“In & Out” Autobiography as an Instrument for Re-Planning in Consequence of an Imprisonment Experience

AbstractThe aim of this study is predisposing an autobiographical activity inside penitentiaries for promoting and encouraging the reconsideration of one's own past and re-planning one's future “beyond the bars”, hi imprisonment circumstances writing has ever been a way of understanding oneself, voicing hopes and desires, acquiring awareness of passing time, reflecting on one's own past and imagining a new, different life, hi penitentiaries writing therefore represents a creative activity which helps to survive and pursue a space for freedom. It becomes an instrument for discovering new “worlds” and new ways of self-expression1. Starting from this premise, this study aimes to “collect” the experiences of those detainees who, through narrations of their own life, work, suffering and imprisonment occurrences, try and want to find new perspectives and opportunities for their future. These above-mentioned “worlds”, these extracts of existence, will be collected and illustrated by the means of narration, epistolary correspondence, poetry, and photography, among others. The results of each autobiographical workshop, that means a synthesis of all the materials produced on both paper and multimedia supports (CD Rom, video and so on), will be divulged to all the penitentiaries involved in this research and published on the web