Prison Performing Arts serves nine facilities across the state of Missouri and hundreds of participants every year. PPA involves incarcerated youth and adults in the performing arts to inspire intellectual curiosity and personal development. We nurture the discipline, teamwork and communication skills necessary for successful re-entry into society. We encourage members of the larger community to connect personally with program participants, and we offer continuing programs for participants who have been released.

PPA provides multidisciplinary arts programming to four state prisons, three juvenile justice and correctional centers, a Transitional Center, Division of Probation and Parole, and Alumni Theatre Company members across the country. Participants experience a drastically lower recidivism rate, and our impact is only growing. Perhaps the most profound example of PPA’s impact is its rate of recidivism. Recidivism is defined as the tendency of a convicted individual to return to incarceration. Therefore, recidivism rates measure likelihood of this tendency happening. The most recent studies on PPA show the following recidivism rates:

• 97% of the youth involved in PPA programs return home.

• The overall incarceration rate for those released after performing in at least one PPA performance is 25.2% after three years and 34.7% after five years. A three-year recidivism rate of 25.2% is considerably lower than the average of 42.9% for all first releases. 

• Recidivism rates for participants in our Alumni Theater Company are less than 4%.