Developing Writing Skills and

Photography in Prison

Training Teachers and Instructors to Teach in Prisons/Detention Centres

28° Septmeber 2012

Francesca Cattaneo

OPG – Forensic Psychiatric HospitalMontelupo Fi.no

OPG – Forensic Psychiatric HospitalMontelupo Fi.no

NGOsARCI Empolese –

ValdelsaAssociazione Ilupi

del Monte

Educators and Psycologists

Ministry of Justice

Educators

Ministry of Education

Teachers

USL11 – Funds of Tuscan Region

Psychiatric Rehabilitation Professionals

Rehabilitationand

Education

OPGPositive features:

• There are many kinds of professions • There are many possibilities to do many

educational activities outside the prison (good for the resocialisation)

• Montelupo is a little, nice town to improve a new life direction

• In march 2013 It will be closed (It will be transformed into a real hospital)

OPGNegative features:

• Bad structure• Lack of money• Security measure (“Ergastolo bianco”)• Patients with different problems: mental psychiatric

problems, mental disabilities, drug addicts and chronic alcoholics

• Patients take some kinds of medicine that sometimes alter their abilities to learn, their memory, their critical thinking

• In march 2013 It will be closed (Nobody invests in projects for the rehabilitation of patients)

Writing can help children and adults alike to:

increase their problem solving and critical thinking. develop organizational strategies depending on the

form of the writing• develop the skill of inquiry increase decision making abilities. develop a healthy skepticism which leads to

exploration of ideas, an enlarged world view and a confident imagination

Some psychiatrics (Pennebaker and Beall)

showed with their studies that expressive writing about traumatic or stressful events

has beneficial effects on physical and emotional

health.

Furthermore Writing: is a simple and spontaneous act, that everyone can do for someone is a method of relaxation, to drive away negative thoughts lets look on the paper those ideas and thoughts that make us suffer, and it allows to give it

the right importance give the possibility to analyze the events in a more relative way, so the things that you

though absolutely negative could become more acceptable makes you more aware of the events so can help to resolve long-standing issues about relationship at home and work, and put

into words feelings that have been too sensitive to describe face to face the auto-educational value of the creative writing allows the emancipation in difficult

situations as could be the detention prisoners could increase their professional skills and so they could have many more

possibilities to enter in the world of work Writing creation can be useful also to increase the capacity of working in a team, of

cooperating and of confronting with other culture and other way of thinking.

Two kinds of Writing laboratories that we can propose in prison:

Laboratory of Creative Writing

Laboratory of Journalism

Laboratory of Creative WritingGoals

To increase writing skills To improve self-reflection To accustom to an open and healthy exchange

of ideas and experiences To train the memory To help psychological traumas

Laboratory of Creative WritingMethodology

• We need a quiet space (if it is possible with a round table)

• A writing guide will propose writing games or some hints to express themselves.

• It’s very important that at the end of the session all participants can read their works, and that the others could listen the story and express their point of you.

Laboratory of Creative WritingSome exercises (1)

If you were…….water, air, fire or earth. Ask the questions a journalist would ask if he or she were covering your story. This will help you

develop a logical plot This group exercise involves writing down your ideas on a piece of paper, passing it to a

facilitator, who then passes them back out in random order. Each person in the group will spend a few minutes adding on to the original idea or story, then passes it on to the next person.

Give each small group or pair a photograph of a person. The photographs can be close up headshots, distance shots, or activity shots. Ask each group to suggest a name for the character, based on whatever they can learn or intuit from the image. The groups should discuss this for several minutes and then choose a spokesperson to present the group decision to the class with an explanation of why they chose the name they did.

You’re digging in your garden and find a fist-sized nugget of gold. Write about something ugly — war, fear, hate, cruelty — but find the beauty (silver lining) in it. The asteroid was hurtling straight for…

Laboratory of Creative WritingSome exercises (2)

He turned the key in the lock and opened the door. To his horror, he saw… The detective saw his opportunity. He grabbed the waitress’s arm and

said… There is a magic talisman that allows its keeper to read minds. It falls into

the hands of a young politician… Write about nature. Include the following words: hard drive, stapler,

phone, car, billboard. Write about one (or both) of your parents. Start with “I was born…” My body… Get a package of one of your favorite canned or boxed foods and look at

the ingredients. Use every ingredient in your writing session.

Laboratory of Creative Writing

Operators of the projectAn educator or

psychologist with some good writing skills.

Carrying out timeThe project could be

carried out in one year, once a week for two

hours.

Recipients of the project10 – 15 inmates

Materials A round table Chairs Notebooks Pens Newspaper, magazine,

books.

Laboratory of Creative WritingFollow up Activity

To participate in essay contests To publish the works in a magazine To create a book with the laboratory works

Journalism in prisonGoals

• to make information available inside prison, • to open up channels of information from

inside prison to dispel the cliches absorbed from the media.

Journalism in prison1st stage: Journalism Course

Convicts and volunteers will partecipate in a Journalism

Course where the main topics will be: general notions about

journalism, creative writing and some notions about the

magazine graphic and photography.

The lessons will be pratical and theoretical.

Journalism in prison1st stage: What do you need

• a professional coordinator;• some volunteers;• 3 teachers: a journalist

a newspaper graphic

a newspaper photographer;• newspapers, magazines (some exemples of journalism in prison);• a computer with internet (you can decide how many computers use on

the basis of the number of convicts who will be in the editorial staff);• a printer;• a camera;• layout programs and some graphic programs (for exemple: photoshop);• papers, pens, notebooks.

Journalism in prison2nd stage: Magazine Origin

• Who is the magazine recipient? (people in jail or community outside or both);

• Objectives of the magazine;• Magazine title;• Presence of some columns;• How often the magazine will be

realised;• Guidlines and Principles that the

editorial staff want to follow;• Distribuation of editorial staff roles;• Legal organization of the magazine

(for exemple if you need register the magazine in national register).

Journalism in prison2nd stage: What do you need

• an editing room;

• a professional coordinator;

• some volunteers;

• newspapers, magazines (some exemples of journalism in prison);

• a computer with internet (you can decide how many computers use on the basis of the number of convicts who will be in the editorial staff);

• a printer;• papers, pens, notebooks

Journalism in prison3rd stage: Magazine Production

• Discussion about the argouments that convicts and volunteers want deal with the magazine (if they want to do some interviews or if they need photos or picture);

• Writing of articles, columns, events, opinions and interviews;

• Graphic and layout;• Magazine release

Journalism in prison3rd stage: What do you need

• an editing room;• a professional coordinator;• some volunteers;• a computer with internet (you can decide how many computers

use on the basis of the number of convicts who will be in the editorial staff);

• 2 tape or digital records for the interviews;• a camera;• a printer;• layout programs and some graphic programs (for exemple:

photoshop);• papers, pens, notebooks.

Pinhole Camera Workshop

Pinhole Photography is a new way:

• to spend time together• to promote the socialization among the convicts• to express inmates creativity• to learn the basic skills of photography• to develop inmates attitudes and it could

encourage moments of reflection about themselves or about what they decide to print on the photo paper

Pinhole Camera WorkshopMethodology (1)

There could be a first meeting where the operators will explain the workshop to the convicts: the operators will bring a “pinhole camera” and some examples of photos that they should do with this kind of camera.The prisoners who decide to participate at the workshop could make their own “pinhole camera”.

Pinhole Camera WorkshopMethodology (2)

Then the participants could photograph with their craft camera everything that they could consider important in that moment, things that represent affection or a sentiment, objectives that belong to their everyday life, places where they spend their time, parts of their bodies that they could consider meaningful.Each convict will have the opportunity to write something about the subject chosen, he could invent a title for the subject and he could explain why just that image.The developing of the photos needs a delicate procedure because it needs a dark room and developer.

Pinhole Camera WorkshopGoals

The workshop could be an opportunity for the inmates:

• to express their creativity using contexts and places of their everyday life but giving them a different point of view;

• to create a socialization moment;• to promote the spirit of self-efficacy;• to think about themselves;• to study in depth their individual interests;• to “give a shape” to the personal reflections alleviating the

heaviness of their internal word;• to produce some artistic images about their world to show them

to the external world and to testify that they are “still alive”.

Pinhole Camera Workshop

Operators of the projectTwo educators or psychologist with some photographic skills.

A tutor of the workshop.

Carrying out timeThe project could be

carried out in 5 months, once a week for two

hours.

Recipients of the project10 – 15 inmates

Materials cardboard scotch photo paper liquids to develop the photos paper colours pens

Pinhole Camera WorkshopFollow up Activity

• Exhibition• Discussion Group about the photos (going

beyond the picture and discussion their personal interest)

• Follow up course in using Digital Cameras

Thank you for your attention!