The William James Association Prison Arts Project gives inmates at San Quentin the chance to create music and other works of art within the prison walls. This gives inmates the chance to express themselves and their creativity. 90% of inmates will return to society so that may be reason enough to give them a opportunities to go in another direction.
"There are general feelings of hostility and hopelessness in prisons today and it is getting worse with overcrowding. . . Art workshops and similar programs help take us out of this atmosphere and we become like any other free person expressing our talents. Being in prison is the final ride downhill unless one can resist the things around him and learn to function in a society which he no longer has any contact with. Arts programs for many of us may be the final salvation of our minds from prison insanity. It's contact with the best of the human race. It is something that says that we, too, are still valuable."
- a prison inmate
William James Association- Prison Arts Project
http://www.williamjamesassociation.org/prison_arts.html
http://photophilanthropy.org/slideshow/gallery_peter_merts2.html
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