The Prison Arts Coalition

World Cast Movie seeks prison arts practitioners who see the possibility of including prison performers in its worldwide film project.

We have launched an open casting call for actors around the globe to fill the shoes of 12 roles for our film. The initial idea was inspired by the opportunity to give talented actors who did not live in traditional film industry hubs such as New York or LA, and who did not have agents, a fair chance to be considered. A chance to let talent be talent, no matter where one was located.

Here’s how our basic plan with non-prison performers works: Any actor on the planet can record a monologue from the script on their camera phones, and submit to us it for consideration. Those that are cast will be sent a small blue screen film studio with lights, camera and microphone, that requires approximately 10-15 square feet of space. The actor will set up the studio according to simple instructions, place and operate the camera according to simple instructions, and act in front of the blue screen while being directed live via an online video conference. Depending on the role, these sessions would take anywhere from 4 hours to 2-3 days of longer sessions. They send us the footage to edit into our movie, and they keep the equipment as their initial payment.

While the logistics are certainly not as casual for performers within the prison system, we still see a world of possibility. We imagine that some prison facilities are equipped with secure rooms that could be set up with the blue screen, and that supervised recording sessions would be possible under certain conditions. The blue screen studio would be donated to the prison facilities, not to the prison performer him or herself, we imagine.

The required setup would be a recorded audition of a one minute monologue from the script. If selected to be a part of the cast, the prison performer would of course receive the script well in advance in order to do as much preparatory work on their own time as they like. We would prefer to have a 2 hour block in which the prison performer would have access to a webcam for an online “table reading” with all of the cast members from around the world. Then, lastly, the prison performer would be scheduled for their filming sessions - with a one-one-one webcam line with the director - under whatever safety conditions are required.

While we have been aware of prison arts programs for a long time, and highly respect their goals and efficacy, we don’t have any direct experience with them whatsoever. We have our dreams, but we simply don’t have the practical knowledge to understand how realistic, or perhaps how unrealistic, they are.

If there are any prison arts practitioners who see potential for this within any of the programs they work with, please feel free to get in touch. We’d be more than happy to hash out the details and see if some sort of collaboration is possible.

In any case, we wish you all the very best, and keep up the terrific work, everybody!

Ryan James

[email protected]

By Katy McCarthy

About the guest blogger: Katy McCarthy is the blog and media director at www.juvenile-in-justice.com. In 2011, she received her Bachelors degree from University of California, Santa Barbara in studio art. When not in her own studio, she is editing and blogging for Juvenile In Justice. Katy can be reached at [email protected]

A youth prison in Maryland where many of the cells, referred to as rooms, have chalk board walls free to be drawn on. A California Youth Authority facility where young people serving “juvie life” sentences tack complex photo collages to the walls above their beds and desks. A cell at a detention facility in Multnomah County, Oregon where an 18” painted square on one wall delineates where young inmates can hang photos—all of the other wall space must remain blank. These are all examples of spaces in youth confinement facilities where children are permitted some creative control. My organization, Juvenile In Justice, having documented more than 200 facilities in 31 states in the U.S, can state with some confidence that the range of visuals/art in the youth prison system is overall pretty bleak.

Art can play a significant role in the process of healing. In the world of health design (Doctor’s offices, hospitals, etc.) there has been a huge movement towards “evidence-based art”- art and design initiatives with observable health outcomes including shortened hospital stays, decrease in pain medication, and lowered blood pressure and heart rate. Other important outcomes include patient ratings of perceived pain, satisfaction with services, and economic outcomes. Studies in the last decade have found some amazing correlations between art programs/visuals and reduced anxiety, stress, fatigue, increased pain tolerance and more positive outcomes in surgical procedures. Nature images tend to illicit the most positive responses.

Keeping the insides of youth prisons blank slates is a punitive tactic that falls more into the “scared straight” category. It reads: “You are bad. You do not have the privilege of looking at anything other than monotone walls. You are here to be punished.” This mentality, manifested as sterile walls and anonymous cells, doesn’t jive with me or arts programs research. Studies by the National Arts Education Research Center show that integrating the creative arts into all learning experiences enhances academic, social, and personal developmental outcomes (Ross, 1991). Just last year the Alaska State Council on the Arts, using money from the Percent for Art initiative, put out a call for entries for artists to create interior artwork for the McLaughlin Youth Center (MYC) in Anchorage, Alaska. The stated goals for the project requested art that would calm youth, imply building positive relationships, stability and consistency, and be relevant to teenage boys from diverse backgrounds. It is refreshing to see an institution understanding that art can accomplish these goals. That it serves multiple purposes and will change the environment from one of punishing to one of rehabilitation and concern for well being.

In his intro to Juvenile In Justice, the book we published in August of last year, Ira Glass writes:

“And what do you call the look- the visual aesthetics- of the jails and prisons we put [kids] in? Going into these places reporting various stories, I’ve learned that usually they are not squalid places. It’s the sterility of these places- the bare, freshly painted concrete walls, the unadorned floor- that makes the truth of what they’re for so obvious and make them so impersonal. These are cages.”

Of course we all want the majority of youth detention centers and prisons shut down. We want more kids diverted to community programs. We want more kids kept out of the system entirely. We want youth prisons to be reserved for the fraction of the youth offender population that poses a public safety risk. But until then, the estimated 60,000 kids falling asleep in cells deserve better than what they have. They deserve art. Art should not be a privilege, it should be considered a fundamental rehabilitative practice.

Below are some photographs taken by Richard Ross as a part of Juvenile In Justice that demonstrate a range of the “visual aesthetics” incorporated and permitted in youth facilities across the country. Sometimes the efforts made to include art are sort of sorry looking. But I can appreciate that start, and encourage more facilities and states to make like Alaska and truly invest in an art and design program that uses evidence-based principles.

The state of visual aesthetics in juvenile justice facilities today:

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All images by Richard Ross for Juvenile-in-Justice