What do you think about the incarcerated being involved in creativity programs such as art, theater, dance, writing and film?
Should they make money on art they produce in prison?
Why not? Creativity reduces stress, of which there must be plenty in prison, it can give a person a positive outlet for expression and fosters achieving worthwhile goals. All are good things that can turn a person's view of life around.
If the art sells, the artist should benefit from it. Other prison work gets paid, why not art?
I agree with letting them express themselves through art. It can be extremely therapeutic!
However, criminals owe a debt to society, and often to individuals specifically. So any profit made from these art pieces ought to go to paying off that debt, or to helping to maintain the prison system and give the law-abding citizens a break on their taxes.
After visiting with the Administrator of the Prison Creative Arts Project at the University of Michigan I had a totally different assessment of what creative arts programs do for the incarcerated. They don't shorten one's sentence or make that individual feel any less guilty for the crimes they committed. But the program brings back the human experience of art and artistic expression to an otherwise oppressed society of men of women in a captured setting. The arts brought into the prison system introduces freedom of expression despite the lack of freedom behind the bars that hold them during their time of incarceration. They are still being rehabilitated and serving their time to the community they hurt, but they are still human beings that deserve compassion.
When I attended the 2007 Michigan Exhibit in Ann Arbor Michigan, I was touched in many ways as the words spoke through the canvases, but I was equally horrified in some cases by a few excruciatingly painful paintings that portrayed human carnage and despair. Most of the exhibit portrayed hopes and dreams, though some revealed the darker side of what I would suspect as pent up rage. Some were down right disturbing. But all, everyone of the paintings and drawings, were incredible works of prisoners that told a story. That's what was important. I've never painted under severe distress or under an imprisoned circumstance. I cannot fathom the nature to which the prisoners produced their works. That production process in itself is a story to be told and has been on PBS specials. Check out Prison Creative Arts Project's main website and delve deeper to discover more about this interesting topic.
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"I received the piece a couple of days ago in the mail. I am fully satisfied with the artwork. It arrived in perfectly good condition in the mail. Wow, it was nicer than what I saw on the website........amazing. Thank you and the Artist."
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Suhail
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The actual "Prison Creative Arts Project" article URL is...
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I hate it. Prisons should be to be punished not have fun and make money. If they cannot receive the treatment they gave to their victims then at least they should work to deserve the roof, bed, water, food, clothes, bedding and everything else they have!