Inciting the Incarcerated Imagination: The Promise and Pedagogy of Creative Writing in Prison

• In Event: Stopping the STOPP: An Urgent Call to Critical Educators to Interrupt the School-to-Prison Pipeline

Abstract

This study explores the methodology and effect of teaching creative writing in a radical setting: a maximum-security prison. By focusing specifically on teaching creative writing, this paper seeks to address the following questions: What are the inherent tensions in promoting freedom of self-expression to the incarcerated? Does creative writing have any potential to promote correctional goals of restorative justice? Does lifetime incarceration affect the content of creative writing as well as the motivation of writer? What is the effect of promoting self-expression to inmates who are serving life sentences? What particular pedagogies of teaching and genres of writing appear to be best suited to the context of incarceration?
The researcher taught a college level creative writing class to twenty-four inmates at a maximum-security men’s correctional facility. The researcher developed a series of assignments to discover the modes by which inmates most readily developed creative works. Indeed, one of the core questions at the heart of this qualitative inquiry is the degree to which classroom processes can be normalized within this context and how classroom interaction content and student work product can further the goals of correction.


Perspectives or theoretical framework
Although many anthologies of prison writing and memoirs of those currently and formerly incarcerated abound, (Baca, 2008; Chevigny, 1999), there is a dearth of research on the pedagogy of teaching creative writing to the incarcerated. While there was some attention paid to teaching in prison in the seventies and eighties, (Hedin, 1979; Hruska, 1981) there has been little recent activity in this field, despite the increase nationally in educational opportunities for inmates.
Data Sources, Evidence, Objects or Materials
The following qualitative and quantitative data were systematically collected during 12 weekly sessions:
• literacy autobiographies
• pre and post surveys about attitudes toward and experience with creative writing
• weekly “critical incident survey” to measure their engagement and learning preferences. (
• ten creative writing assignments from each student, both poetry and prose
• videotaped readings of students reading their creative work
• writing portfolios from each student, including critical self-reflections about their creative work
• weekly ethnographic notes by researcher

Results
Although this qualitative project is still under analysis, preliminary findings do reveal particular patterns and tendencies across inmates and assignments with regard to preferences for both content and form. Despite the degrees of creative freedom offered by the assignments and assurances of confidentiality offered by the researcher, the inmates were reluctant to write specifically about their crimes or about the conditions of their incarceration, subjects that are often staples in prison literature. They were much more likely to engage in creative work about family, life before incarceration, and expressions of regret and restoration. On the other hand, the aesthetic and intellectual experiences of the inmates in a creative writing classroom, as well as their abilities to inhabit varied genres of creative writing are remarkably similar to other writing classrooms.

Author

• Deborah A. Appleman, Carleton College