Journal Article

Prison Arts Program Outcomes

Littman, Danielle Maude, Sliva, Shannon M.

2020

Overview

The arts have been a presence in prisons for over a century; these programs have varied aims, from educational and skill development to social-emotional learning to reentry preparation. Despite the popularity of arts programs across the prison landscape, relatively few researchers have empirically studied the outcomes of participating in arts programs for incarcerated participants. This scoping review systematically reviews 25 studies, mostly from the United States, which report the various outcomes associated with prison arts programs. The outcome areas reported on, from most to least prevalent in this review, include social-emotional outcomes, educational and vocational outcomes, disciplinary outcomes, and community and policy outcomes. Based on the research included in this scoping review, there is relatively strong support that participating in prison arts programs is linked to a constellation of social-emotional outcomes. While several studies used posttest-only designs or had small sample sizes, studies that used validated scales to measure social-emotional outcomes found statistically significant improvements in self-confidence, self-esteem, task completion, social competence, emotional stability and control and well-being, and decreased hopelessness and anger. There is sparser, yet still promising, evidence that participating in prison arts programming is linked to educational, vocational, disciplinary, community, and policy outcomes. Further empirical research in all outcomes areas is needed to better understand how incarcerated individuals, their families and communities, and prisons at large can most benefit from arts programming. Future research will benefit from intentional partnerships between researchers, incarcerated individuals, arts practitioners, and prison administrators in identifying desired outcomes and charting spheres of impact.

• Publisher: Correctional Education Association,Correctional Educational Association
• Subject: Administrators / Anger / Art Education / Arts / Bibliographic literature / Community / Confidence / Correctional Education / Correctional Institutions / Correctional Rehabilitation / Delinquency Prevention / Delinquent Rehabilitation / Education policy / Educational aspects / Educational History / Educational Research / Emotional Development / Emotional instability / Emotions / Evidence / Government grants / Grants / Hopelessness / Imprisonment / Information Seeking / Institutionalized Persons / Interpersonal Competence / Interpersonal Relationship / Juvenile Justice / Literature Reviews / Low income groups / Mental Health / Outcomes of Education / Partnerships / Pell Grants / Popularity / Prisoners / Prisons / Program Effectiveness / Programming / Reentry / Research Methodology / Researchers / Search Strategies / Self Efficacy / Self Esteem / Self Expression / Skill Development / Social & emotional learning / Social Development / Social Services / Social skills / Student Financial Aid / Student Motivation / Task completion / Theater / Well Being