Oscar-Nominated ‘Sing Sing’ Spotlights Rehabilitation Through the Arts

The national recidivism rate – that is, the rate at which incarcerated individuals return to prison – is 60%. For individuals who participate in a program by Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA), it is 3%. Now the story of this program has made its way to Hollywood with the help of the Oscar-nominated prison drama Sing Sing.

The film follows a group of incarcerated men who participate in a theater workshop based on the real-life program originated and facilitated by RTA.

The Arts as a Catalyst: Rehabilitation Through the Arts

The theater program, which operates in fall, spring and early summer for twelve-week periods, began nearly 30 years ago by founder Katherine Vockins who began the program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, NY. She hoped to utilize the arts as a way of helping incarcerated individuals to develop critical life skills necessary upon re-entering their communities.

RTA’s programs now operate in ten correctional facilities in New York State and offer incarcerated individuals the chance to engage with a variety of art, including dance, music, written word and visual arts.

“40% of people who are incarcerated come into prison without a high school diploma,” says RTA’s interim executive director, Leslie Lichter. “The arts are… a catalyst for them to learn and gain so much more. In an arts class, there’s no right or wrong answer. An arts class allows one to explore their feelings, allows them to walk in someone else’s shoes… In an arts class, everyone is listened to.” Lichter adds that in addition to emotional skills, engaging in artistic projects develops other valuable skills like project management, producing and communication skills.

Participants Help to Steer the Ship

As for the theater program, each production is run like a professional show. The Steering Committee, comprised of incarcerated individuals who are experienced with the program, acts as the management group inside of the facility. The teaching artist usually acts as director and/or producer, but participants fill out audition and crew assignment forms, and the Committee guides the teacher in selecting an assistant director, actors, understudies, production crew, stagehands, etc.

The Steering Committee works with the teaching artist to choose what play to produce. For Programs and Operations Director Charles Moore, “the most important thing is that the play has a positive message for the inside population.”

The characters in Sing Sing develop and perform a production of Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code, an original time-travelling comedy first performed by real-life RTA participants in 2005. Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code was written by Brent Buell, an RTA playwright volunteer. The protagonist of the play, born in ancient Egypt, travels through time to avenge his mother’s death. Along the way, he encounters iconic characters like Hamlet and Robin Hood.

Buell explains, “I couldn’t find a comedy that had roles for 25 men at least, and also for two women. The men seemed so disappointed, so I told them I would write it for them.” This was an exciting process for Buell, who believes comedy has the ability to heal: “The joy from doing that comedy is accurately portrayed in the movie…doing a comedy was definitely an antidote to the pain of prison.”

Sing Sing: From a Visit to Kansas to the Big Screen

Lichter reveals that film director Greg Kwedar first reached out to the organization after visiting a Kansas prison. During the visit, he witnessed an incarcerated man raising a rescue dog. This tender moment led him to abandon all of his preconceived ideas about incarcerated people. After researching organizations that focus on prison rehabilitation, he came across an Esquire article about RTA. In order to understand the nuances of the organization, he and his business partner, Clint Bentley, became RTA teaching artists at the maximum-security Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville, NY.

Inspired by their experience and determined to not create a prison drama centered on negative stereotypes, the creative team decided to tell an uplifting story.

Buell connected them with RTA program alumni Clarence Maclin and John “Divine G” Whitfield, with whom Kwedar and Bentley wrote the story for the screenplay. It scored a “Best Adapted Screenplay” Oscar nomination—making Maclin and Whitfield the first ever Oscar-nominated RTA alumni. Divine G is also the inspiration for the movie’s protagonist, who is imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. The character is played by actor Colman Domingo, who has been nominated for “Best Lead Actor.”

Sing Sing was shot in July of 2022, and the majority of the actors are RTA alumni. The film had its international premiere at Toronto International Film Festival, where it was acquired by famed independent studio and distributor A24.

While Sing Sing was made independently from RTA, the organization consulted frequently on the film. One of RTA’s board members is a producer of the film and Vockins was directly involved during filming.

Film + RTA Yield Positive Change

“The film has had a profound impact on RTA,” says Brandon Barrow, RTA’s director of marketing, “It has brought a national spotlight to our mission, sparking a widespread conversation about the need for change and innovative approaches to corrections and criminal legal reform.”

Since the movie’s premiere, Barrow has seen an outpouring of people wanting to bring programming like RTA’s to their states: “We are leveraging this moment to bring our life-changing programming to more facilities in New York and beyond, enhancing our suite of arts-based and reentry programs, and seeking to build a national movement that champions the arts as a catalyst for rehabilitation and societal change.”

Sing Sing movie’s progressive representation of incarcerated individuals mirrors the rehabilitative efforts of the organization that inspired it. Lichter hopes that the film will illuminate the lives of those behind bars: “When we impact the incarcerated individuals, we are also helping to end generational incarceration…we’re helping to change the lives of their families and their communities…There are real people behind bars who can change and grow…they can do that when given the tools.”

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_{(photos (top to bottom): production still from the movie Sing Sing; Detail from the movie poster Sing Sing)}

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