Posted on 06/30/2011 7:56:17 PM PDT by Drango
NORCO, Calif. — Fifteen men darted across the room, their faces slathered in greasepaint, reciting lines from “Tartuffe.” The stage, such as it was, was a low-ceilinged recreation room, and the cast was a troupe of felons who had just stepped in from the dusty yard of the California Rehabilitation Center.
For four hours, they conducted workshops under the direction of the Actors’ Gang, an ensemble from Los Angeles, which goaded them into acting out emotions that could be put to use in the 17th-century Molière farce about, appropriately enough, a con man working a swindle.
“Why are you angry?” Sabra Williams, the prison project director, demanded of the jostling lineup of actor-prisoners.
The room burst into giddy smiles and rubbery limbs from men in prison jumpsuits.
Advocates say these programs have reduced recidivism rates, though there is no conclusive research on that. But prison officials and inmates suggest that the workshops — by forcing inmates to confront emotions and to deal with other inmates they might ignore or fight with outside — can produce fundamental changes in behavior and character.
(snip) “You know, this whole prison situation, where you have to act macho and put up these mental barriers, this really allowed like a mental vacation,” Mr. Paxton said. “It makes doing time that much more easier.” (snip)
“I know this,” said one of those inmates as he sat on the floor in a circle with Mr. Robbins, Ms. Williams and the other inmates. He and his fellow prisoners had just performed scenes from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” “I’m thinking about Shakespeare in the shower. I don’t think I ever did that before.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
If not for daily calligraphy classes, they would start breaking the law...
I am for releasing all convicts in Hollywood.
My personal belief is that oatmeal three times a day, no TV, and no exercise and no health or dental care (at all) would also reduce recidivism.
Or, as a good will mission, to Cuba.
Advocates say these programs have reduced recidivism rates, though there is no conclusive research on that.
But hey, what does research have to do with it anyway? If it makes the inmates happy, it must be a good "therapy." Poor guys....
“........the 17th-century Molière farce about, appropriately enough, a con man working a swindle.”
I’ve seen this play staged to make Dorine the main character. Frankly I think it works better that way.
Though it didn’t work out all that way for *me*. After I saw it with my then girlfriend at the time I couldn’t stop talking about the actress who played Dorine. Pissed her off quite a bit.
I was right about the actress though as she went on from local community theater to a successful career in LA.
I thought California was going to let thousands of its prison inmates go free anyway ... as part of its effort to balance its budget.
I’ve given up trying to understand California.
“My personal belief is that oatmeal three times a day, no TV, and no exercise and no health or dental care (at all) would also reduce recidivism.”
As would a much more frequent application of the death penalty.
Rocks and hammers. Prison should be miserable. This is one thing we should outsource to China.
Take away their paints and they will chop off their fingers
Sometimes I gets the menstral cramps real bad.
Sometimes I gets the menstral cramps real bad.
How about a safety vale for the rest of us, such as prison walls and cells for them, rather than “drama.”
Bwahahahaha. Love that movie. My sides hurt for two days after the first time I saw it.
Plus breaking rocks with a hammer.
And any man doesn’t turn in his sheet, spends a night in the box...
Why do they need tax funding for this?
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1998/12/the-prison-industrial-complex/4669/
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