This Women’s History Month, we’re sharing reflections from the women of RTA—stories of creativity, leadership, and growth that have taken shape behind and beyond the wall.
When Nicole talks about Rehabilitation Through the Arts, she doesn’t begin with the performances.
She begins with something more fundamental: being seen.
“In that moment,” she says, reflecting on her time participating in RTA while incarcerated at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, “I’m not just a woman wearing green or a convicted felon. I’m a person who has feelings, emotions, and I can express them through art.”
“I’m not just a woman wearing green or a convicted felon. I’m a person who has feelings, emotions, and I can express them through art.” – Nicole, RTA Alumna
Nicole spent six years incarcerated and joined RTA during her final two years inside. She returned home on January 28, 2026. For Nicole, the arts created something rare inside prison walls: a space where her full humanity could exist.
“I danced, I acted, I even sang a little bit,” she says with a smile. “I’m not the best singer though. But that’s what RTA nurtures. It lets us grow and just be ourselves in that moment.”
Nicole’s experience, like many inside RTA’s women’s programs, is about much more than a single performance. It’s about what happens when women are given the space to discover the power of their voice.
The Reality of Women’s Incarceration
Women are the fastest-growing incarcerated population in the United States.
Since the 1980s, the number of women in prisons and jails has increased by more than 700 percent, driven largely by policy shifts rather than increases in violent crime. Today, more than 190,000 women are incarcerated across the United States, according to research from the Sentencing Project and the Prison Policy Initiative.
But the experience of incarceration for women often looks different.
Most incarcerated women have survived significant trauma before entering prison—including domestic violence, sexual abuse, and chronic poverty. Many are mothers navigating the painful separation from their children and families while serving their sentences. Inside correctional facilities, opportunities for healing, creative expression, and community can be limited.
Programs designed specifically for women—spaces where they can rebuild confidence, process experiences, and rediscover their voice—remain rare.
That’s where programs like Rehabilitation Through the Arts make a profound difference.
For thirty years, Rehabilitation Through the Arts has worked inside correctional facilities offering theater, dance, music, visual arts, and writing programs that create space for self-expression, accountability, and personal transformation.
For participants, the impact is deeply personal.
For the broader community, the results are measurable: RTA participants return to prison at dramatically lower rates than the national average, demonstrating the power of creativity, responsibility, and human connection in breaking cycles of incarceration.
Finding Relief, Even in the Hardest Moments
For Tiffany, who also participated in RTA programming while incarcerated, the arts became a lifeline in moments when stress and negativity felt overwhelming.
“Just being able to dance and do music helped so much,” Tiffany says. “There’s so much stress in that environment. Being able to focus on something positive made a huge difference.”
“There’s so much stress in that environment. Being able to focus on something positive made a huge difference.” – Tiffany, RTA Alumna
Through RTA, Tiffany kept a keyboard nearby. “Whenever the stress got bad, I could put on headphones and play,” she says. “It helped me escape cycles of stress and negative thinking.”
Those moments of escape—of creative focus and emotional release—can be powerful in environments where daily life often leaves little room for reflection or healing.
“It’s such a deeply emotional thing,” she says. “It’s hard to put into words. But RTA meant so much.”
Join Our Choir of Change
This April, RTA voices will take center stage at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in a production of Sister Act: The Musical—a joyful story about music, sisterhood, and transformation.
The production will bring together women participating in RTA programs to sing, dance, and perform for their community inside the facility.
Over the coming weeks, RTA will share rehearsal footage, participant reflections, Teaching Artist perspectives, and behind-the-scenes glimpses into the creative process leading up to the show.
Together, these stories invite the broader community to witness something powerful: the role the arts play in helping people reconnect with themselves, with others, and with their futures.
This year also marks 30 years of RTA transforming lives through the arts across correctional facilities in New York. Over three decades, thousands of incarcerated individuals have stepped into rehearsal rooms, writing workshops, dance studios, and stages where they could explore something often denied inside prison: the possibility of becoming someone new.
Nicole felt that transformation firsthand.
“RTA helped me realize that I can still express myself,” she says. “That people want to hear what I have to say.” – Nicole, RTA Alumna
For the community that supports this work, that realization is exactly the point.
Because when we create spaces where people can rediscover their voice, we begin to change more than individual lives. We begin to change systems, creating a criminal-legal system rooted not in punishment, but in growth, dignity, and possibility.
As we celebrate Women’s History Month and prepare for the upcoming production of Sister Act, we invite you to follow along—and join us as we lift every voice.
