I have written a lot about the role of art in the social movement to eradicate the prison industrial complex. A few weeks ago, I shared the story of how I was properly chastened from complaining about my day by seeing the art created by an incarcerated girl as part of a Comic arts project.

In August, youth incarcerated in our local jail participated in a creative comic arts workshop. Through this project, they were able to share their stories and learn about comics. I have created posters out of some of their work and am planning to bring those over this weekend. I hope that seeing some of their work in poster form will provide them with a sense of pride about what they were able to accomplish.

Currently a group of youth in the community are taking part in a similar workshop and at the end of the process we will create one comic zine about juvenile justice that will be shared with both groups of youth.

Below are some terrific examples of what the incarcerated girls who participated in the workshop produced:

Created by Young Woman at CCJTDC

Art created by Youth at CCJTDC

I hope to share examples from the incarcerated boys at another time.