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Goals & Results
Targeted Conditions
 Our client base is made up of youth with the
following risk factors (Negative influences on youth that
cause them to be at risk of dangerous or destructive behaviors):
• A destructive or non-existent home life.
• Past victims of abuse.
• Poverty.
• Gang affiliation.
• Drug abuse.
• Underperforming schools or school drop outs.
• Racial/territorial tensions from the environment.
• Peer pressure and family pressures to participate in illegal or
irresponsible activities.
• Low self esteem and no positive identity.
• No sense of belonging outside of negative groups such as gangs.
• No sense of achievement in positive areas.
The following are the conditions our program is designed to address.
These are the protective factors (Conditions that buffer youth from
exposure to risk factors by reducing the risk or changing the way
youth respond to it.):
• A sense of belonging to a positive group made up of youth and adults
of other races and backgrounds. This replaces a need for a gang and
eases racial conflicts.
• A place where that experience can carry on into the community after
the youth leave the juvenile institutions. This helps replace a
non-existent home life or the temptation to return to gang life.
• A positive experience on stage that provides a “natural high.”
• A program that addresses the state standards for performing arts and
can help them with attaining their GED and going on to college in the
arts.
• An environment that teaches cultural awareness and opens
participant’s perspectives on race and gangs.
• Positive peer pressure to participate in responsible and rewarding
activities that provide a future and drive to succeed in participants.
• New self-esteem and positive identity as an artist and creative
individual and member of an ensemble cast.
• A sense of achievement in positive areas of a participant’s life.
Outcomes (Intermediate Effects on The
Participants):
• Reduced levels of violence while incarcerated thereby
making incarceration easier for both staff and wards.
• Changes in participants attitudes towards peers of other races and
gang affiliations.
• Changes in attitude towards staff and authority figures.
• Sense of pride and self-esteem as creative individuals.
• Social Consciousness- understanding through ensemble theatre that
each of us is part of a larger whole.
• Empowerment and goal setting.
Impacts (Long Term Effects The Program Is
Designed to Achieve):
• Participants renounce violence as a way of life.
• Participants remain open to new ideas, learning and people of
different races and backgrounds.
• Maturity in response to authority, rules and the law.
• Growing confidence in one’s own abilities.
• Growing social consciousness with a need to give back to the
community.
• Achievement of personal goals such as attaining a GED, college, a
trade, continuing in the arts, etc.
Theory of
Change
Through The Unusual Suspects (US) theatre program of 12
weeks, youth spend time in an ensemble cast working on a production
with peers of different races and gang affiliations, and with adults
in a supportive role. Through this experience a world is opened to
them of creativity; new thoughts about adults and their peers; and
pride of accomplishment. Through remaining involved outside of the
institution while on probation or parole, participants can reconnect
with the program and continue a journey of transformation into
artists, thinkers, and instruments of change. They can then set goals,
achieve them and become mentors for the next generation.
The Arts In Corrections Model: A Case For Arts Programming Behind Bars
Arts In Corrections started as a pilot program at California State
Prisons in 1980. In 1983, a cost/benefit analysis was done by Dr.
Lawrence Brewster, Sociology Professor at California State University
at San Jose. He found that the prison arts program reduced incidents
of violence within the prison by 75-81% and saved close to double the
cost of the program in measurable benefits such as security and
medical costs. By 1987, it was proven that the program lowered
recidivism rates by 51% at a cost of $19/per class hour for each
student (*see below). There is now an Arts In Corrections program in
every prison in the state funded by legislative line item in the
California Department of Corrections Budget. (No such program exists
in youth corrections.)
- Research documented in the book
“Arts In Other Spaces”
by William Cleveland (1992)
*Our cost in 2004 is approximately $17/per class hour for each student
given that a program for 20 students with 24 3-hour sessions is
$24,000. With 5% annual inflation, the Arts In Corrections program
listed above from 1987 would cost more than $40/per hour for each
student today.
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THE
UNUSUAL SUSPECTS THEATRE COMPANY | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2009
617 S. Olive Street, Suite 812 | Los Angeles, CA 90014 | Tel:
213.488.8488 Fax: 213.488.8498 | admin@theunusualsuspects.org
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