Review of Julliard to Jail by Leah Joki
Just finished reading an amazing memoir, Leah Joki's Julliard to Jail (2013), the story of her work in California Corrections as Institutional Artist Facilitator in Southern CA at a time when jails were taking over the desert development-- a time when food was grown on prison grounds for inhabitant consumption, fresh milk from local dairies. Her account which includes marriage, childbirth, not to mention elements of uncertainty and drama one encounters when working within a government bureaucracy as complicated as the paramilitary division known as CDC now CDCR.
A literal page turner, it is not often that one reads a story about working inside prison that is a subjective and alternative perspective -- a young white woman actor and playwright who needs a job stumbles into corrections via the juvenile system and then finds her niche in adult corrections working with men in maximum security prisons.
Lighthearted, but not light, Joki tells stories of the men she teaches. For the time they are in her studios these men create a democratic space often challenged once they walk outside. It is not an easy space for any of the participants, but they more often than not, make it work. Would that the rest of her world complied or ran along similar values.
Joki introduces her audience to correctional officers, wardens, arts administrators . . . the entire food chain on the ground at the prison and located in Sacramento. It is a California story, with perhaps resonance elsewhere-- I don't know. With one of the largest incarcerated populations in the country, not to mention world, Arts in Corrections, a program that went away for a number of years, is certainly proven now that its back, to be helpful in both keeping the peace and giving those inside ways to express themselves affirmatively.
There is humor here too, lots of humor. What is really hilarious is the way Joki uses "lingo" to protect the innocent, and to also poke fun at the crazy list of acronyms associated with CDC and the Arts Programs. There is a glossary at the end of the book for those readers who get lost. Personal favorites are: MUGsie -- the Most Unhappy Gal reference to the administrator in Sac in charge of the Arts in Corrections program; TOWie -- The Other Woman; OBBF-- Original Black Boy Friend.
The author is a white woman who dates black men, even marries one. Irish ancestry from Montana, Joki has a temper and is angry a lot throughout this tale of triumph and woe. It is not a neat or pretty story, but it's real and in a stressful high stakes life/job, the toll is extracted in flesh.
Occupational hazards even to a savvy person with expertise like Joki who pays attention and knows how to find out where the landmines are hidden, loses an occasional limb or two. It's just par for a course that includes having not one but two children on the state-- marriage to a colleague (OBBF from New York). The stresses of home and family and inherent drama thickens as money separates the newlyweds early on as the husband takes jobs elsewhere to pay the mortgage.
Currently Joki is back at CRC Lancaster, the men just produced a theatre program of original work. One piece Blythe was actually banned when first written and produced. Notions of censorship come up as do the statutes stating that the men cannot make money from any of their work while incarcerated. News coverage highlights quite a few success stories like the art auction for a local charity that raises $10,000 for youth.
Special Needs Yards whose populations have been integrated in most if not all California prisons by now are explained. Sometimes Joki's humor is not funny; however, it's always insightful, such as her comments on pedophiles and child molesters. It is also interesting to note that the artist in residence and arts administrators are union positions, so when the CDC wanted to eliminate the positions, they were not legally able to do so even though the budget was cut to nil.
Today given the current value CDCR has for arts in corrections, the funding is back and Joki is charged with training artists to run theatre programs in other California prisons without such programs.
She is working on a sequel and has a one woman performance piece that has toured California. She says she might bring it back.
A literal page turner, it is not often that one reads a story about working inside prison that is a subjective and alternative perspective -- a young white woman actor and playwright who needs a job stumbles into corrections via the juvenile system and then finds her niche in adult corrections working with men in maximum security prisons.
Lighthearted, but not light, Joki tells stories of the men she teaches. For the time they are in her studios these men create a democratic space often challenged once they walk outside. It is not an easy space for any of the participants, but they more often than not, make it work. Would that the rest of her world complied or ran along similar values.
Joki introduces her audience to correctional officers, wardens, arts administrators . . . the entire food chain on the ground at the prison and located in Sacramento. It is a California story, with perhaps resonance elsewhere-- I don't know. With one of the largest incarcerated populations in the country, not to mention world, Arts in Corrections, a program that went away for a number of years, is certainly proven now that its back, to be helpful in both keeping the peace and giving those inside ways to express themselves affirmatively.
There is humor here too, lots of humor. What is really hilarious is the way Joki uses "lingo" to protect the innocent, and to also poke fun at the crazy list of acronyms associated with CDC and the Arts Programs. There is a glossary at the end of the book for those readers who get lost. Personal favorites are: MUGsie -- the Most Unhappy Gal reference to the administrator in Sac in charge of the Arts in Corrections program; TOWie -- The Other Woman; OBBF-- Original Black Boy Friend.
The author is a white woman who dates black men, even marries one. Irish ancestry from Montana, Joki has a temper and is angry a lot throughout this tale of triumph and woe. It is not a neat or pretty story, but it's real and in a stressful high stakes life/job, the toll is extracted in flesh.
Occupational hazards even to a savvy person with expertise like Joki who pays attention and knows how to find out where the landmines are hidden, loses an occasional limb or two. It's just par for a course that includes having not one but two children on the state-- marriage to a colleague (OBBF from New York). The stresses of home and family and inherent drama thickens as money separates the newlyweds early on as the husband takes jobs elsewhere to pay the mortgage.
Currently Joki is back at CRC Lancaster, the men just produced a theatre program of original work. One piece Blythe was actually banned when first written and produced. Notions of censorship come up as do the statutes stating that the men cannot make money from any of their work while incarcerated. News coverage highlights quite a few success stories like the art auction for a local charity that raises $10,000 for youth.
Special Needs Yards whose populations have been integrated in most if not all California prisons by now are explained. Sometimes Joki's humor is not funny; however, it's always insightful, such as her comments on pedophiles and child molesters. It is also interesting to note that the artist in residence and arts administrators are union positions, so when the CDC wanted to eliminate the positions, they were not legally able to do so even though the budget was cut to nil.
Today given the current value CDCR has for arts in corrections, the funding is back and Joki is charged with training artists to run theatre programs in other California prisons without such programs.
She is working on a sequel and has a one woman performance piece that has toured California. She says she might bring it back.
posted by Interchange @ 12:48 AM
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