Project PAINT: The Prison ArtsINiTiative at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility was started by Laura Pecenco, a sociology professor at Miramar College whose doctorate thesis at UC San Diego was on the performance of masculine in arts creation in prison.
Pecenco, an artist herself for her company Hester Crown Jewelry, met with Warden Daniel Paramo in 2013 to discuss the idea of working with inmates to create murals that would decorate visiting areas.
The next year, the men created six 8-feet-by-7-feet murals on wood panels, and Pecenco had permission to start an art class in the prison.
Royce Casey, 37, has been in Donovan since 2013 and has been in prison since he was 17.
"It kind of gave me a way to reconnect with parts of myself," he said. "It’s a way for me to understand people, too." Casey said creating art also has given him empathy and a greater understanding of the scope of his crime.
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