00:00Freddie Monkowai is an inmate at a correctional facility in Johannesburg.
00:05Since October, he's been experimenting with painting and papier-mâché sculpture.
00:11Nine prisons in South Africa have opened art galleries in a bid to help inmates develop
00:17skills, earn income and prepare for life after release.
00:25This program will help someone who hasn't been arrested learn something about us prisoners.
00:36I foresee myself having an art gallery when I'm released.
00:40That's my goal when I get out.
00:45And I'd like to employ other inmates and help them to ensure they don't come back here either.
00:53South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world.
00:58The art program is part of an effort to reduce repeat offending through rehabilitation behind
01:04bars.
01:05I'm doing this art because I want to give back to the community, to be united by the community
01:12outside, by doing the good things, not doing the bad things that I did before.
01:16I must be a choice person.
01:18If you want to be a choice person, you must start with me.
01:20That's why I'm here doing the good things inside.
01:23When I'm going outside, I must be prepared.
01:26South African prisons are notorious for high levels of violence due to overcrowding, gang
01:32activities and underfunding.
01:35The program offers a rare moment of calm and creativity.
01:39In the methodology, we emphasise that it's not about skill but it's just about sitting with
01:44your thoughts, your feelings and just observing your needs and just really being in that space
01:50that you can be reflective and we hear that's something that's not really accessible within
01:58the corrections facility because it's an environment that's very rigid and it's very dogmatic.
02:05So we give people a chance to just eat.
02:08The artwork is on display for visitors, offering a glimpse into stories of culture, memory and
02:16personal transformation.
02:17nation.
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