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However, I was essentially denied any profitable access to the participants at MECC, because I was allowed only to speak with whoever would speak with me in the twenty minutes after the performance and before the inmates were rounded up to be returned to their cells. The administration at the Northeast Correctional Center in Bowling Green, Missouri, was more accommodating, granting me a two-hour group-interview session with all of the participants. Unfortunately, because access to prison inmates is so restricted, the interviews had to be compact and concise.
Similarly, the opportunity for firsthand observation was almost nonexistent. The value of such direct observation is somewhat questionable, at any rate, due to the inability of any outside presence to integrate himself into the environment effectively enough not to compromise the integrity of the research conditions. However, acknowledging these limitations, enough material was amassed to afford at least reasonable analysis and conclusions.
By way of a note, I would like to stress that my purpose herein is not necessarily to demonstrate how theatre affects rehabilitation (although in some instances the theoretical analysis of the evidence does point to the potential for this). But my larger aim is simply to examine the programs and their operation and to discuss as fully as possible how theatre fits into the overall composite of the prison system.