Prison City Comix 2007

Prison City Comix is the result of a six-week investigation with CUP artist-educator Kevin Pyle and a Senior English class at Heritage High School in East Harlem. Using the activist comic series “The Real Cost of Prisons” as inspiration, the students sought to chronicle the effects of the criminal justice system on their community. They conducted research, including interviews with incarcerated family members and employees of correctional institutions. The students visited the Harlem Justice Community Center to investigate alternative community-based responses to neighborhood crime issues. They also benefited from the life experience of guest speaker, Anthony Papa, an artist, activist and ex-offender dedicated to the reform of the Rockefeller drug laws. Ultimately though, they drew most heavily on their own experience, using the language of comics to communicate their unique perspective on policy issues that affect their everyday life.

Participants

Kevin Pyle, Teaching Artist
Odin Cappello, Volunteer
Heather Nordstrom, High School Teacher
Valeria Mogilevich, Project Coordinator
Shyla Rao, Heritage coordinator

Resources & Links

Organizations

Center for Court Innovation: Harlem Community Justice Center	The Harlem Community Justice Center seeks to solve neighborhood problems including youth crime and the challenges faced by parolees through programs for at-risk youth and reentry programs for both juvenile and adult ex-offenders returning to the community.
Heritage School (HS 680)	The Heritage School was founded in 1997, focusing its curriculum on the arts. CUP has worked with classes at Heritage since 2002.
The Real Cost of Prisons Project	The Real Cost of Prisons Project brings together justice activists, political economists, artists, justice policy researchers, and people directly experiencing the impact of mass incarceration to create popular education workshops and materials which explore both the immediate and long-term costs of incarceration.

Other

15 Years to Life	The official site of Anthony Papa, artist, writer, noted advocate against the war on drugs, and co-founder of the Mothers of the New York Disappeared.
Kevin Pyle Illustration	Kevin Pyle is a CUP Educator, illustrator, and comic book artist.

Downloads

Prison City Comix
(PDF, 6 MB)

A digital version of the comic book

Prison City Comix is also related to
Chew On This
Tagging the Social Contract
The Connection between Abandoned Buildings and Homeless People