The desistance from offending journey requires personal change, motivation, and social integration. It is not a single event but a journey which is often characterised by lapses and recoveries. At its core desistance requires the development of a new non-criminal identity. In prison where it is hard to move beyond an identity as an offender, arts and cultural programmes can offer an identify as a writer, an artist, a carver and as a creative person.
The Creative Arts and Cultural Wellbeing Programmes in Prison Initiative introduced 12 creative arts providers to 17 Corrections prison sites delivering 14 programmes that included whakairo (carving), raranga (weaving), creative writing, storytelling, music, performing arts, and film making. Most of the programmes were inspired and informed by mātauranga Māori.
An evaluation of this three-year initiative found that arts offered participants an opportunity to develop a pro-social identity, personal agency, motivation, and a shift in perspective. A supportive and non-judgemental setting meant creative arts providers interacted with participants as people who had the potential to be creative, rather than as prisoners. Pro-social relationships with other offenders in prison, arts providers and whānau had the potential to support change and provide mental health benefits.
For prison staff the arts programmes could reduce tension in units and increase the willingness of people in prison to participate in other programmes.
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Fiona Conlon
Principal Research Adviser, Department of Corrections, New Zealand, Ara Poutama Aotearoa
Fiona Conlon is a Principal Research Adviser in the Research Team in the New Zealand Department of Corrections. She has worked in the Department for over four years. As a researcher and evaluator for over twenty years, she knows that research has the power to challenge thinking, influence change and improve outcomes for some of the most vulnerable and marginalised in society. She is focused mainly on qualitative research to understand the ‘why’? Key research and evaluation projects undertaken for the Department of Corrections have included supported accommodation for women, mothers with babies, best practice case management, corrections officer training and arts programmes in the prison setting. Fiona also supports the commissioning of internal research in the Department and external university student research projects (many from our own staff) from universities in New Zealand to ensure ethical and methodologically robust research.
