There’s enough evidence to make the point that our prison system is a failure. It is one of the only criminal justice systems within the modernized world where there’s too little focus on rehabilitation. That is not to say that the work of prison activists haven’t created significant models for change within the system. In fact, the focus on the arts and creation of artist run programs has been a major form of rehabilitation and catharsis within American prisons.
In the early 1970s, around the time that Benny Andrews was showing with the Rhino Horn group, he began an arts program inside of the local New York jails. The “Prison Art Program” was developed by the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition (BECC), which Andrews co-founded to advocate to represent African American’s rights within the cultural sector. The Prison Art Program was initiated through a drawing class that Andrews taught inside of the Manhattan House of Detention (known as The Tombs). The program would eventually grow to develop 37 projects in 14 states. The highly influential Prison Art Program enlisted many successful working artists such as Andrews and Faith Ringgold to work with prisoners on art projects.
Rhino Horn Group 