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

Canadian prison-based arts and other programming are limited at best. Even the country’s Correctional Investigator, or prison-ombudsperson, has critiqued the lack of meaningful options in which prisoners can engage. Those programs that do exist tend to be focused on the logic of penal rehabilitation...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Van der Meulen, Emily (Author)
Contributors: Omstead, Jackie
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2021
In: The prison journal
Year: 2021, Volume: 101, Issue: 1, Pages: 102-122
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Keywords:
Women prisoners
arts-based programming
community arts
evaluations research
Description
Summary:Canadian prison-based arts and other programming are limited at best. Even the country’s Correctional Investigator, or prison-ombudsperson, has critiqued the lack of meaningful options in which prisoners can engage. Those programs that do exist tend to be focused on the logic of penal rehabilitation, with the end goal of reducing recidivism. In this article, we showcase the evaluation of a 9-week arts program in a women’s prison, the aim of which was to build community and foster artistic engagement, thus running counter to normative carceral logics.
ISSN:1552-7522
DOI:10.1177/0032885520978477