Actor's Gang: How Tim Robbins has cut reoffending rates

[jhart3333]

Amazing story about how Tim Robbins is helping inmates deal with their emotions:

In California, six out of 10 inmates will return to prison within three years of being released. But a drama workshop run in prisons by Hollywood actor Tim Robbins appears to cut this recidivism rate in half - by giving prisoners a chance to explore their emotions, and to gain some control over them.

This is why I check out the BBC web site. Real news(sometimes).

[Nitram]

1. Good for Robbins!

Nice to see him giving back in such a meaningful way.

[jhart3333]

2. He's getting too.

I get the impression from the article that he has found new meaning in life from this. Maybe I'm being overly dramatic...

[Nitram]

3. True. Freely give and you get back more than you gave. nt

[appalachiablue]

4. K & R. Good for Tim Robbins!

[Bluenorthwest]

5. Other stories about the project:

CBS News, 2013:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/shawshank-star-tim-robbins-returns-to-prison/

Daily Variety 2014
Led by Tim Robbins, the Actors’ Gang, through its Prison Project, has been working with inmates in the California inmate system since 2006, teaching acting workshops. At least three times a year, the theater company brings classes directly into prisons, working to foster tolerance, nonviolent expression and, ultimately, to reduce recidivism rates.

After being approached by Sabra Williams, now the director of the Prison Project, about beginning an arts rehabilitation program, Robbins said he immediately realized the idea had the potential to change lives.

“My first thought was that it was exactly the kind of work we should be doing,” Robbins said. “I’ve worked for years with many different causes … but to actually be on the ground and doing the work is really fulfilling.”
http://variety.com/2014/scene/lifestyle/tim-robbins-actors-gang-help-inmates-deal-with-emotions-1201275579/


And a link to the Beeb, I recommend the Radio 4 podcasts mentioned.....
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35786775

[Ilsa]

6. And this is why we need to keep our Fine Arts Departments

in our high schools. Kids need to be able to explore a range of emotions and healthy expression thereof in a safe environment while their peers are doing the same.

[Igel]

7. Beside the point.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_emotional_behavioral_therapy

it's been tried and turns out to be practical in trial programs dealing with at-risk youth and prisoners. Under a slightly different version it's been used to help former child-soldiers in Sierra Leone.

It goes back a long ways, basically values clarification, values reshaping, and role-acting to help troubled kids/adults/patients learn alternative strategies when their current strategies aren't working.

Problem is that many of those strategies are perceived to work (and don't tell these kids that their perceptions are flawed) and others say that it's a "cultural adaptation." The response to the former is that many cultures are very, very maladapted to current situations--what worked over the last 200 years or the last 100 years can become quickly dysfunctional.

Design it right and not only do you not need all the trappings of a fine arts department, you also boost efficiency which increases coverage, and can do things to channel those who need the help into the program, also increasing coverage.

Hasn't caught on. Has to be tried, proven, vetted, and ultimately given the stamp of approval by the cultural and political powers that be. The problem is that this is deep into "blaming the victim" and saying that if the victim changes behavior, the environment he's in will also change. This is a common-sense statement, but rouses ire in many. If the victim changes how he views things and his outward trappings (shudder--outward conformity to societal norms!) then people will view him differently, this will reinforce the changes in his self image, and he'll wind up living up more closely to his new self image.

All without having to learn Ibsen or Miller or some relevant hack's work.

[Ilsa]

8. Yeah, screw Ibsen and Miller, etc.