ABSTRACT
Ask any soldier or civilian who has worked with detainees in Iraq and he or she is certain to agree on at least one thing: Detainees are creative. Unfortunately, this knowledge initially came at a price. Knives, picks, chai rocks, tools to escape with-all of these have been created on numerous occasions by detainees applying their creativity to aid in violence against each other and soldiers and to pursue (or attempt to pursue) freedom through escape. The military has seized numerous instruments created for the express use of violence, passing information, or escape. So, there really was never a reason to doubt that detainees were naturally creative, but, rather, to understand what was going to be done with that creativity to harness it for something positive instead of the continued use of violence. It was from this mindset that the Creative Expressions Program (CEP) was initiated and subsequently created.
