‘Art Inside Out’ helps prisoners ‘regain value’

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Kirk Charlton will tell you he was born an artist. But the road to get to where he is now was bumpy.

“I just really did a lot of dumb things and I had a drug problem real bad. And so I would lie, cheat and steal is what I would do,” Charlton said.

He was in and out of the prison system. While he was in the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution, he decided enough was enough. He had been teaching art classes at the prison and wanted to incorporate some positive dialogue into the lessons.

So he wrote a program called “Art Inside Out,” and some forward-thinking counselors helped him make it a reality.

“I started to think I had some value, important to my family, my friends. I wanted other guys in the joint to get this feeling, too,” Charlton said.

It took a little while for the prison staff to get with the program.

“We had security in the room, a counselor there. I really think they thought we were making bombs or escape plans with ladders and ropes and hooks on them. but after a while they realized we can handle this, we’re grown men,” he said.

Those grown men were not only learning how to make cards to send to their families or art, but learning to regain their value.

“Each time I completed a piece of art I saw it as a learning experience, but I also saw it as, I made something, right?” one said on a YouTube video .

The “Art Inside Out” program was so successful there was a long waiting list. But COVID shut it down. The program got the attention of Better Neighbors, a new program sponsored by Oregon Harbor of Hope . Now “Art Inside Out” is being used at Cascadia Health and will soon be in several prison systems around the country.

“I just know that this works and it’s helped guys in prison regain their value that is so important if we can just feel valuable, all of us,” said Charlton, who has been out of prison for 5 years.

In the meantime, he’s expanded his work and published a children’s book.

“I wanted to come up with books with different occupations and hobbies, so I have ‘I want to be a marine biologist,’ ‘jazz musician,’ which I really like.”

A traveling exhibit of artwork, “His Personal Experience,” will be featured November 15-16 in Old Town, 209 NW 4th Avenue. He said it’s based on events that happened to him or that he witnessed in prison, some funny, some dark.

And he has also reconnected with his daughter.

Charlton said while people in prison should serve time to pay for their crimes, he said it’s proof it’s possbiel to transform into a good neighbor.

“I actually like Kirk today. I’m not in love with him. I’ve got a ways to go,” he said of himself. “But I actually like myself today and I’ve never — I always wanted to be somebody else.”

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