Art therapy helps CA prisoners improve themselves and their community

CORCORAN, Calif. (KABC) -- California is rethinking its prison system in an effort to reduce the recidivism rate which has averaged about 50% over the past 10 years.

At California State Prison Corcoran, Sean O'Brien is using art as therapy.

"Personally? It probably saved my life," explains O'Brien who is now 34 and has been in prison since he was 16.

Along with other participating artists, O'Brien uses art as a way to explore emotions, reduce stress and improve self-esteem while in prison. Some say it's using the time instead of just doing time.

"You look around in here, there's not very much color. We're surrounded by bricks and concrete and steel. And this is the color that we're able to bring in here through our art," says O'Brien as he looks at a wall mural he painted.

And now that art is having a positive impact outside of the prison walls as well.

Rodney Rodriguez of Fresno Skateboard Salvage gathers old skateboards that are trash to many and delivers them to prison artists around the state, who will use the boards as a canvas, creating art for others.

"They're not just contributing from their talent. Because of where it's coming from, it's affecting them emotionally and mentally - and you can see it," says Rodriguez.

The finished pieces are beautifully unique and auctioned to raise money so Fresno Skateboard Salvage can purchase new skateboards and safety gear for underprivileged kids in Fresno.

At the Boys and Girls club in Pinedale, dozens of kids were given new equipment and training, in part, because of the collaboration with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

"I think for them it's maybe a way of treatment, it's a way of self-care, a way of mental health for them to cope with the past, the present and the future," says Lt. Robert Clifton, public information officer at the Corcoran prison.

Artist Omar Cruz explains what the art, and the program means to him:

"You know I've done a lot of bad things in the community so I just wanted to make amends and give back to the community. But when Rodney told me why he did it, it changed my whole perspective because I remember he told me a story about - if it wasn't for someone giving him a skateboard and he started hanging out with skaters and he changed his whole life around."

Using skateboards to help kids make better life choices is the mission of Fresno Skateboard Salvage, but the art produced by incarcerated men and women has a deeper purpose as well. Studies show a significantly higher success rate of re-entry into society for prisoners who participate in art therapy than for those who do not.

Rodriguez can see why that's possible.

"If you're just the bunky (prison bunkmate) of the artist or the bunky's bunky or a friend of the artist - the people in that community within this institution are being uplifted by colors on a beat-up old skateboard that will benefit a kid."