Abstract
In a niche corner on the study of rehabilitative programming behind bars, a number of scholars are engaged with the intersection between the arts and humanities and the justice system. Arts in Criminal Justice and Corrections: International Perspectives on Methods, Journeys, and Challenges reads like a series of conversations with these colleagues. Reflecting the research methodologies used to explore the value of arts programming for justice impacted individuals, it juxtaposes writing by scholars on their practice with writing about the scholars by one of the editors and former journalist, Amanda Gardner. In the words of the editors, the book is about, “the ways that the authors have developed their research methods and the ways that the authors themselves have developed” (p. 2). Through this format, it intimately explores each contributor’s research and their personal journeys into the world of arts and corrections.
In Part I, the contributing authors explore the impact of arts in justice system contexts, unpacking what we’ve learned since the first pioneering study in the U.S. in the 1980s. Larry Brewster et al. posit a new theoretical framework for designing and evaluating prison arts programs, which combines the “Good Lives” and “Risk-Need-Responsivity” models as its basis. Laura Caulfield pushes scholars to reorient themselves away from “proving” desistance and toward the personal experiences driving desistance journeys. David Gussak describes how research opportunities arise from the practice of arts behind bars and how external contexts, such as the pandemic, provide opportunities to reshape policy. Silke Marynissen et al. examine the causal processes behind the impacts of music programming in prison. Taken together, these chapters identify the future of research into arts programming behind bars through the pursuit of new research paradigms.
Part II explores the “researcher’s journey” (p. viii; 8), documenting how researchers’ experiences ultimately shape research trajectory and methodologies employed. Jennie Henley expands on the importance of positionality in qualitative methods to describe how vulnerability in an autoethnographic study produces rich data and reshapes the researcher. Mary Cohen describes the power differential between researcher and participant (p. 107), arguing for a collaborative approach. Her example is a choir program that invites incarcerated artists to approve song selections, write their own songs, and even group sing with audience members during performance. Reginold Daniels and Amanda Gardner comment on the benefits of autoethnography for generating knowledge and “present[ing] multiple truths,” (p. 127) and note how Reginold’s use of this method has shed light on the racialized experiences and organizational structures of arts programming. Collectively, these authors probe notions of reflectivity and positionality to comment on a closeness to the data that has been undervalued as a methodological research tool in the social sciences. These chapters push the boundaries of social science research and indicate a depth of the work yet to come.
Finally, the last third of the book focuses on spotlighting the people involved in arts programming by identifying novel approaches that elevate their experiences. Ella Simpson flips the script to focus on the administrators of arts programs as opposed to the participants. In employing storyboarding as a methodological tool, Simpson explores the potential of a unique narrative dataset to illuminate new knowledge. Lorraine Gamman uses gamification to teach currently incarcerated people about design. She notes that, “traditionally when taking a Design Against Crime approach, criminal perpetrators are seen as the problem” (p. 160). Rather than silencing or othering these incarcerated voices, Gamman’s research centers them to design architectural remedies (e.g. anti-theft bike stands, improved cell furniture) for real-world problems. In the final chapter, Rand Hazou and Sarah Woodland encourage us to reconsider the importance of listening. Art programs have been lauded for their opportunity to give voice to the marginalized, but this chapter focuses instead on the impact of listening to performances and their potential for social change.
The contribution of this book to the academic community is threefold. First, it presents the didactic literature on the impact of arts scholarship, providing a rich basis that arts programming is valuable in criminal justice settings. As a resource for people who engage in multi-disciplinary research on the arts and humanities with marginalized populations, the value of this comprehensive book cannot be overstated. It provides a broad overview of what we know, how we know it, and identifies future directions. For early career scholars such as myself, it provides a useful “handbook” to the broad array of work in the field and ignites several thought-provoking avenues for future research.
Second, it provides teachable, learning moments about methodological values like reflexivity, access and gatekeeping, and creative pursuits of research topics. This useful exploration of methods can be invaluable as a teaching or learning resource for undergraduate (https://www.routledge.com/Arts-in-Criminal-Justice-and-Corrections-International-Perspectives-on-Methods-Journeys-and-Challenges/Gardner-Caulfield/p/book/9781032512976) and graduate students. The contributing authors describe in detail and with candor, the inevitable “messiness” of research and how to deal with it. Insofar as the book engages with the challenges of doing research (e.g. research in a pandemic, navigating gatekeepers and institutional bureaucracies), it provides examples of scholars identifying unique processes for exploring research questions and the ways that researchers leverage limitations into strengths. Through these lessons, it imparts an instructional guide for students and scholars on the ways to properly engage academia.
Finally, it denotes the way that research is as much a personal experience as it is a professional one. Through its intimate portraits of its contributors, the book highlights the rarely spoken truth in academia: that scholars are people too. It provides a fuller picture beyond the five-sentence biography of curated research interests, institutional affiliations, and recent publications to display the way that research has impacted those who engage in it. It is a testimonial about how life experiences, including research experiences, shape our selfhoods and the work we produce.