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Theatre as Prison Therapy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2021

Paul Ryder Ryan
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Extract

They can imprison your body, man, but they can't lock up your mind.

—anonymous prison performer, 1975

While theatre groups have been entertaining and conducting workshops in prisons for many years, it is only since 1973 that studies have been made to assess the therapeutic value of theatre programs connected to prison systems. Hard evidence is being amassed that theatre workshops for prisoners and ex-offenders significantly reduce the rate of re-arrest among participants—more so than any other of the many remotivational programs in the correctional systems across the country. Nationally, 85 percent of those released from prison are re-arrested within a year, most within the first four months. The rate of re-arrest among participants in theatre workshops in the New York/New Jersey area is currently 10 to 15 percent.

Type
Theatre And Therapy
Information
The Drama Review , Volume 20 , Issue 1: Theatre and Therapy , March 1976 , pp. 31 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © 1976 The Drama Review

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References

The title photograph by Maruka Fernandez is of The Street Theatre drama workshop production of Douglas Turner Ward's Day of Absenseat the Coxsackie Correctional Facility in New York State. Directed by Lester Franklin with an all-inmate cast, the play was given three performances in April 1975 before both public and prison audiences.