Inspiring Futures: how creativity and culture benefits people in the criminal justice system
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How and why is creativity within criminal justice settings so impactful for individuals, communities, and society? Inspiring Futures is the first research of its kind to capture just how diverse, complex, and transformative its benefits can be. Led by IPSO The National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance (NCJAA), the project joined arts in criminal justice organisations and the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology to deliver an innovative arts programme in prisons and probation settings. Partners included many organisations supported by the Arts Council, including Koestler Arts, Geese Theatre, and Clean Break to name a few.
The research, funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Economic and Social Research Council, took a deep dive into how creativity can benefit participants, as well as their families, staff working with them, and creative facilitators. It also looks at how creative organisations, practitioners, and criminal justice staff can make the most of these positive outcomes, laying the groundwork for future initiatives.
What does the research tell us?
For participants engaged in prison arts programmes, Inspiring Futures helped build social confidence, including improving their relationships with their families. Participants also noted positive changes in their wellbeing and increased self-confidence. Crucially, some participants felt the creative programmes gave meaning to their lives and offered them a sense of ownership and control.
Alongside the personal benefits, the programmes also enabled participants to learn new technical and creative skills, empowering them to try new activities like visual arts, music production, and theatre. The experience of participating in these activities helped some people overcome personal barriers, gain a sense of achievement, and think positively. Some even took part in further self-help strategies such as mindfulness or undertaking prison courses as a result.
Once you get that push to do something, or you learn something new, you can start making your own beats, tunes, or end up pursuing a music production course. The opportunity to create provides loads of avenues.
Beyond the impact for individuals, both creative practitioners and prison staff observed the how the activities energised the prisons and influenced the working environment. They highlighted how they aligned with the prisons’ goals, encouraging prisoners to engage in purposeful activities and rehabilitative programmes.
It [access to creativity] gives a sense of humanness: you can scrape off the grey and show that there are still rainbows.
As Inspiring Futures shows, creative and cultural experiences can be powerfully transformative for people in the criminal justice system, and the people around them. Through accessing creative activities led by skilled facilitators, prisoners can build confidence, self-esteem, social connections, and develop skills they can carry throughout their lives. By engaging in meaningful activities like mindfulness or violence reduction courses, people in the criminal justice system are more likely to reintegrate into their communities once they’ve left prison.
What does this mean for the sector?
Inspiring Futures tells us that investing in culture for people in the criminal justice system delivers wide reaching benefits. It lays important groundwork for our vision of a country where everyone can access high-quality cultural experiences.
In our ten-year strategy, Let’s Create, we commit to inclusivity in the creative and cultural sector and engaging with communities currently underserved by the arts. Our investment in creativity and culture in criminal justice settings through the 2023-26 National Portfolio and National Lottery Project Grants is a wonderful example of how we’re delivering on that ambition. We’re also working with strategic partners in His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Services and the Ministry of Justice to reduce barriers to engaging with art in criminal justice settings. Additionally, organisations we support, like NCJAA, are working with sector leaders to make sure everyone in the criminal justice system can access the benefits of creativity.
Inspiring Futures is exactly what it says on the tin: promising evidence that England can be a country where the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish – no matter who we are or what we’ve experienced.
