Evaluation of Dreaming Inside: Voices from Junee Correctional Centre Poetry Writing Program Part I - Process Evaluation

Abstract

This report details the first component of the evaluation of the Dreaming Inside program, an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prison poetry writing program conducted at Junee Correctional Centre (JCC), New South Wales. There are not many other programs like the Dreaming Inside program currently running in Australia, and it is in fact the only creative writing prison program that specifically targets Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.1 At the time of the evaluation there were approximately 842 inmates at the Junee Correctional Centre (JCC) on any given day, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander inmates making up approximately 25% of the prison population. This is not unusual and, in fact, equates to the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in adult prisons across New South Wales, which according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, was 24.3% on 30 June 2017 (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2017).