Inmates work on a mural as part of a Project PAINT art workshop at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego. | Photo: Peter Merts.
In the early years of his incarceration, Guillermo Willie acknowledged, art was the farthest thing from his mind. My thoughts were OK, Im going to get some heroin. Im going to get some speed. Im going to get some drugs, recalled the Los Osos man, who spent 38 years in prison for assault and his role in the death of a fellow inmate before his release in 2008. My intent was to be a bum, a criminal. I had no thoughts of making it out of there.
But as he delved deeper into drawing and painting, his attitude began to shift.
There was a length of time where I was reflecting, going inside myself, [thinking] What am I doing with my life? he recalled. I wanted to be an artist and I knew what I was doing was a limitation on me being able to paint. I knew I needed to make a change.
Today, Willie, a visual artist and actor, is one of the numerous success stories of the Arts-in-Corrections program, a partnership between the California Arts Council and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, that aims to combat recidivism, nurture rehabilitation and foster safe conditions in state prisons, county jails and juvenile detention centers. By introducing inmates to everything from dance to drumming to drama, the programs supporters believe, Arts-in-Corrections can inspire deep and lasting change.
An inmate at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego participates in a still life drawing exercise conducted by Project PAINT. | Photo: Peter Merts.
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While art is being used as the tool for teaching, these classroom experiences are encouraging a whole range of experiences, said Caitlin Fitzwater, communications director for the California Arts Council. We're talking about overcoming social barriers, overcoming economic barriers, learning sensitivity, intellectual flexibility, creativity...
Workshops and classes offered by specially trained professional artists, she continued, help inmates by reducing staff conflict. They relieve stress and encourage self-confidence, motivation [and] reliability, even simple things like time management and taking initiative -- all things that translate into being deeply impactful rehabilitative skills and qualities.
According to Kristina Khokhobashvili, public information officer at the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the aim of Arts-in-Corrections has been the same from the start. The No. 1 goal is public safety. We don't want people who get out of prison to commit crimes, re-victimize people and go back to prison.
We've proven over the years that you can't just lock someone away and not give them any hope or anything constructive to do with their time or teach them a trade and expect them to do just fine when they're done with their time, Khokhobashvili said. It just doesn't work. They can't get a job. They can't connect with their family.
That's why the department offers plenty of options for inmates open to rehabilitation. Defy Ventures, for instance, works with budding entrepreneurs behind bars, teaching them how to develop leadership skills, improve organization and pitch business ideas to investors. The Last Mile teaches computer coding to incarcerated techies, and inmates working with Canine Companions for Independence train service dogs.
Each rehabilitative program, Khokhobashvili said, represents one more skill, one more outlet that an inmate can have once he or she is released.
An inmate performs for an audience that includes Tim Robbins, artistic director of The Actors Gang in Los Angeles, at the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco in 2014. | Photo: Peter Merts.
Established by the California State Legislature in June 1980, Arts-in-Corrections was modeled after the Prison Arts Program launched in 1977 at Vacavilles California Medical Facility under the direction of the nonprofit William James Association, according to a 1983 report by Larry Brewster, a public policy professor at the University of San Franciscos School of Management. The program was initially designed to improve the quality of the prison experience for both inmates and staff, as well as encourage better institution-community relations through community service art projects and concert series, Brewster wrote in his introduction to An Evaluation of the Arts-in-Corrections Program of the California Department of Corrections.
His report evaluated the effectiveness of Arts-in-Corrections at four institutions -- California Medical Facility, Deuel Vocational Institution near Tracy, San Quentin State Prison and Correctional Training Facility in Soledad. Like Brewsters 2014 report, California Prison Arts: A Quantitative Evaluation, it found that benefits to inmates, staff and taxpayers -- ranging from improved self-confidence and self-discipline to a reduction of institutional violence -- far outweighed the costs.
In 1982, a total of 1,116 inmates at those facilities enrolled in 7,028 hours of individual and group instruction in the visual, literary, performing and media and fine craft disciplines.
Participation in Arts-in-Corrections grew steadily over the years. In the 1986-1987 fiscal year, more than 300 Arts-in Corrections instructors provided 36,000-plus hours of instruction to 8,196 program participants, according to Terry Thornton, deputy press secretary with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
About a decade later, in fiscal year 1998-1999, 12 to 14 percent of the inmates incarcerated in 33 prisons and three camps -- as many as 21,621 people -- had access to Arts-in-Corrections during leisure hours, Thornton said.
Artworks by prison inmates at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility
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Inmates work on a mural as part of a Project PAINT art workshop at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego. | Photo: Peter Merts. 
