Dreams (Sueños) is a project that addresses emotional well-being, peaceful coexistence, and the social reintegration of inmates in prisons through the appropriation of artistic techniques and the dialogues that may arise in the approach to art.

 

This program was created in the absence of alternative training processes and aims to enhance technical skills and generate dialogues around issues that are important to the reintegration and empowerment of those deprived of liberty in prisons in Colombia. The project provides inmates with tools to capture their narratives through the visual arts and express their ideas and emotions in creative and non-violent ways. It is understood that artistic creation in complex contexts such as prisons can contribute to the strengthening of self-esteem, collaborative work between participants, the exploration of alternative life references, and the motivation to develop new ways of inhabiting the prison system.

 

The challenges faced by inmates in their reintegration processes into civil society are reflected in the number of repeat offenders offered by the INPEC (2020), according to which the population that has returned to the prison system is 16,482 (21.34%). Added to this is the difficult situation of overcrowding in prisons, a value that reaches 29.1%, that is, an overpopulation of 23,557 individuals.