Justice & Correctional Services
National Overview
Many Juvenile Justice and Correctional Service institutions runs creative art classes and hold exhibitions.
There is currently no coordinated approach to this activity, and achieving some sort of overview and structure is of interest to Arts Access Australia given the strong links between mental health and prison populations.
A 2003 Study (Mental Illness Among NSW Prisoners) of the NSW prison system indicated that overall approximately 74% of those assessed had some kind of psychiatric disorder, either a mental illness and/or substance abuse disorder and/or a personality disorder. Looking at mental illness alone 46% of those coming into the prison had a mental illness.
Workers at Tasmania’s Risdon Prison have described the challenges and outcomes of establishing an arts program in a maximum security prison. Download the paper: here.
While visual arts programs are reasonably common, Somebody’s Daughter Theatre is a unique Victorian company working in art, music and drama with women in prison and post release, and fostering artistic endeavours with disempowered youth at risk in rural areas. A major focus of the company’s current work is the intergenerational cycles of poverty, abuse and disadvantage which lead to addictions, self-destructive behaviour, criminal behaviour and thus institutionalisation.
Community Cultural Development New South Wales is doing some work in Juvenile Justice to network, promote and support artists working in isolating and difficult environments. For information contact:
Martha Jabour.
Indigenous Artists and Prisons
Links between prisons and Aboriginal Art are explored in Dreaming Inside, a paper by Dr Sylvia Kleinert, of the Centre for Cross Cultural Research at the Australian National University.
Aboriginal printmaking emerged in the 1960s and early 1970s. The first prints were linocuts produced in the mid 1960s by Aboriginal artist, activist and writer Kevin Gilbert, who learnt the technique while in Long Bay Prison as part of a prison art program. These Prints were later exhibited after Gilbert's release in 1970 and remain amongst his most powerful works, although they did not become well known until a decade later.
The Greenbush Arts Group in Alice Springs was formed by artists working in the Alice Springs prison and holds regular exhibitions.
Greenbush Art Group
PO Box 56
Alice Springs NT 0871
T + 61 8 8951 8971
F + 61 8 8951 8964
E susan.mcdonnell@nt.gov.au
Additional Resources
New Zealand National Prison Art Strategy
Arts Access Aotearoa is leading the development a national Prison Art Strategy for New Zealand in addition to supporting a diverse range of prison art programs.
Song birds - Art in Prisons Training Manual
This is a training manual for people working in art and prison projects.
While the training manual was written for the South African prisons, it is still relevant to anyone working in prison art.
This 56 page document is illustrated with spectacular pictures of prison art, from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and England.
Author Penny Eames has worked with arts and prisons for 20 years in New Zealand and was for four years associated with South Africa Arts against crime and Art in prison programmes.
To download the publication go to: www.pseconsultancy.com
Acquired Brain Injury and the prison system
ABC Radio National's All In The Mind program unveils statistics on acquired brain injury and the justice system. Download the program audio and transcript here.
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