Shifting Systems Through Lived Experience, Art, and Evidence
At Isaac’s Quarterly and The Confined Arts (TCA), research is not just about data—it’s about dignity. Our work challenges the systems and narratives that dehumanize justice-impacted people, while also building new models rooted in healing, creativity, and lived expertise. Since 2015, our research practice has evolved through deep collaboration with Columbia University’s Center for Justice, frontline communities, and national arts-based justice coalitions. Our approach blends qualitative inquiry, trauma-informed arts practice, and strategic advocacy to not only study the issues—but transform them.
Strategic Arts Engagement in Community Organizing
Ongoing | National Projects | 2020–Present
Across a network of justice-arts initiatives, we are examining how public art, creative programming, and cultural organizing can shift perception, strengthen relationships, and mobilize communities toward alternatives to incarceration. Through this multi-site study, we are documenting how trauma-informed arts engagement supports policy reform, particularly in pre-trial, supervised release, and reentry processes. Our findings support the Arts Justice Safety Coalition’s goal of positioning the arts as a critical tool in reducing reliance on incarceration, while increasing public safety, wellness, and sustainable reintegration.
Women’s Prison Association
The Social Dynamics of Incarceration Study
Post-Traumatic Prison Disorder (PTPD): A Public Health Frame
2020 Town Hall Series | In partnership with Silent Cry
In 2020, we hosted a virtual town hall series to raise awareness about Post-Traumatic Prison Disorder (PTPD)—a complex trauma response experienced by people impacted by incarceration. TCA’s Research Team developed an integrated public health and neuroscience presentation that reframed the carceral experience as a public health crisis. These sessions laid the groundwork for ongoing research, training, and advocacy aimed at healing trauma—not punishing it.
2018–Present - NY State
What does support look like when you're locked away from everything familiar? How do relationships survive—or collapse—behind prison walls? This study draws on in-depth interviews with formerly incarcerated people who served time in New York State for felony offenses. We're analyzing the social rules, informal networks, and emotional toll of incarceration. Our goal is to better understand how prison environments shape identity, self-worth, and the capacity to reenter society after release.
This summer, we will be conducting a much more thorough qualitative analysis of the interviews we’ve collected from the Social Dynamics study. I’d be happy to keep you both updated as that work progresses and share any emerging insights that may inform your ongoing efforts.
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The research presentation ties empirical work done by The Confined Arts at the Center for Justice at Columbia University and other researchers to speak to the importance of this bill and supporting policies regarding mental health resources for people released from prisons and jails.
This virtual town hall meeting was organized by Silent Cry and Hosted by The Confined Arts and brings together Health Experts, Faith Leaders, National Organizers, Entrepreneurs, Artists, and Advocates to share direct knowledge and expertise in support of the Post Traumatic Prison Disorder Shawanna W76337 bill. -
Episode 2 of the Post Traumatic Prison Disorder Town Hall addresses the question, what is trauma-informed justice? In our discussions, we hope to shed light on what “trauma” is, how it can manifest itself in behavior, what it means to be “trauma-informed” and why it is important that all people, institutions, companies, programs, laws and policies take a trauma-informed approach to executing their missions. Research shows that incarceration has a negative psychological impact on people in prison, including a dependence on institutional structure and contingencies, hypervigilance, interpersonal distrust, and suspicion; emotional over-control, alienation, and psychological distancing; social withdrawal and isolation, among others. Although the damages incurred by incarceration are severe, understanding trauma also requires understanding how trauma is embedded within the fabric of communities and families through systems of racism and oppression.
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Research shows evidence that incarceration has negative psychological effects on people in prison. These include: A dependence on institutional structure and contingencies. Hypervigilance, interpersonal distrust, and suspicion. Emotional over-control, alienation, and psychological distancing. Social withdrawal and isolation. Incorporation of exploitative norms of prison culture. Diminished sense of self-worth and personal value. And post-traumatic stress reactions to the pains of imprisonment (Haney, 2001). The deprived social environment of prison can potentially impede one’s social capacity to navigate various social obligations post-incarceration.
The Language of Dehumanization Project
What does support look like when you're locked away from everything familiar? How do relationships survive—or collapse—behind prison walls? This study draws on in-depth interviews with formerly incarcerated people who served time in New York State for felony offenses. We're analyzing the social rules, informal networks, and emotional toll of incarceration. Our goal is to better understand how prison environments shape identity, self-worth, and the capacity to reenter society after release.
This summer, we will be conducting a much more thorough qualitative analysis of the interviews we’ve collected from the Social Dynamics study. I’d be happy to keep you both updated as that work progresses and share any emerging insights that may inform your ongoing efforts.
LANGUAGE IN JUSTICE CONFERENCE 2019
The Language of Dehumanization Project: panel discussions brought together experts in various fields to discuss fundamental questions about language and dehumanization. The first panel discussion was led by Tabaitha Rodriguez; Cristiana Grigore, Cory Greene, and Christine Licata were contributors. The first panel raised the question, “How does the language we use shape the relationships we forge?” as a starting point. The second panel was led by Chijundu Giovanni Obiofuma, and was comprised of Federica Coppola, Adelya Urmanche, and James Dunlea, entitled “Labels to misperceptions to punitive policy: what are the links?”
Research Presentations:
Researchers from the Center for Justice at Columbia presented cutting-edge work that explores From the Inside Out’s core mission: discovering how labels in various settings affect perceptions of people in prison. Pastor Isaac Scott, Adelya Urmanche, and Abigail Everett presented on their Label Impact study, which demonstrates the effects of punitive language on perceptions of people in prison, and how stereotypes in media like crime shows skew these perceptions, respectively. Federica Coppola, Dara Huggins, and Oh Prema presented the results of their Language and Humanization study. The study compared the effects of empathizing language about people on trial to typical punitive language used in the court system. From the Inside Out places great emphasis on creating and expanding a body of foundational, buildable research about people in prison.
Performances
Alongside research and group discussions, the conference engaged in strategic artistic outreach. Patricia Trusty of the Women’s Prison Association performed several spoken-word pieces, focused on redefining common identities. H.O.L.L.A. (How Our Lives Link Altogether) performed part of their album The Report-Back, which is part of their larger Healing Justice Movement. The evening concluded with a moving Spoken Pen performance from Pastor Isaac Scott, Jarrell Williams, Tyler Campbell, Gregary Griffin, and Carlos Ivan Calaff. The performers used a text written in collaboration by Kenneth Williams, Justin Anderson, Kenneth Reams and LaTavious Johnson, currently incarcerated on death row. The arts are a fundamental part of From the Inside Out project, giving artists an opportunity to share their lived experiences, and provide humanizing counternarratives about people in prison.
Breakout Sessions:
The conference hosted breakout sessions that facilitated empathetic, boundary-breaking discussion between attendees. With a diverse group of people from various walks of life in attendance, the breakout sessions provided a space for authentic and effective conversations to be had while reflecting on the information that was shared throughout the conference. The conversations allowed attendees to share information, personal stories and reflections that ultimately served to break stereotypes, and reframe the narratives surrounding individuals who have been affected by the criminal justice system. Session leaders asked participants to engage in the activities they offer to people in prison, including making art that explores how labels affect one’s sense of identity, providing an artistic, discussion-based companion to research presented earlier in the day. Facilitators included Alison Cornyn from Incorrigibles, Briana Baker from Justice for Black Girls, Ebony Walcott from Artistic Noise, Mario De La Cruz from Sarah Lawrence College, Marissa Anne Gutierrez-Vicario from Arte Justice, Annabel Manning and Michael Kelly from Jail Arts Initiative, and Anne Rice from Hudson Link.