Welcome to the Creative Prisons Project

The aim of the Creative Prisons Project is to encourage every prison to become a source of creativity, worldwide. Concurrently, we aim to compile evidence that engaging incarcerated people in creative work results in improved behavior and benefits society as well as individuals.

Watch "I was born an artist."

Watch "Recipe for Change."

Watch Jesse Krimes' story.

Specifically, we aim to engage more people in prison in producing creative works through arts-in-corrections educational programs, to protect their intellectual property, and to facilitate ways to share their works with the public. This site describes the initiatives designed to achieve this aim, to use creativity to humanize prisons and society, and to promote the eradication of poverty and racism.

We also aim to build and advance the professional field of arts in corrections worldwide. To date, key advances include launching a professional and scholarly journal, the International Journal for Creativity Inside and collaborating with the International Justice Arts Network to become an association of professionals and educators engaged in supporting the arts in prison, worldwide.

A proposed framework for a national carceral creativity infrastructure addressing supply and demand is presented in the book, Prisons of Creativity (Routledge, 2025).

Toward this end, we collaborate with other organizations and individuals worldwide who advocate for creativity in prisons, including:

Art and Prison e.V., Berlin

Art et Prison France

International Justice Arts Network (IJAN)

"My name is Audun Reithaug, I am the national coordinator of the Music in Carceration and Liberty Project in Oslo, Norway. Since 1991 we have been giving music lessons to inmates in Norwegian prisons, and after release. These videos are a band of women named after our founder Venja Ruud Nilsen. The band is called Venjas Harem. They have been musicking as a part of their rehabilitation from drug abuse and after incarceration. They still play in the band every week and it means the world to them. Enjoy."

Elise

Real Life


If you would like to stay in touch with Creative Prisons Project concerning creativity in prisons, please provide your contact information here. Thank you.

A framework for a national carceral creativity policy is proposed in Prisons of Creativity, available on Amazon.