ABSTRACT
The experience of imprisonment has the power to irrevocably shape, even to deny, an individual’s potential to live a meaningful and purposeful life. In recognition of this power, prison-based artists and artists from beyond the prison walls have long used creativity as a way of tapping into human potential. However, the ability of artists to function inside prisons has in many ways paralleled the ever-changing, and perhaps increasingly volatile, social and political climates which govern punishment. Our recent experience of evaluating an arts-based scheme in prisons in England (Music in Prisons) has provided us with some important insights into the place for such programmes amidst a growing culture of managerialism in the prison service (Sparks et al., 1996; Garland, 2001; Feeley and Simon, 2006) and evolving standards of ‘evidence’ for rehabilitative and therapeutic interventions in confinement (McGuire, 2002; Hollin and Palmer, 2007). Our evaluation – and the methodological choices that accompanied it – revealed significant challenges in establishing and funding creative programmes in an increasingly outcomesbased prison culture.
