Arts mentoring for released prisoners: a major new pilot

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There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that offenders who have taken part successfully in the arts while in prison fully intend to carry on when they are released, but in practice fail to do so. Like many other positive habits and plans made in custody, arts activity often gets lost in the difficult transition back into life on the outside.

We know that Koestler awards have a powerful impact on offenders’ self-esteem, and the trust has informally supported several individuals to go on to careers as writers and painters. Looking to formalise this process of support Koestler has set out an ambitious programme of work to enable us to innovate a model of arts input, shaped to the needs of individual offenders that will empower them through their transition from prison to the community.

Thanks to a 3-year grant from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, and further funding from an anonymous charitable trust, Koestler is training a group of professional artists as mentors, then matching them to prisoners who have won Koestler awards and are due for release. Working alongside Probation and other resettlement services, our mentors support the offenders to maintain and develop their arts activity in the community. We have integrated an evaluation into our initial 3-year pilot, aiming to demonstrate that the arts can have wide-ranging benefits for offenders and their communities – potentially reducing re-offending – and to disseminate an imaginative new model of resettlement support.

There is lots of research evidence that ex-prisoners are more vulnerable to re-offending if they are unemployed, socially isolated, homeless or using drugs. Participation in the arts can lead to employable skills, high self-esteem, collaboration with others and a feeling of purpose in life. So it makes sense that, if artistically inclined prisoners can be supported to keep up their creative interests after release, this will not only sustain their involvement in the arts, but also have wider benefits for them and for others, potentially breaking a cycle of re-offending.

For more information, please email velliott@koestlertrust.org.uk

If you are a writer, musician or artist interested in being a Koestler Arts Mentor, please see volunteering