Creative Skills Open New Paths Beyond Prison Walls

2026 Core Grant: $50,000 for the Inside/Out Media Lab at Washington State Penitentiary

Stories can change how people see themselves, each other, and what is possible. Unincarcerated Productions creates space for people impacted by incarceration to develop creative skills, tell their own stories, and build connections beyond prison walls.

Through the Inside/Out Media Lab at Washington State Penitentiary, incarcerated participants are learning filmmaking, screenwriting, media production, and storytelling.

That work matters because people are more than the worst thing they have done. Creative education can build confidence, discipline, collaboration, and a sense of agency. It can also help the broader community encounter incarcerated people as artists, students, neighbors, and human beings.

Media training is practical, but it is also personal. It gives participants tools to shape narratives rather than simply be defined by them.

Sherwood Trust is proud to support Unincarcerated Productions’ Inside/Out Media Lab at Washington State Penitentiary through a 2026 Core Grant.