'It helped me find meaning': Lafourche jail holds inmate art contest to inspire change
Inmates at the Lafourche Parish jail recently put their drawing skills to the test and took part in an art contest.
Judged by art teachers at Thibodaux High School, several winning entries were posted to the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office Facebook page earlier this month. About 40 inmates participated in the competition.
“There is immense talent here and what I always find fascinating is that some people don’t even realize they have that talent until they are here and make an attempt at the contest,” said Captain Karla Beck, assistant warden at the jail. “They ended up doing remarkable things.”
Aside from showing off their skills, the competition helps inmates improve their behavior and deal with stress, Beck said.
“Art therapy has been around for centuries,” she said. “It’s been used to help people deal with issues and traumatic experiences, so it’s a perfect fit for this environment.”
Re-entry into the community is one of the main focuses of the Lafourche jail. Instead of locking up inmates in cells for extended periods, the Thibodaux facility emphasizes rehabilitation, education and mental health, Beck said. The overall goal is to reduce the number of repeat offenders.
Though the contest didn’t have a specific theme, most of the submissions shared a common element, Beck said.
“I didn’t give them particular themes and just told them to draw something that was meaningful to them,” she said. “As you can see from the winners, the overwhelming thing that most of them did without any collaboration whatsoever was incorporate the idea of wanting to change and using the environment they’re in to change their life.”
The inmates who took part in the contest said the competition helped them cope with being incarcerated and gave them a creative outlet.
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“It helped me find meaning,” one participant said.
“It allowed me to release thoughts and feelings that I had kept bottled up inside,” said another.
Many participants said they will gladly take part in the contest again.
“I will participate every year because it allows me to express myself in the best way I know how,” one of the winners said.
— Staff Writer Dan Copp can be reached at 448-7639 or at dan.copp@houmatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanVCopp.
This article originally appeared on The Courier: Here is some of the award-winning art Lafourche jail inmates created
