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Restorative Justice Workshop Looks at Faces in Prison

Allyson Holtz and Howard Zehr discuss one of Holtz's mixed media portraits of inmates on exhibit during the Summer Peacebuilding Institute at EMU.
Photo by Jim Bishop

In a one-of-a-kind art opening, international viewers gathered in a small gallery at EMU to mull over a group of portraits.

The exhibit listed no names for the men of varying ages and ethnicities depicted, though initials frequently served as titles. Artist Allyson Holtz said she had kept backgrounds simple because of having to work fast. Ditto for clothing, which, in fact, was the same for each: a prison uniform.

What stood out were the faces – individuals, she noted, in a system that denies individuality.

Holtz teaches art and created these portraits at the State Correctional Institute in Pittsburgh (formerly Western Penitentiary), a maximum security prison where she has been artist-in-residence since 1998. The opening-viewers were her classmates in the "Restorative Justice" workshop at the Summer Peacebuilding Institute.

She discovered SPI through Howard Zehr, professor and co-director of EMU’s Conflict Transformation Program (which sponsors SPI) and an internationally-known founder of the restorative justice movement. One of several books by workshop facilitator Zehr, "Doing Life," contains his photographs and interviews of more than 70 Pennsylvania prisoners.

Holtz says she attended SPI because, "Many inmates want to give back to society. They want to show remorse, and they don't have a way to do it. I want to help create a vehicle for them to do that." Accomplishing that in the prison bureaucracy will require developing a formal program. Her attendance was co-sponsored by SPI and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

After viewing her pencil and oil portraits, including some on Mylar film, Holtz’s fellow-workshop attendees asked about meanings. Do lines on faces symbolize guilt? What about red? Multiple colors? Why are some subjects’ eyes closed? Holtz replied she does not create symbols consciously.

One portrait drew the comment, "As I looked into his eyes, I didn’t see anybody home." Elongated figures inspired comparison with Munch’s "The Scream."

Holtz’s classroom/studio is a corner of a large prison auditorium. She teaches painting and drawing (security issues rule out sculpture). Her work is frequently interrupted by duties such as unlocking doors. Since prisoners have become used to her expressionist style, "everyone is always asking me, ‘Will you draw my picture?’ I feel I have a great opportunity to develop self-esteem...Decent people are capable of committing indecent acts." She has shown prisoners videotapes of portrait-show audiences.

After the portrait discussion, Zehr said, "We’re getting ready to think about the offenders" – key 'stakeholders' in restorative justice. Just as victims make a journey, offenders do."

The group saw a video produced from Doing Life interviews. Subjects spoke in quiet, reflective voices:

More than 20 years ago, a woman says, she brought a life sentence upon herself and a worse tragedy to a victim and family. In a calm voice, but showing a tear, she adds, "There is nothing I can do to ever make the situation better."

"To live is an opportunity, under any circumstances," says a man also serving a life term. That belies the feelings often expressed by younger offenders, who think they would prefer death, said a participant who works to prevent executions. Several participants were lawyers and counselors working with offenders.

A Buddhist attending spotted a spiritual principle in the video: "We believe there is good and bad in you."

Zehr and co-instructor Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz, director of the Mennonite Central Committee’s Office on Crime and Justice, had workshop members pair off to tell each other messages such as "You are guilty"; "I am not guilty." That led to discussions of power and guilt.

The seven-day workshop explored the cultural and religious history of punishment, questioning whether it is built into "human nature." While restorative justice does not rule out punishment, Zehr says "punishment should not be the first goal."

The American setting of Holtz’s portraits illustrated a gap in this mostly-privileged society. More than 2 million people are incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails, which have become a lucrative industry. The dynamic is to encourage growth almost without limit, Zehr noted.

Restorative Justice was one of more than 20 workshops at SPI, which expects 185 participants from around the world between May 3 and June 15.

Chris Edwards is a free-lance writer from Harrisonburg, Va.

— article by: Chris Edwards; posted May 18, 2004