Enrichment activities? Arts, creativity and spirituality in criminal justice systems

英国政府正在考虑一场“康复革命”。它正在调查如何减少监狱人口和再犯罪。这两者都将降低政府和整个社会的金钱和情感成本。新政策将要求所有囚犯学习一项新的技能或职业，以便在监狱工作，这将有助于他们在获释后过上守法的生活。在开展职业、教育和心理活动的同时，监狱和缓刑车间允许罪犯绘画和绘画、刺绣和缝纫、制作陶器和音乐、编写和表演故事、诗歌和戏剧。他们正在发挥创造力。严格来说，这些活动大多不是为了改变罪犯的行为，也不是为了教他们新的职业技能(尽管写一个故事或一首歌可能有助于识字)。这是为了确保监狱履行其职责，以体面和人道的方式惩罚和改造囚犯。当人们参与一项创造性的或精神上的活动时，他们会感到“受影响”。情感是一种对社区的归属感，或者是对他们自己创造的东西的自豪感。澳大利亚研究人员发现，涂鸦艺术家报告说，他们在喷漆时有同样的反应--实施了破坏行为。如果情感在冒犯行为中发挥了作用，它是否也能在减少再犯罪方面发挥作用？有研究表明，艺术干预对破碎的社区和人们的总体健康和福祉有积极影响，但很少有学术文献支持这样的观点，即在监狱里参与创造性的活动将降低罪犯未来违法的可能性。这一系列研讨会将有助于改变这一点。这一创新系列研讨会不仅是为了增加学术知识，而且对艺术家、剧作家、演员、音乐家、监狱长和工作人员、慈善基金机构、研究人员和公务员以及政府政策制定者都很重要。来自所有这些团体的人将被邀请在研讨会上发言，并参加研讨会，以便他们分享经验和想法。参与者将考虑当艺术家、作家和演员在监狱和缓刑环境中开展创造性活动时，什么才是有效的。它将帮助社会科学家、心理学家、医务人员、律师和优秀艺术家比较他们对人们参与创造性活动的不同理解。然后，他们将能够将这些知识应用于他们对什么可能改变罪犯未来的行为和态度的理解上。监狱长和工作人员将能够谈论举办戏剧或展览对囚犯的影响，这可能会减少监狱中的暴力和不可接受的行为。然后，研讨会系列将把所有这些要素结合起来，帮助所有参与者改进未来的研究和评估。改进记录最佳做法将确保只将资金分配给最有效的举措。有效的举措是有积极结果的举措：囚犯心理健康状况的改善，可能意味着他们不需要经常去看医生；囚犯学习了上演戏剧的沟通技能，从而学会了对彼此或工作人员不那么咄咄逼人的反应，这意味着更平静的监狱环境；释放的囚犯创办了一家纺织品设计师的企业，这意味着他们再犯罪的可能性要小得多。所有这些积极的结果都对更广泛的社会有利。虽然多年来在监狱中开展了许多积极的创造性活动，但直到最近才开始发表研究，以表明这项工作的影响。这一系列研讨会将最终改进证明罪犯改过自新时的有效性和物有所值的研究和证据。

The UK government is considering a 'rehabilitation revolution'. It is investigating how to reduce the prison population and reoffending. Both of these will reduce monetary and emotional costs to the government and wider society. New policies will require all prisoners to learn a new skill or vocation for a job in prison, which will help then them lead law abiding lives after release. At the same time as vocational, educational and psychological initiatives are being run, prison and probation workshops are allowing offenders to paint and draw, embroider and stitch, make pottery and music, write and perform stories, poems and plays. They are being creative. Most of this activity is not strictly about changing an offender's behaviour or teaching them new vocational skills (although writing a story or a song might help with literacy). It is about ensuring that prisons fulfil their duty to punish and rehabilitate prisoners with decency and humanity. When people take part in a creative, or spiritual, activity they feel 'affect'. Affect is a sense of belonging to a community, or a pride in something which they have made themselves. Australian researchers found that graffiti artists reported having the same sort of response when spray painting - committing the act of vandalism. If affect plays a role in offending behaviour, could it also play a part in reducing reoffending? There is work to suggest that artistic interventions have a positive impact on broken communities and people's general health and well-being, but there is little academic literature to support the ideas that taking part in something creative while in prison will reduce an offender's likelihood of breaking the law in the future. This seminar series will help to change that.This innovative seminar series is not just about increasing academic knowledge; it is important for artists, playwrights, actors, musicians, prison governors and staff, charitable funding agencies, researchers and civil servants and government policy makers. People from all of these groups will be invited to speak at, and take part in, the seminars so that they can share experience and ideas. The participants will consider what works well when artists, writers, and actors deliver creative activities in prisons and probation settings. It will help social scientists, psychologists, medics, lawyers and fine artists compare their different understanding of how people experience taking part in creative activities. They will then be able to apply this knowledge to their understanding of what might change offenders' future behaviour and attitudes. Prison governors and staff will be able to talk about the impact that holding plays or exhibitions has on prisoners, which may then result in less violence and unacceptable behaviour in the prison. The seminar series will then draw all of these elements together in helping all participants to improve future research and evaluation. Improvements in recording best-practice will ensure that funds are allocated to only the most effective initiatives. An effective initiative is one that has a positive outcome: an improvement in a prisoner's mental health, might mean that they have to be seen by a doctor less often; prisoners learn to react less aggressively towards each other or staff because of the communication skills they learn staging a play, which means a calmer prison environment; a released prisoner setting up a business as a textile designer meaning that they are much less likely to reoffend. All of these positive outcomes are good for wider society. While there has been a good deal of positive, creative activity being carried out in prisons for a number of years, it is only very recently that the research to show the impact of this work has begun to be published. This seminar series will ultimately improve the research and evidence that demonstrates effectivness and value for money when rehabilitating offenders.