The Expressive Arts and Write to Heal programs at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility are an initiative of Women & Justice Project in collaboration with partners who are leaders in criminal justice reform and who have experienced incarceration. Expressive Arts sessions are facilitated in partnership with WJP artist-in-residence Katie Yamasaki and offered weekly for people living in general population. Write to Heal is facilitated in partnership with Columbia University’s Center for Justice and offered weekly in Bedford’s Residential Rehabilitation Unit (RRU), a separate housing unit for people serving more than 15 days in segregated confinement. A core component of our model is that sessions are co-facilitated by women with deep insight into and personal knowledge of the incarceration experience in New York’s prisons. Social workers are also available to provide additional support for participants as needed.

The Expressive Arts and Write to Heal programs began in 2024 at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, New York’s only maximum-security prison for women and the reception center for all women entering the state’s prison system. Both programs aim to provide a creative space for students to express themselves individually and collectively through visual art, creative writing, and facilitated discussion. At heart, they are about expanding each participant’s toolkit for self-expression and healing through the arts while learning and creating together in a safe and supportive community.