The Arts in Prisons is the first study to deal exclusively with the impact of the arts on prison inmates and ex-inmates. Arts programs have just begun to involve inmates and ex-inmates in creative participation within the last thirty years. A great deal remains to be discovered about the specific techniques and social potential of such programs. Our attempt has been to characterize the role of the arts in relation to inmates and ex-inmates in a way that is alive both to the particular, rather amorphous nature of the experience of art and the peculiarities of prison and post-release life. In addition to general survey data about the field, therefore, we have included as many articles as seemed feasible profiling programs and disclosing individual points of view.

In the , the problems of crime and what to do with the convicted criminal have in recent years, produced ever-increasing public frustration, as well as insufferable social and financial burdens, but no comprehensive solutions. It does appear that the arts are helpful to a portion of the prison population in expanding their understanding of themselves and the outside world.

The articles and information that follow are the results of three years' research conducted by The Theatre in Prisons Project (TTIPP) under a grant from the Herman Goldman Foundation, made in 1980, and renewed in 1981 and 1982. Tbe introduction to this report is framed by the history of the project. The intellectual and financial development of TTIPP should be helpful to the reader in understanding something of the special research and practical problems of the field of the arts in corrections, as well as introducing the project itself.

Part I of this report deals with the origins of The Theatre in Prisons Project and the first Workshop/Conference, held in concert with the Swedish Information Service. Prt II is an explication of a national survey of correctional officials, done jointly by TTIPP and CONtact, a prison-oriented research organization based in Lincoln, Nebraska. Part III describes the research findings of TTIPP's survey of prison arts programs in the . Part IV discusses the state of the arts in prisons based on survey materials collected in cooperation with the International Theatre Institute and the United Nations Alliance of Non-Governmental Organizations for Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. Part V summarizes the problems existing in the field based on the 1981 TTIPP workshop/conference on Clarifying the role of the arts in corrections and discusses potentially effective evaluative modes in the field of prison arts.

CONTENTS
Research findings of the theatre in prisons project by Steven Hart.
Beg your pardon (poem) Anonymous.
An artist/advocate for the inmate voice by Ellen Williams.
For La Familia (poem) by L. Moreno.
Drama programs with the adolescent offender by Cathy Russell.
North Side of Chicago (poem) by John Troy Poe.
Imprisoned art: New Horizons and tight budgets in New York State (1980) by Manuel Norat.
A trilogy (three-part poem) by J. A. Hines.
Dirty Laundry: How a theatre company grew up in corrections by John Bergman.
Reflections: art and social values by Stanley A. Waren.
Appendices:
     1. Bibliography of prisoners writings.
     2. Selected contents of TTIPP archives.
     3. Selected references on private funding of arts in corrections programs.
     4. Selected list of organizations and individuals associated with TTIPP or 
         working in arts in corrections.

The Arts in Prisons is the first study to deal exclusively with the impact of the arts on prison inmates and ex-inmates. Arts programs have just begun to involve inmates and ex-inmates in creative participation within the last thirty years. A great deal remains to be discovered about the specific techniques and social potential of such programs. Our attempt has been to characterize the role of the arts in relation to inmates and ex-inmates in a way that is alive both to the particular, rather amorphous nature of the experience of art and the peculiarities of prison and post-release life. In addition to general survey data about the field, therefore, we have included as many articles as seemed feasible profiling programs and disclosing individual points of view.