Rehabilitation Through the Arts

Rehabilitation Through The Arts (RTA) was founded by Katherine Vockins in 1996 in Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York, and now operates in six men's and women's, maximum and medium security New York State prisons: Sing Sing, Bedford Hills, Woodbourne, Green Haven, Fishkill and Taconic. RTA is the lead program of Prison Communities International, a 501c3 tax-exempt non-profit organization. RTA brings art workshops in theatre, music, dance, visual arts, writing and poetry behind the walls to over 230 incarcerated men and women.

Background

RTA began in Sing Sing with a group of men who wanted help writing and presenting a play, and has since expanded to include dance, movement, visual arts, voice, music, literature and creative writing. In time, participants, observing changes in their own attitudes and behavior, changed the organization's name to Rehabilitation Through The Arts.

In 2003, Sing Sing closed its medium security section. Prisoners lobbied the Department of Corrections to establish RTA at the facilities where they were transferred and programs were formed at Fishkill, Green Haven and Woodbourne Correctional Facilities.

RTA began working at Bedford Hills, New York State’s only maximum security prison for women, in 2008.

Two research studies demonstrate the positive effects of RTA's program. John Jay College of Criminal Justice's 2003 study with the NYS Department of Correctional Services showed that RTA participants had fewer infractions than a control group. A 2010 study conducted by SUNY Purchase and the NYS Department of Correctional Services concluded that RTA participants complete the GED earlier in their incarceration, more RTA participants complete educational programs beyond the GED, and that after joining RTA, participants spent an almost three-fold increase in time enrolled in post-GED courses than those who did not participate.

The Rehabilitation Through the Arts program is dramatized in the 2023 drama film Sing Sing, starring Colman Domingo alongside a cast of mainly real-life former inmates.[1]

References
  1. Radheyan Simonpillai, "IFF 2023: Colman Domingo searches for the souls stuck behind bars in prison drama Sing Sing". The Globe and Mail, September 8, 2023.
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