Sketches from Behind Prison Walls

A tribute to the millions of Americans who are or have been imprisoned, Sketches from Behind Prison Walls is a compelling collection of art, poetry, and anecdotes that explore what it means to love, atone, and survive behind prison walls.

Incarcerated artist Rein Kolts began sketching his fellow inmates in the early years of his sentence. The subjects offered their written thoughts to accompany the drawings, giving voice to their hope and resilience. Their forlorn faces number only a few dozen and account for an infinitesimal fraction of America’s vast prison population. But the limited scale of the collection offers greater intimacy with each man’s portrait and voice, conveying the quiet strength of incarcerated people with unusual granularity.

Kolts supplements the portraits with a variety of politically and socially conscious drawings about life in prison and the criminal legal system. Part comedy, part cynicism, Kolts’ pieces prod our complacent understanding of crime and punishment in America.

Devon M. Kurtz, a criminal justice reform advocate and prison minister, offers an introduction and commentaries, providing a thoughtful framework for engaging with the collection.