In First Person: Stories of Redemption, Rehabilitation, Reentry, and Artistic Ingenuity
In their own words, incarcerated men and women explain the realities of their day-to-day lives and their efforts to cope with isolation. For those who turn to art, the restrictions of prison life become one of their greatest creative challenges. With limited materials, but ample time for self-reflection, art created in prison settings can take on unique qualities and aspirations that illuminate the incarcerated artist’s predicament in unexpected ways, teaching us what we may not otherwise learn about our culture at large.
The voices curated here are distinct and insightful. They offer new ways of seeing incarcerated men and women, while transcending stereotypes and assumptions.
This raw and moving New York Times-produced video examines the implications of serving “life without parole,” especially when the person in question was locked away as a teenager. If society’s intended function for prison is, in fact, correctional — in what way does the system account for decades of growth or change in a person? Several prisoners reflect on the effects of spending the greater part of their lives behind bars.
Artist Jesse Krimes, at a July 2017 TedXPhiladelphia event, speaks about his art, which is a direct critique of the grotesque tactics federal prosecutors used to over-charge him for non-cooperation on a relatively mild, nonviolent drug offense. Krimes’s work, which was created clandestinely while under maximum security, has been exhibited in numerous museums and galleries. He also works as an activist on behalf of other incarcerated artists.
The Ear Hustle podcast bills itself as devoted to “the daily realities of life inside prison shared by those living it, and stories from the outside, post-incarceration.” A finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting, Ear Hustle was created by Earlonne Woods and Antwan Williams, both of whom began hosting while still incarcerated, and Nigel Poor, an artist volunteer who teamed up with Woods and Williams to produce the podcast from inside San Quentin Prison.
The Prisoners’ Inventions project is devoted to capturing the ingenuity of prisoners working and living within the highly restrictive confines of a prison-based supply system. This collaboration between an incarcerated artist named Angelo and two art organizers, Brett Bloom and Marc Fischer, involves exhaustive research, illustration, and exhibition of improvisational designs of everyday functional objects.
Two UC-San Diego graduate students, Laura Pencenco and Kathleen Mitchell, founded Project PAINT at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in Southern California. Project PAINT uses self-portraiture as a means of self-discovery, introspection, and exploration of masculinity. (Source: Huffington Post)
Gil Batle’s artistry emerged after he received an unexpected gift: an ostrich egg.. At first glance, his subjects appear to be classical depictions of religious themes. Upon closer inspection, Batle’s narrative reliefs reflect his experiences, after 25 years in prison, of isolation, violence, and injustice. (Source: Huffington Post)
Artist Chris Wilson, aka Prison Da Vinci, paints with crushed Skittles as he describes the liberating effect of creating art during incarceration. Wilson has also published a memoir, Horse Latitudes, which depicts the cycle of addiction and incarceration that has impacted so many lives.
Click on the above image to explore an extensive gallery of Paños drawings. These delicate pen drawings were started by Chicano prisoners in Texas using prison-issue handkerchiefs and ball-point pens. This sub-genre peaked in the 1990s, before prison officials stopped issuing the handkerchiefs.