerque, mesa deserted of hope, or ambition, the perfect place to dump three thousand people that everyone else can feel content about forgetting.  Those that remember, send money, make phone calls, bring bibles, or pamphlets, children, or worries; those that matter still to the ones barred from society, sit on the other side of telephones and cameras, the booths for viewing, a blast from the past, nobody talks on pay phones anymore – well, almost nobody.  The lack of contact in most supermax, or supermax-modeled facilities these days, is predicated, dependent, prided on sterility, impenetrability, the ability to keep out the contraband, physical or otherwise.  The detachment from heartstrings seemingly easier when the phone cords and video screens become not enough, for young or expectant mothers finding less and less gas money to drive out onto West I-40, to a road with a name twice changed.  It is easier to forget mothers, out on mesas, instead of at tables, at bedsides, at baseball games, or 1^st grade graduations, when seeing them is almost like a video game, with less excitement.   Reality is twisted by visits in not only the jails to which I’ve played witness, but most every other – and don’t get me wrong, or misunderstand me, I am not pointing fingers simply reflecting on a reality, that is not virtual, instead very, very, real.

The analogies cut

Better than shaves bought by commissary.

than pencil tip to neck

soft flesh.

Stranded, broken, street lamps

in empty lots,

the sign nobody sees,

if bodies fall behind bars

do we hear them?

Those born, with stifled cries,

are taken from the arms of mothers, returning to the unit

to strap on a smile for jolly rancher glazed

congratulations! Cards, and questions about baby

toes, and middle names…

A population caught in the middle

That is recognized most on the feminine side

of incarceration;

the children.

Collateral damage in a deal gone wrong

a life not bargained for

bartered or abandoned in the night,

now offered out to the wolves of streets

that bear those, lamps.

Out…

“Lights out!”  I wonder often about what goes through the mind of the first time offender, when the lights go off.  I can tell you to a certain degree the thoughts of more than one sunset, or rise, witnessed on the wrong side of cinderblocks and bars – but that is simple, silly, and minute, in comparison to even a 3 ta’ 5, as one might say.  I wonder… What happens in the thoughts, in the wrestling with sheets, and eyelids, to not be the first to sleep.  What is the reaction to the sounds, and scratches at the sheets, by the air, the wind, the noise nobody can stop, when everything is metal and stone – at what point does one at least mouth the words, or give birth to the wish of wanting to go home.  What is the “fresh fish” experience like, and although, I cannot say, I’ve been there; I like to think in writing things like these I can attest to having seen it.  I’ve witnessed the gloss of fear and unpredictability killing that not so curious cat, deer in the headlights, wanderer on the pod, or stuck in a corner – I’ve seen it.  I feel for those, no matter the offense, who have to realize the situation served cold.

Yours isn’t yours anymore

May be, his.

Or his,

Or theirs,

If they want it,

and you have to decide

how Bad you want to

Keep it,

because in here

All can be lost,

Quickly.

In an instant.

For instance…

“I like your shoes…”

it’s him or you,

whose giving what up,

and the first time you do,

life becomes like a broken

record,

broken bones,

and bruises.

So, builders are made

of most men.

Concrete and rebar

biceps and chest

Kevlar,

Hardened hearts and

Idle hands.

Unpredictable…

Short circuitry isolated

and ready to be live wired.

Safety pins and bars of

soap help tell stories written

In blood,

Ink,

Skin,

Steel and concrete.

Rib cages hold

Lyric sheets,

stories untold

Single simple notes 

Of sad songs turned to stone.

Heart beats

On a shelf

silent…

Dormant,

dormitory living

shared showers

three hots and a cot

a battle of will

with becoming

something you’re not.

Soldado,

Fish,

Duck,

Dead Man Walking…

They all have a name,

A badge of honor

or otherwise…

A lot can be said without even

talking, it’s all in the eyes.

or what’s underneath.

Tattooed teardrops

swastikas,

it ain’t even really about hate…

Better defined as

Survival,

Gladiator schools…

           “Get in the car,”

Or get left behind

Steady rollin…

Absurdist theatre can reflect ugly truths about our existence without resorting to maudlin or overused themes. Done properly, such plays often surprise or even stun audiences by their fresh and innovative displays of a twisted reality. But absurdist works, of course, require absurdity, and for-profit prisons offer an ample supply of this commodity.

For the past twenty years, I have observed the prison-industrial complex take root in our land. As a journalist in Key West, I covered the opening of the new $35 million Monroe County Jail, which promised the citizens of the lower Keys a pathway to riches—overcrowded jails in Dade and Broward would send their inmates down, and we’d clean up on the per diem charges.

This same tableau was played out in dozens of communities across the country, even as more pressing infrastructure needs were ignored. But what could we do about it?

What came naturally to me was satire. My good friend from college had spurned the so-called “real world” to work odd jobs—tree cutting, bartending—because he had no desire to buckle under to The Man. He lived at home until he was well into his 30s, but then one day he landed a “real” job: teaching at a jail (he still does today). The trajectory of this story stayed with me for years, and I kept ruminating on what it means.

What emerged was CONGRATULATIONS, JOE, a three-act play that mocks the for-profit prison system. Each act consists of a party for Joe. First, as he lands a job at The Prison, then as he’s promoted, and finally as he is promoted to warden. Along the way Joe picks up an agent, who has big plans for Joe’s career, and a girlfriend, who may or may not be out for Joe’s job.

As Joe ascends the ranks of the prison system, he becomes increasingly unhinged and paranoid. He contracts imaginary medical problems and assumes he’s being targeted. The climax is his promotion to become a warden of a CIA-run “black box” facility in Eastern Europe. Joe is conflicted because he’d vowed never to work at The Prison, but now he’s in too deep.

CONGRATULATIONS, JOE will be premiered this summer by A Simple Theater in St. Petersburg, Florida. 

Click here to watch a video with more details from the playwright.