Hongo, A., Katz, A. & Valenti K. (2013). Art: Trauma to Therapy for Aging Female Prisoners. Traumatology.

Author Affiliations: University of Southern California
Artforms: Art therapy
Program: N.A.
Program Description: : Six art-therapy expression workshops conducted by a volunteer group of therapist interns
Program (Study) Location:Program (Study) Location: California women’s prison
Study Published: August 3, 2015
Participant Type: Adult female prisoners aged 50 to 76
Sample Size: 20
Data Type: Qualitative—pre- and post-questionnaire; thematic analysis
Evaluation Focus: The effect of creative projects on trauma

Summary of Impact: Analysis of the questionnaires revealed five general themes regarding the effect of art therapy workshops on participants: potential to dream (ability to imagine life on the outside); feeling connected; mutual understanding; releasing feelings; and unselfish concern (including fostering teamwork and social interaction).

Keywords: adult, aging, art therapy, community, elderly, emotions, social, teamwork, women

Inzana, Victoria (2023). “Performing rehabilitation: Reentry, art, and identity.” Punishment & Society, Vol. 3.

Author Affiliations: Sam Houston State University (research completed while doctoral
candidate at University of Missouri-St. Louis)
Artforms: Drama, theater
Program: Prison Play Program
Program Description: PPP is “a community-based nonprofit theater program . . . that provides performance art involvement for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people.”
Program (Study) Location: Mid-sized, Midwestern city
Study Published: 2025
Participant Type: Adult individuals recently released from prison
Sample Size: 15
Data Type: In-depth and semi-structured interviews
Evaluation Focus: Implications of theater role-taking on identity transformation for recently released individuals

Summary of Impact: Study found that “theater role-taking provides the gateway to personal identity role-taking at three levels: the self, the family, and the broader society. At each level individuals are simultaneously accessing the roles of the ‘agentic self,’ ‘the responsible family member’ and ‘the productive citizen.’” This, in turn, has implications on presentation of self when reentering society.

KEYWORDS: adult, drama, identity, role-taking, social roles, theater

Simpson, McKenna. (2025). Art and Crime: Analyzing the Relationship Between Creative Arts Participation and Juvenile Arrests. Georgetown University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Washington, D.C.

Author Affiliations: Georgetown University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Washington, D.C.
Artforms: Creative arts
Program: Master of Public Policy thesis
Program Description: N/A
Program (Study) Location: N/A
Study Published: 2025
Participant Type: Non-incarcerated juveniles
Sample Size: : Nationally representative sample of 8,984 men and women aged 12 to
16 participating in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ National Longitudinal Survey of
Youth; while the survey includes interviews conducted between 1997 and 2011, this
paper focuses on surveys completed in 2003-2004
Data Type: Quantitative
Evaluation Focus: Relationship between participation in creative arts and juvenile arrest rates.

Summary of Impact: Juveniles taking a creative arts course in high school were tk less likely to be arrested. The findings lose their significance when adjusted for sex and environment, suggesting that creative arts is one of many influences on juveniles.

KEYWORDS: arrest rates, creative arts, juvenile

Kennedy, J. Hampo, M. Rising, S., Grommon, E. (2020). Process Evaluation of the Indiana Prison Writers Workshop: A report to the Indiana Prison Writers Workshop. Center for Health and Justice Research, Indiana University Public Policy Institute and Indiana Department of Correction.

Author Affiliations: Center for Health and Justice Research, Indiana University Public Policy Institute
Artforms: Creative writing, playwriting
Program: Indiana Prison Writers Workshop
Program Description: IPWW offers a “12-week creative workshop to correctional facilities and communities impacted by violence.” Curriculum includes basic writing skills, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, rhetoric and playwriting
Program (Study) Location: Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop Minnesota; Prison Writing & Critical Practice Internship, New Mexico; Prison Arts Project, California; Prison Writes Initiative, Mississippi; InsideOUT Writers California; Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project Alabama
Study Published: 2020
Participant Type: IPWW program facilitators; formerly incarcerated adult male IPWW participants
Sample Size: Two facilitators; six participants
Data Type: 12-item pre- and post-survey, 10 of which use Likert scale; data related to recruitment, attendance, program curriculum, fidelity of activities to program model, participant demographics, program participation and case notes
Evaluation Focus: assess program fidelity, develop new survey tools, collect program data

Summary of Impact:

• Program served at least 84 male participants, a larger proportion of Black or African American and Hispanic/Latinx relative to racial and ethnic makeup of Indiana’s general prison population. Average age late 30s with a high school diploma or equivalency
• Participants motivations for joining vary
• Participants report that “writing is important, allows communication that cannot be said in other ways, and brings joy. Participants [also] seek an opportunity to write on their own in a structured setting and to seek feedback
• Participants report that the program “provides a break from daily routines, serves as an outlet for expression, and creates a sort of micro-family in which participants can share their work and show vulnerability.”
• Secondary analysis indicated increased enrollment in addiction recovery services, steady employment in-prison or post-release, 38% reduction in disciplinary infractions among participants

KEYWORDS: addiction recovery, adult, behavior, creative writing, employment, Indiana Prison Writers Workshop male

Olson, L. Des Vignes, D., McLean, A., Wester, B. Nwatu, U. (2025). “Indiana Prison Writers Workshop: The Power of Gorup Cohesion and Creative Expression among Incarcerated Individuals.” Journal of Prison Education Research.

Author Affiliations: University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa (Olson); Indiana Prison Writers Workshop (Des Vignes); University of Alabama (McLean, Wester, Nwatu)
Artforms: Creative Writing, Playwriting
Program: Indiana Prison Writers Workshop
Program Description: IPWW offers a “12-week creative workshop to correctional facilities and communities impacted by violence.” Curriculum includes basic writing skills, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, rhetoric and playwriting
Study Published: 2025
Program (Study) Location: Nine correctional facilities in three states
Study Published: Journal of Prison Education and Research
Participant Type: Incarcerated adults
Sample Size: 149 participants answered questions on workshop expectations and goals prior to workshop beginning, 115 responded to questions at workshop conclusion
Data Type: Open-ended qualitative surveys
Evaluation Focus: technical writing skills, group cohesion

Summary of Impact: “Quantitative data demonstrates the effectiveness of IPWW in teaching wiring skills and reflects participants agreement that the workshops provide opportunities to share their work and receive feedback from peers and the facilitator. Five themes emerged from the qualitative data: 1) self-expression, 2) skill development, 3) self-reflection, 4) perspective, and 5) therapeutic.

KEYWORDS: adult, creative writing, fiction, group cohesion, nonfiction, perspective, playwriting, rhetoric, self-reflection self-expression, self-reflection, skill development

Donham-Stradling, Mackenzee. (2025). Beyond Stigma: Role Theory and Drama Therapy in Reentry and Rehabilitation. Unpublished senior thesis. Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Author Affiliations: Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Artforms: Drama therapy
Program: NA
Program Description: Three two-hour drama therapy sessions over three weeks using role-based interventions (integrating Jones’ core processes, Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed techniques, the CoATT model, psychodrama and Landy’s Role Theory and role assessment) Program (Study) Location: Transitional living facility for formerly incarcerated women, Massachusetts
Study Published: 2025
Participant Type: Formerly incarcerated women with co-occurring mental health and
substance use disorders.
Sample Size: 8
Data Type: Direct observation, field notes, and artistic responses
Evaluation Focus: Patterns in role transformations and engagement

Summary of Impact: Results “indicate that drama therapy fosters increased empathy, self-reflection, and personal empowerment, while also challenging internalized stigma and external labels imposed by society. . . [allowing [participants] to redefine their identities, adopt new relational perspectives, and develop a greater sense of community and support” (p. 35). “The results suggest that drama therapy can serve as a powerful tool for identity reformation and social reintegration among system-impacted individuals” (p. 2).

KEYWORDS: adult, drama therapy, identity, roles, reentry, women

Author Affiliations: Oberlin College & Conservatory of Music

Artforms: music, songwriting

Program: Oberlin Music at Grafton (OMAG) Prison Choir

Program Description: Five-day workshop involving Documentary Songwriters (DocSong) collaborative songwriting pedagogy

Program (Study) Location: Grafton Correctional Institution, Grafton, Ohio

Participant Type: Adult male

Sample Size: 14

Study Published: 2024

Data Type: Qualitative case-study portraiture design

Evaluation Focus: Prison residents’ songwriting experiences while participating in DocSong group method and the role of the group in the DocSong songwriting experience in a prison

Summary of Impact: Residents participating in program “experienced individual actualization and collective liberation and liberated and restorative music creativity. . .  The individuals’ interactions within the group suggested that confidence, patience and the willingness to share were also practised within the songwriting context.”

KEYWORDS: confidence, Documentary Songwriters, patience, songwriting

Author Affiliations: California Lawyers for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts and Woodstock School of Art.

Artforms: drawing, watercolor

Program: Arts in Corrections Demonstration Projects

Program Description: Two 12-week courses

Program (Study) Location: Ulster and Adirondack Correctional Facilities, New York State

Participant Type: Adult male

Sample Size: 14 completed preprogram surveys and 12 completed post-program surveys

Study Published: 2022

Data Type: Pre- and post-program surveys administered at beginning and end of each course

Evaluation Focus: Effects of the program on participant attitudes, behaviors, time management, productivity, concentration, emotional control, mental flexibility, coping skills, relationships and hope for the future

Summary of Impact: Overall, participants reported more positive attitudes and behaviors as a result of taking the program. They also reported better time management, productivity, concentration, emotional control, mental flexibility, coping skills, relationships, hope for the future

KEYWORDS: attitudes, behavior, concentration, coping skills, creativity, drawing, emotional control, men, mental flexibility, productivity, relationships, time management, watercolor, wellbeing

Author Affiliations: Houston Museum of African American Culture and California Lawyers for the Arts

Artforms: creative writing, poetry, visual arts

Program: Houston Museum of African American Culture arts education program at the Harris County Jail Women’s Empowerment Center

Program Description: twice weekly sessions in creative writing, poetry, and visual arts lasting six weeks

Program (Study) Location: Harris County Jail Women’s Empowerment Center, Houston, Texas

Participant Type: Adult female

Sample Size: 22 of 51 participants completed the course

Study Published: 2024

Data Type: pre- and post-surveys administered at the first and last of 12 sessions taking place over six weeks; surveys adapted from Life Effectiveness Questionnaire

Evaluation Focus: productivity, time management, social competence, creativity and artistic expression, adaptability, emotional control, wellbeing, stability, involvement, self-belief, confidence, leadership, communication

Summary of Impact: Overall, the majority of participants reported enjoying the course, learning how to be more creative, discovering previously unknown talents and feeling a sense of accomplishment. Participants also reported positive attitudes and gains in the areas of involvement, self-belief, confidence, wellbeing, stability, self-belief, communication and artistic expression, time management and adaptability.

KEYWORDS: adaptability, artistic expression, communication, creative writing, creativity, emotional control, empowerment, involvement, leadership, poetry, productivity, self-belief, social competence, stability, time management, visual arts, wellbeing, women

Author Affiliations: A.R.C.H. Collective and California Lawyers for the Arts

Artforms: spoken word

Program: Spoken Word class provided by A.R.C.H for women at the Orleans Justice Center

Program Description: Twice weekly classes each lasting 90 minutes to two hours

Program (Study) Location: Orleans Justice Center, New Orleans, Louisiana

Participant Type: Adult female

Sample Size: 10 of 16 initial participants completed the program

Study Published: 2023

Data Type: Pre- and post-surveys

Evaluation Focus: Program effective on creativity, skills development, social skills and self-confidence

Summary of Impact: The 10 participants who completed the program reported enjoying the course, learning to be more creative, adding new skills to the art repertoire, learning how to work with withers and gains in self-confidence

KEYWORDS: adaptability, artistic expression, communication, creativity, emotional control, empowerment, involvement, leadership, productivity, self-belief, skills acquisition, social competence, spoken word, stability, time management, wellbeing, women