The prison community and the need for rehabilitative environment
The prison community is among the most excluded in the society. Addressing repeat offenses requires creating an enabling rehabilitative environment for inmates amongst other interventions.
The role of art education in rehabilitation
Art education is one of the leading agents that inherently encourage engagement in learning as it enables a more liberating and self-directed process of rehabilitation.
Promotion of arts and culture through creative arts
Creative arts in the United Kingdom seeks to promote an understanding, appreciating as well as the benefits of arts and culture through expansion and improved diversification of participants. Many people gain accessibility and engagement in the arts education, including prisoners, as they are among under-represented groups.
Research focus
This dissertation examines the capacity of art education in allowing imprisoned people to participate in learning, enhance their knowledge, and the influence art education has on their rehabilitation as well as refraining from criminal activities. The study borrows information obtained from prisoners that participate in art strategies across different men prisons in the United Kingdom. Large sets of data have been generated on this topic with the participation of a considerable number of convicts, which implies that it is not possible to exhaust all available information in a project of this length. Therefore, the study will focus on providing in-depth analysis of the influence of art education in three types of prisons, which include a young offender establishment, long-term inmate prison, as well as a general-purpose jail.
Key words: Arts Education, Prisons, Rehabilitation.
Introduction
The introduction part of this study consists of background information, the problem statement/rationale of the study, the purpose of the study, research questions, and the structure of the study.
Background Information
The prison community is among the most excluded in the society. Addressing repeat offenses requires creating an enabling rehabilitative environment for inmates amongst other interventions (Savage and Townsend 2018). Art education is one the leading agents that inherently encourage engagement in learning as it enables more liberating and self-directed process of rehabilitation (South and Weiss 2015, p. 22). While experts and educators debate that learners who engage in arts programmes show more discipline in learning institutions, the role of arts education extends beyond schools (Davey, Day, and Balfour 2015, p. 804). Arts projects are beneficial especially for prison convicts and organisations across the United Kingdom fund and arrange arts projects particularly for the imprisoned (Behan 2014, p. 20). Research on art education shows how engagement in arts programmes can be both therapeutic as well as positive experiences for inmates (Cheliotis 2016, p. 16).
Involvement in group activities such as music ensembles, theatre productions, and poetry are non-hierarchical and interactive, enabling prisoners to establish and develop associations and collaborations (Kirsten 2014). Scholarly evidence suggests that art education positively influences the lives of inmates, but to for arts programmes to continue, both the public and governments have to recognise its impact to provide support (Roberston 2013). This study assesses the factors that influence the engagement of prisoners, evaluates ways in which art projects enhance education among prisoners, and discusses the implications of rehabilitation among prisoners. To begin with, the paper presents a review of the existing studies to show the benefits of arts in the development of learning in prisons and its role in encouraging desistance from criminal offenses.
The State of Prisons in the UK
The United Kingdom consists three separate legal systems with a distinct jail system for each system (Cheliotis and Jordanoska 2016, p. 34). One legal system belongs to England and Wales, another for Northern Ireland, and the other one for Scotland (Maujean, Pepping and Kendall 2014, p.38). The population of prisoners as at Friday 6th April 2018 is 83, 617, where the total male population is 79, 797 and that of female prisoners being 3, 820 (Ministry of Justice, HM Prison Service, and Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service 2018). The population of elderly British prisoners (over 60 years) increased by 130 percent between 2002 and 2013, a change associated to increased historical sex abuse imprisonments (Trotter and Baidawi 2015, p. 202). In 2018, there were at least 1,500 prisoners over 70 years, with at least 200 over 80 years in demand for health and social care systems (Savage and Townsend 2018). The prison service needs to establish a strategy to address with continuously increasing the prison population. Otherwise, the prison service will be failing in their responsibility in taking care of the aging population they are jailing.
The amount of challenges engulfing prisons in the United Kingdom is high. Studies by an observer group indicated that two-thirds of jails are offering convicts with insufficient conditions or unacceptable treatment (Roberston 2013). Assessments of numerous investigations reported that 68 percent of the prisons in the United Kingdom provide unsatisfactory standards (Nugent and Louck 2011, p. 358). All prisons are expected to satisfy basic standards such as respect and safety for inmates and allow access to useful and meaningful projects than enhance rehabilitation for convicts (Savage and Townsend 2018). Two in every prison has been found to be offering insufficient help to inmates as they left the facility, which significantly contributes to increasing repeat offenders (Kirsten 2014). Jails across the United Kingdom are deteriorating at an alarming rate and worsening conditions at about 41 percent (South and Weiss 2014, p. 24). As such, the government and other stakeholders are attempting to reduce the prison population by utilising the available strategies, including art education approaches.
Problem Statement/Rationale of the Study
This dissertation examines the capacity of art education in allowing the imprisoned people to participate in learning, enhance their knowledge and the influence art education has on their rehabilitation as well as refraining from criminal activities. The study borrows on information obtained from prisoners that participate in art strategies across different men prisons in the UK. The United Kingdom detains a relatively higher percentage of its population. Could this terrible statistic be an outcome of an education problem in the UK? Could it be that the testing-centric education programmes are failing to give inspiration as well as encouragement to students to stay in learning institutions? Could it be that increased school dropout cases of young individuals who are, in many cases prone to antisocial and criminal offenses growing at an alarming rate?
Penal system policies and laws are troubling the peace of the UK in multiple ways. The set criminal laws and systems do not address the problem in the UK, as they do not reduce repeat offenses and they often hurt blameless children and families while causing devastation on British society. The rationale for the dissertation is that the conventional approach to education has not been instrumental in prisoner participation, especially in numerical education but there has been evidence that the use of creative arts has a high likelihood of enhancing prisoner engagement (Lehman 2017, p. 6). The study views these concerns with an eye to vindicating qualities of art education. Art education has a significant duty to perform in the UK prison system as education is proven to minimise crime in many ways.
Purpose of the Study
The project seeks to address the interventions of the “National Strategy for the management of offenders (NMSO) outcomes)” in controlling repeat offenses. According to Cheliotis and Jordanoska (2016), the main NMSO approaches include “improved literacy skills” and “improvements in the behaviour or attitude that lead to offending (p. 27).” Creative arts in the United Kingdom seeks to promote an understanding, appreciating as well as the benefits of arts and culture through expansion and improved diversification of participants. Many people gain accessibility and engagement in the arts education, including prisoners as they are among under-represented groups (Warr 2016, p. 19; Nugent and Loucks 2011, p. 358).
The central objectives of the study are:
a. stimulation of the engagement of prisoners in learning
b. improvement of literacy, numeracy, as well as communication skills among prisoners
c. demonstration of the potential of the arts in supporting the rehabilitation process in prisons
Research Questions
The central research question is to identify ways in which education is approached in prisons. To achieve this, the dissertation seeks to address the following specific research questions:
a. What is the impact of art education on changing negative attitudes towards learning
b. What is the role of art education in building an active learning culture
c. What is the purpose of art education in enabling people to work collaboratively and responsibly
d. What is the role of art education in increasing confidence and self-esteem
Proposed Structure
The dissertation is organised into six sections. Section one is the introduction, which consists background information, the problem statement/ rationale of the study, the purpose of the study, research questions, and the structure of the study. The section attempts to provide a general overview of the role of art education in prison and its significance. Part two presents the literature review, where the study focuses on describing the art education approaches on which this research is based. The section provides an intensive as well as extensive analysis of the influence of art education in a young offender prison, long-term inmate prison, and a general-purpose jail to address the research problem adequately.
Section three entails research methods, sampling, analysis approach, ethical considerations, as well as study limitations. The chapter highlights why qualitative method, opportunity sampling, and thematic analysis were adopted for this study. Section four is research findings, which addresses the research questions of the study. The research findings include changing negative attitudes towards learning, building an active learning culture, enabling people to work collaboratively and responsibly and increasing confidence and self-esteem. Section five is the discussion. This section presents a review of research findings that were found to have initiated useful participation regarding learning in art education. The last part is the conclusion, which provides the summary of the entire dissertation regarding the research problem.
Literature Review
This section presents the literature review, where the study focuses on describing the art education approaches on which this research is based. The section offers an in-depth analysis of the influence of art education in a young offender prison, long-term inmate prison, and a general-purpose jail to address the research problem adequately.
Art Education in Prisons
Studies from the United States, Ireland, as well as the United Kingdom, reveal that prisoners have a high likelihood facing more literacy difficulties in comparison with the general population (Roberston 2013). In addition, many prisoners have below average performances and poor encounters in the public education (Lehmann 2017, p. 7). In prisons, especially in the United Kingdom, more often the curriculum has restrictions as convicts are expected to participate in learning with more focus on improving literacy skills instead of extensive and potentially more exciting curriculum (Warr 2016, p. 22). Several prisoners and adults that have the same unsatisfactory experiences in compulsory curriculum, and tend to have negative learning attitudes and abstinence of teaching approaches common to non-prisoner learning institutions (Nugent and Loucks 2011, p. 360). According to Kirtsen (2014), resistance is real in the provision of education that is focused on courses that offer literacy skills, which enhance little learning and a considerable dissatisfaction among inmates.
Research in the United Kingdom shows that the creation of learning contexts that focus on the strengths of prisoners instead of their deficits are most effective (Cheliotis and Jordanoska 2016, p. 29). This includes the establishment and provision of knowledge and skills that convicts now have as this strategy has been found to be uncommon in prisons in the United States as well as the United Kingdom (Lehmann 2017, p. 8). Participation in art education is presented as an appropriate way of helping convicts to pass the free time within prison establishments. Involvement in arts in prisons can contribute to significant positive results for the jails and other related parties (Roberston 2013). Findings of various studies across New Zealand, North America, and the United Kingdom demonstrate that art education encourages and enhances the establishment of better associations among prisoners, prison staff, as well families of prisoners (Cheliotis and Jordanoska 2016, p. 33). In addition, involvement in art education improves the self-esteem as well as self-confidence among prisoners, which assist in the development of communication and social skills (Kirsten 2014). Proper communication skills and enhanced community-based skills help individuals to co-exist and support each other, which promotes prisoner participation in the various educational curriculum after completing projects in the art education.
Studies in the United Kingdom have recommended the association between improvement of literacy and skills, and art education in prisons have identified a number of activities including creative writing and playwriting that enhances self-expression (Roberston 2013). Also, the recognised events draw on the knowledge of participants and assist them to advance regarding the individually travelled distance instead of the operation of a pre-set objective, which promotes intensive as well as extensive learning (Warr 2016, p. 24). In addition, research demonstrates that art education is most appropriate in prisons as it is a more acceptable learning medium since the inmates have a high likelihood of having positive relationships with projects in art education when compared to formal education (Savage and Townsend 2018).
Lastly, a final research area of the study focuses on the influence of involvement of the art education on prisoners concerning rehabilitation and desistance from criminal offenses (Lehman 2017, p. 10). Extensively, studies have shown the significance of enhancing hope, motivation, and responsibility as well as maintenance and development of positive roles and associations among participants (Kirtsen 2014). Involvement in art activities can be useful in establishing social networks as well as providing environments for embedding, nurturing, and sustaining new identities (Nugent and Loucks 2011, p. 365). This is more applicable for approaches that require public activities that have internal audiences such as prison staff as well as external parties such as families of prisoners as they recognise and celebrate the successes of prisoners, thus promoting positive self-reflection (Cheliotis and Jordanoska 2016, p. 39).
Studies of Art Programmes in the United Kingdom Men Prisons
Following the introduction above, the study now shifts focus to a description of the art education approaches on which the research is founded. Large sets of information have been generated on this topic with the participation of a considerable number of respondents (convicts), which implies that it is not possible to exhaust all available information in a project of this length. Therefore, the study will focus on providing in-depth analysis of the influence of art education in three type of prisons, which include a young offender establishment, long-term inmate prison, as well as a general-purpose jail.
The selection of the three types of prisons is essential because the art educational approaches occur over time are intensive so that observation of the expected changes among inmates is possible over the length of the research (Behan 2014, pp. 20). Secondly, art education strategies enhance public performance skills, and research shows that this kind of skills has a substantial influence on rehabilitation among convicts (Trotter and Baidawi 2015, p. 201). Thirdly, the selection is crucial as it forms a subset representation of the various type of prisons in the United Kingdom (Cheliotis 2016, p. 15). It is important to note that all respondents are male as the selection focused on male jails, which limits the study from commenting on the effect of art education on female convicts.
The London Ensemble, London Opera, London Chamber of Orchestra, as well as the Citizen Theatre did the organisation of the studied art intervention, all of whom have global reputations for their artistic advantage (Maujean, Pepping and Kendall 2014, p. 37). In addition, the groups committed to approaches that develop arts in an extensive variety of contexts and a view that it is possible to attain creativity in complex and challenging settings like prisons (Behan 2014, p\p. 22). The art projects were devised between engaging convicts and the art organisation but within the framework set by the skills and abilities of the artists (Warr 2016, p. 22). Before art interventions are implemented, debates and discussions are held among all relevant participants including arts organisations, prison officers, the staff in charge of learning in various prisons, inmates among other stakeholders concerning the focus as well as the scope of the approaches in the art education (Kirsten 2014). The discussions among multiple participants help in identifying which organisation and which type of art interventions are most appropriate for individual prisons (Roberston 2013). The studies below are due to the result of these discussions.
Initially, the Music Change Project by the London Ensemble involved twenty-five young inmates, London Ensemble Artists in Residence, as well as the officer in charge of music at the Young Offenders rehabilitation centre in training them about playing and recording music for four months (Behan 2014, p. 23). Participants were categorised into four teams in the first session to work on a set piece of music. The four groups were guitar training, keyboard training, percussion, and poetry (Cheliotis and Jordanoska 2016, p. 32). Then, the artists joined to practice the piece of music and rearrange it. Subsequent sessions by the group included young offenders practicing the songs at individual capacities in the first half of all meetings with the purpose of rehearsing as a team in the remainder of the sessions (Maujean, Pepping and Kendall 2014, p. 40). Members of the London Ensemble were attending a number of the meetings to help in training and provide specific attention to specific participants (Davey, Day, and Balfour 2015, p. 799).
As the teaching sessions advanced, participants with more experiences were seen to assist fellow inmates in learning the various pieces of music throughout the sessions (Trotter and Baidawi 2015, p. 203). The chosen participants contributed to the selected music for their final presentations that involved famous pieces of music, classical music, as well as compositions from some of the chosen convicts (Maujean, Pepping and Kendall 2014, p. 39). The identified fifteen young offenders participated in two performances in jail, one with few members of the ensemble and the other with all members of the group.
The London Opera as well as the London Chamber Orchestra initiated a collaboration of a six-month project dubbed, “From the Start to the Finish: How to Build an Opera” with twenty-five convicts in one of the prisons for long-term offenders (Behan 2014, p. 25). Components of the opera from the real story to songs were recorded, established, and staged by these inmates. The first sessions included participants working as a team in making decisions about the storyline as well as the characters of the opera (Nugent and Loucks 2011, p. 364). The subsequent sessions included writing descriptions of the characters as well as scenes that led to the development of an opera that tells the story of an inmate recently released from prison that has to decide between the right and wrong (Cheliotis 2016, p. 19). The song was composed in collaboration with the project leader and the selected participants through a deep reflection about the appropriate mood for every single scene as well as the motifs of the music corresponding to every single character in the developed opera (Maujean, Pepping, and Kendall 2014, p. 41).
The chosen inmates having composed the music, the music teacher in the long-term jail develop progression chord whereas the leader of the project led the inmates into the improvisation and development of musical tunes (Lehmann 2017, p. 8). During the training sessions, participants learned first techniques in animation for the creation of short animation films that formed final aspects of presentations (Warr 2016, p. 24). The participants also learned techniques that enhanced their vocals and as a result, participated in the preparation of the original scripts for performances (Behan 2014, p. 25). In addition, the inmates were involved in the production and were among the artists that staged performances in the orchestra, which afforded them a chance to perform with professional artists in two entertainment shows (Lehmann 2017, p. 9).
The London Citizens Theatre involved 35 inmates from the general-purpose rehabilitation centre (Cheliotis and Jordanoska 2016, p. 37). The participation lasted for five months and had a purpose of production and performance of an original play (Davey, Day and Balfour 2015, pp. 800). The selected play explored alternatives face when they are liberated. The chosen men worked with professionals in set construction, set design, song writing, playwriting, live music, lighting, as well as stage management (Trotter and Baidawi 2015, p. 206). The first sessions placed focus on set design whereby inmates worked together with the aim of designing a 3-D model that they later presented to the team with a particular emphasis on the thought process of the team throughout the designing process (Behan 2014, p. 27). Then, group-writing sessions started where the chosen inmates worked in pairs, and in units in creative writing activities, which were presented to the creative writing team for more input (Lehmann 2017, p. 10). Later, the team writing exercises made significant contributions to the development of characters and settings used in play (Warr 2016, p. 25). Immediately after the script was put together, the convicts participated in a script reading, and the professionals read the central roles in the writing, which facilitated the necessary final modifications (Nugent and Loucks 2011, p. 368). With the complete script, the next stages such as acting, music, and production could start.
The music team had a specific focus on writing songs through knowledge acquired through training about song structures, form, lyrics, as well as other music aspects (Behan 2014, p. 29). The drama team did warm-up activities to establish trust with the London Citizen Theatre as they quickly progressed to work on other sections of the script (Cheliotis 2016, p. 33). The sessions after included rehearsals, that would be found only in professional productions, which involved working through and refining the scenes in the script. Afterward, the music as well as acting teams joined and worked together in rehearsing for final performances, which enabled the production group to fine-tune their responsibilities for the presentations (Davey, Day, and Balfour 2015, p. 805). The chosen group of inmates performed along with an officer from London Prison Services as well as alongside a professional actor, which culminated the four performances to prisoners and other outside guests (Behan 2014, p. 31). In addition, the convicts made a recording of their album (Warr 2016, p. 25). Therefore, it can be concluded that what unifies the three projects is the influence of professional artists focused on working together with convicts to yield a top-quality performance that reflects the concerns and challenges of inmates.
Methodology
The research methodology section includes research methods, sampling, analysis approach, ethical considerations, as well as study limitations. The chapter highlights why qualitative method, opportunity sampling, and thematic analysis were adopted for this study.
Research Method
This study used qualitative methods. The respondents drawn on for this study were the convicts from three different jails across London in the United Kingdom. The prisoners were subjected to three art interventions detailed above whose primary objective was "inspiring change." Some of the data collection techniques used for the study included interviews with senior staff in prisons, learning institution staff, as well as various project leaders, form the art groups (Cheliotis 2016, p. 39). The feedback session forms from the different project leaders representing different arts organisations and behaviour records of inmates were also used for this study. Nonetheless, this study is primarily founded on collected information from inmates, which interviews from various focus groups carried out at the start of involvement in art education through to the end of the projects. Focus groups were selected because they are more productive when compared to individual discussions as focus teams also allowed convicts to react as well as respond to each other hence producing a collective view, which is more appropriate than the personal perspective (Roberston 2013). The collected data provides central focus of the research as it prioritises the aspects of inmates, which is the best approach to acquiring awareness into their encounters in prisons.
Sampling
The study adopted an opportunity sample of convicts to various focus teams that led to 33 out of 85 prisoners engaging in the pre-activity teams, which resulted to 23 out of 75 focus groups in the post-activity groups (Davey, Day, and Balfour 2015, p. 807). The sessions of different focus groups lasted for approximately one hour (Behan 2014, p. 30). The inmates who showed high commitment levels to the art interventions had a higher likelihood of being involved. But the study findings were embedded with the collected information jails as well as the learning centre and the group of artists that steered the projects, more so the activity sheets completed by artists in charge of various focus groups at the end of each session (Cheliotis and Jordanoska 2016, p. 40). These activity sheets registered what the convicts accomplished, and their feelings about participation as the documents were designed as a reporting tool for visiting artists and learning center in prisons. Ninety-eight activity sheets were collected from artists in charge of various groups (Lehmann 2017, p. 9).
Analysis Strategy
From the research view, the sheets were also used to indicate the reactions of convicts to the art projects (Trotter and Baidawi 2015, p. 2012). These documents also showed how prisoners felt about participation in the projects. Therefore, the reports were useful as they supplemented data collected from the focus teams. The activity sheets provided some triangulation of the study outcomes, although the primary origin of information for the research findings was the one given directly by the inmates. The report from the focus teams was written, transcribed, and later analysed through thematic analysis (Behan 2014, p. 28). Thematic analysis approach was chosen, as it is a tool used for identification, analysis, and reporting of data; the method produces a detailed and useful account of information (Kirsten 2014). The first phase of the investigation involved reading through the collected data and noting ideas down, which facilitated the generation of first codes through the identification of new data characteristics (Maujean, Pepping, and Kendall 2014, p. 42). The generated codes were grouped into prospective topics that later explored, described and specified. After which a secondary examination was concluded and verified independently (Cheliotis 2016, p. 40). The study of data from the focus teams identified four these, which are discussed in "Findings Section" that follows. The themes focused on using the words as well as quotes of inmates, with the aim of representing typical opinions.
Ethical Considerations
The study can be said to be ethically rigorous as the researcher ensured that consent was gained from all relevant parties. Also, the researcher assured that mention of name was made of confidentiality throughout the entire study except for public media such as journals where names were provided to meet the requirements of proper referencing. Moreover, researcher ensured that only relevant data on the research problem was collected and properly analysed.
Study Limitations
The dissertation focused on the influence of art education in men prisons. This means that the researcher was restricted from accessing information about women prisons that might have been useful for this study. Secondly, the research also focused on three prisons only, which may not give an accurate reflection of the impact of art education among prisoners across the United Kingdom. Lastly, the study was limited to prisons located in London. This means any relevant information from prisons in other parts of the United Kingdom that might have been helpful were rendered not useful for this study. Therefore, the research problem might not have been addressed sufficiently due to the study limitations.
Findings
Section four introduces the research findings, which addresses the research questions of the study. The research findings include changing negative attitudes towards learning, building an active learning culture, enabling people to work collaboratively and responsibly and increasing confidence and self-esteem.
A high number of convicts indicated they had not encountered positive learning experiences in schools prior their convictions (Behan 2014, p. 26). Many said that the reason for their negative attitude towards learning was that they had too much in their minds in school, as they wanted to get involved in other activities other than education (Lehmann 2017, p. 9). However, a number of inmates showed regret of missing good learning opportunities in their school life, a period that they say they would have utilised to make a meaningful contribution in the society (Nugent and Loucks 201, p. 359). Many convicts felt they could get a second chance to go back to schools when life became difficult and unbearable. At the end of the projects, many inmates saw that schooling in jail provided second opportunities and offered multiple reasons why they thought so (Maujean, Pepping and Kendall 2014, p. 41). A set of reasons was similar to the difference between learning institutions and education structure, which had allowed them to gain knowledge in a way they had not prior their sentences (Trotter and Baidawi 2015, p. 205).
