Prisoners often discover unexpected talents, said William “Buzz” Alexander, who runs the Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP). “They’re eager for learning and hungry for creativity. They talk about how they gain visibility because most of them feel invisible and people are often hostile to them. They also get a new image of themselves.”

The nonprofit PCAP — founded by Alexander in 1990 and based in Ann Arbor, Michigan — sponsors the largest annual exhibition of art by prisoners in the United States.

PCAP fosters the creation of original artwork in Michigan prisons, juvenile facilities and urban high schools. Collaborative workshops provide an opportunity for participants to develop material drawn from their lives, and each culminates in a performance, reading or exhibition.

According to Alexander, a professor of English at the University of Michigan, all people have the capacity to create art — and to benefit from it.

Alexander teaches courses that show college students how to lead workshops in theater, creative writing, art, music and video, and he encourages them to continue the work as volunteers with PCAP after their course work ends. Community members and university faculty members also participate.

When working with prisoners, “we don’t use the word ‘teach,’” Alexander stressed. “We go in to open up creative spaces where none exist.” Creating art helps prisoners realize that they still have something to contribute to society, and gives them a sense of purpose, he said.

With encouragement from PCAP, prisoners at a women’s correctional institution in Coldwater, Michigan, formed the Sisters Within Theatre Troupe, which is now planning the production of its 30th play. The troupe has operated for nearly 21 years, performing before audiences of incarcerated women within the Coldwater facility.

PCAP workshops provide “a different environment from anywhere else in the prison,” Alexander said. “It’s safe. It’s a place where you can become a little more open. After some weeks, participants realize they’re becoming a little bit of a family. Particularly in a men’s prison, that’s highly unusual.” By writing and performing in plays, prisoners “come together to create something original. They acquire status, becoming known (in prison) as actors. The same thing happens with the writers and poets in the program.”

William "Buzz" Alexander, a professor at the University of Michigan, founded the Prison Creative Arts Project to help prisoners develop their artistic talents.

Having an outlet for creative expression “actually saves lives,” Alexander said. “One prisoner cried and said he was ‘awakened’ by exposure to the arts. It’s a kind of forgiveness that happens — even though it doesn’t mean prisoners are forgiven for their crimes. Art gives them a stronger sense of their own possibilities.”

Furthermore, “being able to create art is a form of resistance” to the conditions of prison life, Alexander said.

“We hear from prisoners and their families all the time” about the power of art, he added. Incarcerated artist Bryan Picken said PCAP “looks beyond past mistakes and personal shortcomings to find the beauty and creative energies that help to heal the hurts we’ve done to others. They have not forgotten that we are human too.”

The relative of one prisoner wrote: “You have given hope and are a voice to the unseen.”

Other countries are also experimenting with prisoner rehabilitation through art. James Thompson, a friend of Alexander’s in Manchester, England, initiated a prisoners’ theater program through the University of Manchester, and similar projects are under way in South Africa, Alexander said.

To help inmates transition back into the community after their release, PCAP sponsors the Linkage Project, which connects them with artistic mentors in their communities.

PCAP will hold its 16th annual exhibition of prisoners’ art in spring 2011 on the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus, drawing from more than 40 prisons in the state. Alexander expects nearly 4,000 people to attend.

Five prisoners who have participated in the program have had their artwork published on book covers.

PCAP’s success can be attributed to “a simple secret,” Alexander said. “We trust everyone. It doesn’t mean we’re not alert (to potential problems), but we bring trust to every space we work in. It’s a collaborative effort. That’s why we’ve been around for 21 years. It can be a struggle, but we’re creating something together.”

Alexander received the 2005 Professor of the Year Award from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. In his acceptance speech he noted that prisons are full of “terrible pain and oppression,” but also “wonderful creativity, resilience and resistance.”

He is the author of Is William Martinez Not Our Brother? Twenty Years of the Prison Creative Arts Project.

Lauren Monsen is a staff writer at www.america.gov