Photograph: Sam Richardson/Courtesy of Creative Acts
Have you ever wonder how it looks like if the prison inmates have the opportunity to try VR? Well, there is a non-profit organization who organized a virtual reality program to help the inmates in solitary confinement.
How the VR Program in Prisons Work?
Founded in 2018, Creative Acts, which is California-based, relies on the arts as a resource for behavioral change and practical preparation for coming home from prison. Their mission is to transform urgent social justice issues through the revolutionary power of the Arts; to heal trauma, build community, raise power, and center the voices of those who are or have been incarcerated.
And they found out that VR is an ideal tool that can bring the experience of the outside world inside the prisons. That’s how the program begins…
Creative Acts then conducted intensive virtual reality program where the participants experience scenes from daily life for four hours a day. Besides, they can also have the more adventurous virtual experiences such as traveling to Paris or paragliding.
After the VR session, the facilitators will ask the participants to process emotions that come from these virtual scenes through various art exercises such as painting, theater tactics and poetry.
At this moment, there are four institutions that run this VR program which are Valley state prison (VSP), Kern Valley state prison, Corcoran state prison and the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF). The duration of the VR program is 7 days.
What amazed us is the huge amount of effort and determination from Creative Acts team to make this happen. It took them a year to persuade Meta to donate 20 headsets and two of its Cleanbox headset sanitation machines for a VR pilot.
At the same time, they also worked with content makers, Unincarcerated Productions, to produce scenes that can prepare the participants to come home from prison such as conducting a job interview.
Lastly…
To us, the VR program from Creative Acts sounds very interesting with the noble intention to improve the society. If you want to know more details about this program and what is the outcome of it, you can read it at:
- “‘An ideal tool’: prisons are using virtual reality to help people in solitary confinement” from The Guardian.
- The Official Website of Creative Acts.
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