What is the point of providing arts incentives for offenders?
A. The current high levels of re-offending affect us all. To make our society safer, it pays to channel offenders’ energies to positive ends, to build their self-worth and help them learn new skills. The arts are an especially effective way of engaging with offenders who feel alienated from mainstream education and employment, and there is growing evidence that the arts are an effective in changing offenders’ lives. At the Koestler Trust, we monitor and evaluate our activities to review their effectiveness. However, our main role in this debate is to showcase the range and quality of creative work produced in prisons and other criminal justice settings. The artwork we exhibit demonstrates powerfully what offenders can achieve with the right support and educational input.
