ITHACA – Hangar Theatre will host a unique event Wednesday that will feature both people that have been incarcerated and community actors.
The Civic Ensemble, based in Ithaca, has been working for the past eight weeks on a re-entry
program in which people who have been incarcerated were able to develop a series of short
plays about their experiences.
During the sessions, participants were able to work with community actors to produce plays,
but it was also a way for those who have been incarcerated to begin forming a sense of
community again.
Sarah Chalmers, the Director of Civic Engagement for the ensemble said that the program is
not only beneficial for its participants, but for the community itself as well.
“It’s a way for everyone in the community to open their minds a little bit to the humanity of
each individual,” Chalmers said. “There’s a stigma around having been incarcerated that
doesn’t
allow for differentiation.”
Chalmers said that the program has also allowed for the participants to grow together and help each other through the process of re-entry.
“Though many of them knew each other going into the program, the work they have been doing together is unique and provided a structure for them to get to know each other in a different way,” Chalmers said. “The mutual support and mentorship has been the best thing to see happening.”
The ensemble hopes that employers and business owners will come to the event so that they will be able to see its participants expressing themselves in a way that might not be possible without a program like this.
Re-entry programs have become a hot topic of discussion in the past few decades because of rising institutional rates. The Vera Institute of Justice states in their report, Incarceration’s Front Door, that The number of annual admissions nearly doubled, from six million in 1983 to 11.7 million in 2013.
This rise in incarceration rates has led to nationwide disputes about how much money jails are costing communities and what alternatives there are to jails. Vera’s report outlined the fact that of the more than $60 billion spent annually on these institutions, $22.2 billion is spent by local jurisdictions.
Vera’s Media Relations Director, Chris Munzing, highlighted the fact that for the past 40 years, the number of people in jails and prisons nationwide has gone up 400 percent.
In Tompkins County, there was a proposal in late 2013 to add seven beds to the Tompkins County Jail. This caused protest from the community, and people wanted to look into alternatives to incarceration. A Jail Alternatives Task Force was created.
A 2014 report from the Tompkins County Jail Alternatives Task Force said over 200 unsentenced inmates were in Tompkins County Jail for more than 30 days in 2013.
The task force felt that there were several things that the county could do to improve, but they did note that Tompkins County is one of the first counties in New York State to institute a countywide requirement that attorneys be present at initial arraignment. This is called a counsel at first appearance program.
The task force felt that the county could implement more re-entry programs in the jail, and more life skill programs. They also said that if inmates were to comply with such programs, that they could be offered reduced incarceration time.
Programs like the Civic Ensemble’s will hopefully help to improve the quality of life for people that were incarcerated said Chalmers.
“A process like this has repercussions that may be felt months or years down the road,” Chalmers said. “I will say that several of the playwrights are ready to do it all over again.”
