Tagged

We were working with young men on the ISSP (intensive supervision surveillance programme - electronically 'tagged' young offenders), we used drama, visual arts and music to look at their offending behaviour. We noticed there was a high turnover of people on the programme, some young men would attend for months, others would only attend for a couple of weeks. How could we come up with a 'holding form' which would give us an artistic outcome, but which all the young men on the programme could contribute to?

We worked with animator and artist Babis Alexiadis to realise a graphic novel, tracking the life of a 'street kid', and the choices and opportunities open to him. The graphic novel was an appropriate format, familiar to the young men, credible and could also be used with people with literacy difficulties. We spent months working on scenes developed through drama sessions which would then be translated by Babis into images for the novel, with Simon Walker working on layout and text.

The resulting graphic novel was then taken up to HMP Frankland, a maximum security prison in Co Durham, where we asked long-term prisoners and 'lifers' whether the work resonated with their experiences. The results spoke for themselves, with the guys saying stuff like, 'that's my life', and asking whether Babis had direct experience of the scenes he created as they were so spot on he must have been an offender himself!

The novel is now used 'in reverse', with scenes from the book used in drama to look at experiences of the yopung men on the programme.

Copies of 'Tagged' can be purchased for £5.99 inc p+p, email:info@livearts.co.uk for details.