Innovation Behind Bars: The Power of Creative Writing in Prison

• In Event: Communities of Inquiry as Literacy Innovation: The Role of the Imagination and Local Knowledge in a Period of Common Core Standards

Abstract

Objectives: This paper will reconsider educational innovation by providing an example that demonstrates how communities of practice, even in the most restrictive environments and subaltern spaces (Foucault, 1995) can disrupt hierarchical power relations by providing creative opportunities and educational environments that offer agency and thus reposition locus of control.

Perspectives and Theoretical framework: On any given day, more than one in 100 adults are in jail or prison (Pew, 2008). As Alexander (2010) argues, incarceration has become the new caste system in the United States. Recently, there has been a renaissance of interest in how literacy education, including the teaching of creative writing, might provide critical opportunities for positive and productive endeavors, as well as reduce recidivism (Appleman, 2013). Rogers (2008) focuses on the pedagogical considerations relevant to teaching creative writing to the incarcerated). The PMLA published a suite of articles on in prison education, including studies about the impact of literature on the lives of the incarcerated (Waxler, 2008), the literary accomplishments of the incarcerated (Franklin, 2008), productions of Shakespeare by and for offenders at correctional facilities in Wisconsin and Massachusetts (Shailor, 2008; Trounstine, 2008), and the appropriateness of higher education within prison settings (Lewen, 2008). Still, opportunities for creative writing in prison, especially inmate-sponsored programs, are rare (Author, 2013). And even more rarely still, have prison efforts be considered in the context of educational innovation as a whole (Bard Prison Collective, 2013.)

Methods and Data Sources: Using a teacher-research approach (Cochran-Smith and Lytle, 2009), the author collected data from a creative writing class for adult offenders at a maximum-security prison. The class was comprised of 15 men, ages 18-55, serving life, 12 of whom were incarcerated while still juveniles. She was the primary teacher for the course and had access to them for three hours per week for 16 weeks.

Data sources include:
• Field notes from 16 creative writing sessions
• 5 creative writing assignments from each incarcerated writer
• videotaped reading by incarcerated writers
• Interviews with inmates
• Interviews with correctional facility personnel

Results: In this particular learning context, the pedagogy of creative writing, with its emphasis on identity construction and narration, seems to provide the impetus for innovation, as the incarcerated writers reshaped their personal narratives and decided to claim personal power, to the degree that they were able to do so. They formed a collective to publish a book (From the Inside Out: Letters to Young Men and Other Writing, 2009), held group sessions for aspiring writers, secured more creative writing opportunities for fellow inmates and created a restorative justice program that donated proceeds from their book to causes of healing and reparation.

Scholarly Significance: This study suggests that the dynamic power of cooperation and joint inquiry, inspired by creative endeavor, can create opportunities for innovation in the most proscribed environments. This finding should encourage the creation of more creative opportunities for the incarcerated, as means of locating agency and control within collaborative creative processes.

Author

• Deborah A. Appleman, Carleton College