Why have a Multiart Festival for Inmates?

By Dana Cenusa - November 10th, 2011

In Romania, the recidivism rate of prisoners is about 80%, which translated into few words means that the Romanian prison, at least in its present state, is a failure rather than a solution. This failure, a costly one in any case, should be a serious warning to any civilized society, considering that, beyond the additional costs required, the return to prison of a single prisoner means committing a new crime that can affect, sometimes dramatically, the life of one of our peers. What to say then about the return of 80% of the prisoners?

Romanian prison system should however be granted mitigating circumstances. We are talking about an underfunded system, a provisional social status that characterizes our entire comunity, an insufficient number of employees – all this reflected in the quality / quantity of the programs conceived for contributing to the social reintegration of inmates. We generaly talk about a lack of serious actions to prevent crime and a probation system that works more on paper, not to mention the absence of volunteers and organizations that, in all civilized countries, are a great substitute for employed staff.

Surprisingly though, not the Romanian prison situation is to worry about. Sooner or later, the Romanian prison system will manage to catch up with Western systems, whose modernization began back into the sixties. What’s really dramatic is that prison systems in Western Europe, great when it comes to detention conditions, employment, quality and quantity of social reintegration programs, show a recidivism rate between 50 and 70%, which similar to the Romanian one.

So, despite the performance of any kind, without an actual involvement of society - the place from where prisoners come from and eventually will return to - prisons anywhere in the world get to be an expensive palliative rather than a solution.

There is one exception, the Scandinavian area, where prisoners recidivism rate is about 35%, half of the one recorded in the rest of Europe. This exception is not an argument in favor of prison but in favor of society, which turns out to be more responsible, more mature, more involved.

So, here is the reality, a huge split between prison and community, deepened and maintained by the lack of knowledge and by prejudices under which we, sometimes unconscious, place this institution on the edge of society, as if what we don’t see does not exist.

What the National Administration of Penitentiaries in Romania has been trying for several years is to rethink the relationship with the community. The Theatre Festival for Prisoners, at its third edition this year, was a challenge that, in spite of the skepticism or the inconveniences, eventually earned its place in the cultural area of Bucharest.

2011 marks a new stage - the first Multiart Festival for inmates, including the Film Festival for inmates, the Theatre Festival for Inmates, a concert and a photo exhibition. We should point out that this whole event "for inmates” addresses, in fact, to the entire comunity, because it is up to us to build a better world.

We really thank all those who believed in this endeavor, we thank the donors – Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Romania, AFCN and Xenia Foundation, our partners - Macaia and ArtFusion, our media partners, our hosts - Nottara Theater and Wings Club, the actors and the directors, students of The Film Faculty of Bucharest, prison workers, and last but not least, we thank to the inmates who put heart and soul into this project.

Dana Cenusa is the coordinator of the Multiart Festival which took place on 9-11 November 2011. For more information please visit EXIT-ARTE.RO




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