Bill Cleveland led the Arts-In-Corrections Program in the 80s and subsequently authored Art in Other Places: Artists at Work in America’s Community and Social Institutions.
Bill Cleveland writes, “Vern McKee was president of both the Art and Musicians Guilds at Vacaville Prison. When we started, he told us that bringing the arts into Vacaville would save lives and money. He was right about that. He was also right with the advice he gave me in the summer of 83′. He said that our honeymoon was over and that, given the rising tensions in the system, there were a lot of lives at stake with little room for error. Then he shared what I have come to call Vern’s Rules.”
Here they are:
1. Dress for success: Needless to say, this one seemed a bit odd. It arose from Vern’s perception that the war being waged inside was a life-and-death form of theater. He felt that much of what was being contested was symbolic because there was no territory and no spoils. He said this, and the fact that almost everything about life inside was proscribed meant that costumes meant a lot. He felt that many of the artists coming in looked like beggars, so no one took them seriously. He also said as the guy running the program, I needed to get a haircut and buy a suit. I bought two and went to the barber. He was right; it made a massive difference.
2. No fools: By this, he meant no proselytizers, revolutionaries, or missionaries with romanticized notions of prisoners or prisons. He pointed out that the most valuable currency in prison is respect. When someone from the outside comes in thinking they have some version of the truth that needs to be delivered to the wretched masses, it is disrespectful and dangerous. He said all the prisoners wanted was talented outsiders who could teach and make art. He said the prisoners would decide for themselves how to wield its power.
3. No Hacks: Verne and his fellow artists expected their artists/teachers/collaborators to be honest about what they knew and didn’t know. They said they could recognize and were highly insulted by phonies and fakes. They clarified that they wanted the artists coming in to have their artistic shit together.
4. Know that you don’t know where you are: Vern held that the fact that we could leave made us visit earthlings and that unless we had done time, we would never know what it was like to be a Martian. As long as we accepted, we were not hearing and seeing things like the prisoners would be OK. He said trouble always starts when outsiders think they know where they are.
5. Do your Homework: Despite his contention that we would never know exactly where we were, Verne also believed it was our obligation to learn as much as possible about the social, cultural, and political landscape we were operating in. He also admonished us not to assume that people and places that looked the same were the same. He said everyone has a different story to tell.
6. Good guys and bad guys are not as obvious as they may seem. Verne believed that the game of survival and life had different rules. He told me that inside, prisoners and correctional staff were all in the survival game and that everybody playing had good and bad guy cards they needed to play to survive. He said that outsiders looking through black/white lenses were watching the wrong movie, making them highly accident-prone.
7. Free speech = rights + responsibility: Verne lived in an extremely interdependent prisoner culture where everyone was ultimately accountable to everyone else, one way or another. In such a world, the question was not whether it was right or wrong to shout fire in a crowded theater falsely, but rather, when you know that the theater is burning, how do communicate that fact so that the people affected don’t get burned.
8. No one-night stands: Vern was adamant that when the power and force of the creative process were made available to prisoners, they should not be turned on and left behind. He said that once a prisoner had become addicted to what he called the creative life force, we all had a moral responsibility to maintain access to support the habit. He made it clear that it would be a matter of life and death for some.
9. Take care: Places that are chaotic, unpredictable, and violent are toxic. Verne clarified that he and his mates needed artists at their best. He suggested that we adopt a post-disaster self-care regimen as a standard practice. We did that, and it made a world of difference.
10. You have nothing but your relationships: This was particularly true for prison life, where who you know and who has your back can also be a matter of survival. So Verne cultivated and nurtured healthy partnerships inside and out. He was a good partner who never promised more than he could deliver and always kept his word. He was also a good artist.