This prison theatre project prepares young offenders for life on the outside: 'Art can be a game changer'

In studio two at Polmont Young Offenders Institution a young actor is licking his wounds in the corner. A moment earlier, he’d whipped his t-shirt off, enthusiastically preparing for his next scene, brazen and bare chested.

Taps aff, as they say in these parts.

The merest ripple of laughter registered in the prison’s drama studio and a hair-trigger clicked. The scene had been changed, he hadn’t got the memo and demanded to know what’s funny, what they’re laughing at. 

The actor stormed off into the wings, hurriedly pulling his t-shirt back on, the difference between his fellow performers laughing at him and laughing at the unintentionally comic impact of his false move momentarily lost to the flare of discomposure.

These are callow boys, not yet men, who are living out their days behind the reinforced concrete and barbed wire of this prison in central Scotland. Many of them are paying the price of regrettable split-second decisions and reaping the consequences at His Majesty’s pleasure.

The director rushes to reassure the actor that the mistake was hers, not his. His embarrassment momentarily burns as bright as the stage lights above him. Yet as the rehearsal continues, it’s the work taking place in the wings of the performance space that reveals the true value of creative intervention in prisons: several of the errant turn’s fellow inmates have discreetly slipped away to sit with him as his stew cools, their mere proximity quelling and reassuring in simple non-scripted displays of empathy and understanding. 

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This is the fruit of Polmont Youth Theatre’s Mentology project, and what its creative director and founder Jess Thorpe considers to be transformative.

Thorpe said: “I’ve been leading theatre projects in prisons for 18 years and every single time, whether I work with men, women or young people, it’s the same outcome. We see an increase of confidence, the ability to be able to talk about feelings, to be able to work together, to connect, to try new things.” 

Polmont Youth Theatre is Scotland’s only theatre group in a prison, working in the jail on an ongoing project with Men Minds, who engage with young men in the margins. Its aim is to improve mental wellbeing both within the prison, and on the outside, when the young men have served their sentence. 

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“When you look at things specifically in relation to mental health, of course this helps,” Thorpe continued during a break from rehearsals. 

“It’s a space where you can be heard, valued, literally getting out of your cell in the context of prison, and making connections with other people.

“That’s a massively valuable step forward for everyone. I talk all the time about the benefit of the arts in the criminal justice system, but especially on mental health, it can be a game changer.”

Game changers are all-important in prison and Polmont YOI has been high on the agenda when it comes to improving outcomes. Earlier this year, the Scottish Prison Service accepted 25 recommendations for improvement after a fatal accident inquiry into the deaths by suicide of two inmates in 2018. Among the improvements are changes to SPS suicide prevention policy.

Pamela Harley, citizenship manager at Polmont, joined Big Issue to watch Mentology’s rehearsal for the first time and was encouraged by what she saw.

“They came in quiet and embarrassed and then over time they’ve been learning to talk about mental health with more confidence. And that’s powerful,” said Harley.

“Seeing them perform here, and seeing their confidence growing, I think they’d be more likely to engage with other young people when they see them in the hall and can tell they’re maybe struggling. They know how to start up a conversation about mental health because of the work they’ve been doing.

“I felt proud watching the young men perform today,” she adds. 

“It takes real courage to step onto that stage and I saw that they brought humour, and shared coping strategies around their difficulties. 

“In a prison setting they don’t all understand their emotions at times, and don’t always have the confidence in being able to use their voice to deal with that positively. But when one person speaks up it allows others to speak up.”

It’s a view echoed by two of the young men taking part, a duo whose path in life has seen them buddy up from their days as classmates in a Clydeside Primary School, through high school, graduating somewhere in their late teens not to the sound of champagne corks but behind the iron doors of Polmont Youth Theatre. The gains, while seemingly small, are significant, as they prepare for their turn on the stage, and, ultimately, life on the outside.

“Theatre’s not something I see myself doing on the outside,” said the first of the pair. “But doing this has given me more confidence in doing group work. I wasn’t that into it at first, I just watched. But then the more I watched the more I thought I could get into it.”

The second puts a finer point on it. The only way boys like him do theatre time, is if they do jail time. 

“Theatre isn’t a big thing for boys from the scene in Scotland,” he said. “It’s not a thing you hear about, it’s not a thing you get involved in. Most folk get involved in playing fitba or something like that. You wouldn’t hear boys from the scheme saying they’re going down to the theatre to perform with their mate.

“You can see that progress, better and better every week. It just makes you happy. It makes you feel good about yourself.”

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