Rehabilitation Through The Arts (RTA)

The Rehabilitation Through The Arts (RTA) program was founded in 1996 at Sing Sing Maximum Security Correctional Facility in Ossining, NY. This privately funded program was created to help fill the gap left after all publicly funded higher education and enrichment programs were withdrawn from the New York State Prison system. Volunteer Katherine Vockins, working in collaboration with the prison administration, community volunteers/theater professionals and the prisoner population, developed RTA to create a safe space in which to support the growth and transformation of prisoners through the application of theater arts. This program and others have shown that the use of dramatic techniques leads to significant improvements in the cognitive behavior of the program's participants inside prison and a reduction in recidivism once paroled (see The Impact of RTA on Social and Institutional Behavior by Dr. Lorraine Moller).

RTA runs year round. Its goal is to use theater arts to offer prisoners a safe and supportive structure in which to build skills, to develop leadership, community, and respect for self and for others, and to recognize a sense of achievement. In the often brutalizing and harsh prison environment, these are precious and rare attributes.

Prisoners meet with RTA staff, volunteers and guest artists twice a week in 2-hour workshops and classes that teach writing, reading, public speaking, improvisation, acting, directing, stage management, set design and more. In the course of their study , prisoners learn to communicate a compelling story fully and clearly through the process of creative writing, whether it be in developing a play, building personal narrative in journal writing, or composing a poem. Perhaps more importantly, the participants discover that their own histories, experiences, imaginations and insights are dramatic, that the work they put in is valuable, and that their stories are worth telling and hearing. Out of the workshops emerge original plays, monologues and performance pieces that are performed twice each year for the entire prison population and invited community guests.