Theater for Healing Women in Prison

Source: Nhlakanipho Ncube/Pixabay

The United States has one of the largest prison populations in the world, second only to China. Studies have revealed a sizable increase in the number of imprisoned people in the U.S. since the 1970s, with disproportionate growth in the rate of women’s incarceration compared to men.

While incarcerated women make up a relatively small percentage of the total incarcerated population in America, the increased percentage of women in prison is approximately twice that of men. Between 1978 and 2007 (the "imprisonment boom" period in the U.S.), for instance, women’s rates of confinement in federal, state, and local prisons and jails increased 6.6 times or 560 percent, while men’s rates increased 3.4 times or 240 percent. While a small number of women are in prison for violent crimes, most are confined for property theft or vandalism, drug offenses, or sex work.

Researchers have long noted patterns of racial inequalities in the experiences of women’s imprisonment and confinement in jail. During the boom period, Black women were up to eight times more likely to be imprisoned than non-Black women, with the highest rates occurring in the Midwestern and Western states. Even during periods of lower incarceration rates, the numbers show that Black women are still at higher risk of imprisonment than white women.

“In the U.S., we often think of women (as well as men) who are behind bars as just 'bad' while, in reality, we over-police and under-protect women, particularly low-income women of African, Indigenous American, and Latin American descent,” says Lisa Biggs, assistant professor in Brown University’s Department of Africana Studies/Rites and Reason Theater, and author of The Healing Stage: Transforming the Lives of Imprisoned Women. “We also assume if the women are Black or Brown that they are particularly dangerous, predatory, in the midst of some kind of wrongdoing, or plotting a future offense.”

Studies have shown that the majority of jailed and imprisoned women were living in economically and socially vulnerable situations prior to their incarceration. That means they had limited educational opportunities (in many cases, not even a high school diploma) and low-paying jobs/high unemployment rates. Most female inmates also report histories of mental health issues. More than half report a history of physical or sexual abuse, with rates highest among non-white prisoners. More than half of incarcerated women are mothers, and the majority of those are single mothers. That means children are left behind without their primary and sometimes only caregiver and are often funneled into state foster care systems.

Prison reform advocates and activists are working to reduce these numbers by reducing unnecessary and repeated incarcerations. Their goals are to recreate a more equitable justice system and reduce crime where it begins, to stop the cycle of violence and victimization that affects so many families by treating and helping people in need rather than continuing to isolate them from their families and separate them from society.

Biggs advocates for the healing power of prison arts programs, especially theater workshops. She explains that the work of the arts in prisons is to help incarcerated people tell their truths and be believed. Theater clubs are not simply entertainment or something for incarcerated people to do while in prison. They are a path to physical, psychological, and spiritual healing.

“Some people may question why we want to provide arts programs for incarcerated women or how theater programs can make a difference and contribute to rehabilitation,” Biggs acknowledges. "For many of these women, it’s their first chance to dig deep into their feelings and open up about the pain, abuse, and inequalities they’ve suffered throughout their lives, the experiences that contributed to their present reality of living behind bars."

While both men and women often experience a variety of hardships prior to incarceration, women overall present with more economic, social, and psychological problems than men. As they openly express their deepest feelings and concerns, the women learn to resolve conflicts, develop a sense of self-worth, improve interpersonal relationships, and reduce stress,

Biggs explains, "This is particularly important for Black, Latina, and American Native women, who not only face more economic and social challenges prior to incarceration and have higher incarceration rates than white women, but also face more barriers when they try to re-enter their families and communities and find employment."

Career Essential Reads

Why Should You Provide a Good Experience to Job Candidates?

A Surgeon Puts Down the Scalpel

The theater programs for incarcerated women that Biggs studied from 2008 to 2018 before writing her book were determined to help fill some of these existential gaps. In drama clubs across the U.S. and South Africa, volunteer instructors used movement, storytelling, and acting to help women tell their stories. In so doing, they revealed a lot about how policing and prison operate and who is behind bars.

The performances they developed regularly challenged the popular myths, propaganda, and misinformation circulating throughout our society about why women are behind bars. Participants and instructors alike call this work healing, drawing upon African American folk healing traditions which understand healing as a process of self-repair that requires both speech and action, a naming and a doing. Telling (narrating and enacting stories) helps people confront hard truths and undo feelings of depression, isolation, and shame and returns to criminalized women a sense of belonging, whole- and completeness.

Biggs found that incarcerated women participating in these programs look forward to the emotional and spiritual healing their drama teachers bring to the carceral environment. Amid great despair, these coaches create moments of joy while preparing women to articulate their needs better and challenge unfair correctional policies in and outside the prison.

“Penal systems exist to supervise, punish, and control inmates,” Biggs points out. “Arts programs such as theater workshops can change the energy inside the prison because the program facilitators aren’t there to oversee the prisoners, but to respect, hear and believe in them.”

During her fieldwork, Biggs noted the mostly unpleasant conditions in which prisoners and corrections staff spent their day-to-day lives, reinforcing the tremendous need for change inside prison walls. Prison theater clubs often perform not only for themselves but for the correction officers as well. And while theater programs can help change outcomes for those who will eventually leave jails and prisons, they can also change the lives of those who must stay. And those who remain can enable change for future prisoners. Still, Biggs sometimes encountered resistance from prison employees. She recalls a corrections officer asked her what good comes from teaching drama to incarcerated people.

“The drama is already here,” she replied. “All I’m doing is directing it.”

Biggs says her goal, shared by many others who strive for reform, is a more equitable world through an educated and informed national conversation that reveals exactly who we imprison and how little we do to address the root causes. Though we often equate change with seismic events such as the toppling of governments or acts of war, she says that through small, deliberate actions like storytelling, people make individual, institutional, and cultural changes.

“In the absence of other forms of effective support or care, incarcerated women are turning to the arts—to theater and performance—to heal themselves and, by extension, to heal their families and their communities.”

Theater practitioners believe that even these seemingly small or insignificant acts, like writing or performing a scene or monologue in prison or jail, can help transform individuals and impact complex, repressive systems. After all, Biggs points out, the stories we tell influence how we understand the world, our relationships with one another, and our public policies. She says, "Until such time as the penal system truly considers the roots and needs of those it imprisons and works toward a goal of reform, programs like theater workshops are helping prisoners do it for themselves, with each other, to start to heal the deep pain everyone else is ignoring. That’s the pain that led to them to a criminal life that in turn led them to jail sentences and years in prison."