Short description:

Offering a lively, international, and interdisciplinary introduction to research on arts programmes in prisons, this book is the first volume to bring together leading figures from the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Belgium to explore key methodological approaches and issues through the lens of the researchers themselves.

Long description:

Offering a lively, international, and interdisciplinary introduction to research on arts programmes in prisons, Arts in Criminal Justice and Corrections is the first volume to bring together leading figures from the USA, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Belgium to explore key methodological approaches and issues through the lens of the researchers themselves.

Beginning with the original pioneers of research into the arts in corrections in the USA in the 1980s, this book highlights the role of researchers in evidencing impact and influencing policy. Contributors include those who were themselves once incarcerated and those who have transitioned from practitioner to criminologist. Chapters lay the groundwork for discussion on how an important avenue for rehabilitation and re-entry can be developed, providing a call to action for more research into a field which holds promise for building a more just, equitable, and inclusive society.

This book is essential reading for criminologists engaged in prisons, corrections, and desistance research, as well as researchers and practitioners in the arts and rehabilitation.

Informed by recent research in the field, this innovative and international book focuses on the intersection of the arts, corrections and criminal justice. This is an authoritative and accessible book which poses some important questions in light of different approaches and compelling positive evidence of impact.  The book is beyond compare!

Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, England

In this important contribution to the field, Mandy Gardner and Laura Caulfield present a fascinating variety of research methods at the intersection of cultural practices and the administration of justice in different nations. Through profiles and introspective essays, the researchers are themselves on view, exposing their family histories, motivations and journeys beyond academia as they demonstrate how arts engagement strengthens the humanity of incarcerated people.

 Alma Robinson, Executive Director, California Lawyers for the Arts, United States

Building on the foundations laid by decades of interdisciplinary research, this book is a compelling testament to the transformative potential of the arts within the criminal justice system. Through its pages, the reader is taken on a journey across continents and disciplines, discovering ways in which the arts can serve as a catalyst for change and healing. By foregrounding both original pioneers and new thinkers in the field, it will serve as both a historical account and a forward-looking perspective, encouraging researchers, practitioners and policymakers to think critically about the role of the arts in addressing systemic issues within criminal justice. A groundbreaking work that?s a must-read for those in the fields of criminal justice, the arts and social advocacy.

Neil Wallace, Arts in Corrections Advisor, Arts Access Aotearoa, New Zealand

?The global potential for a flourishing of creativity in prisons has never been greater. Along with individual practitioner accounts and pedagogical innovations, we need new constructive and effective methods of evaluation to explain how arts-in-corrections programmes can deliver worthy outcomes, ranging from recidivism reduction to the transformation of willing people by building self-esteem, strengthening life skills, and finding new identities as productive members of the community following re-entry. Accordingly, this pioneering work in the promising field of evaluative methodologies for the arts in prison cultures is timely, essential, and inspiring.?

John R. Whitman, Creative Prisons Project, Chicago, IL, USA, Cultural Trends

Table of Contents:

1.Introduction and overview of arts in criminal justice and corrections
Mandy Gardner and Laura Caulfield 

Part 1. The impact of the arts in criminal justice and corrections: What works, how it works, and why

2. New theoretical frameworks for designing and evaluating arts-in-corrections programs
Larry Brewster, Jack Bowers and Laurie Brooks  

3. Developing methodologies to evidence the impact of the arts in criminal justice.
Laura Caulfield 

4.  Practice informs research informs policy informs practice informs... [ad infinitum]
David Gussak 

5. A realist lens on participatory music programmes in prison
Silke Marynissen, Geert Vandermeersche and Dorien Brosens

Part 2. The researcher?s journey

6. Education research, vulnerability and positionality: a story of the methodological journey of an education researcher in prison
Jennie Henley

7. Collaboration as a tool for transformative justice: Writing, songwriting, and communal Singing 
Mary Cohen 

8. Autoethnography as a bridge to shared decision-making
Reginold Daniels and Mandy Gardner 

Part 3. Foregrounding the people in arts spaces

9. Making the story count: An argument for the development of a narrative evaluation tool in the arts in criminal justice sector
Ella Simpson 

10. On games and gamification: Understanding what?s a stake in co-designing with prisoners 
Lorraine Gamman

11. Listening through walls: Enacting a politics of listening
Rand Hazou and Sarah Woodland