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KATONAH, N.Y.Katherine Vockins has an eye for talent. She said she can see, in practically anyone, the potential for performing on the stage and, more importantly, the value it brings to the person.
While some would think Vockins spends her time in theaters or colleges across the county, she instead is mostly seen between bars - prison bars, that is.
Vockins, from Katonah, runs the Rehabilitation Through the Arts, or RTA, program. She and her staff of volunteers travel around New York to five different prisons to teach inmates the techniques garnered through acting, dancing and creative writing, along with lessons on the principles those skills bring. The program is currently staged in Sing Sing, Bedford Hills, Fishkill, Green Haven and Woodbourne.
People make mistakes, and some are horrific, and they go away. But we have to give them the tools to change and the state doesnt fund anything beyond a GED, a high school diploma Vockins explained. And in todays world, it doesnt get you very far.
Vockins was originally in marketing, as she and her husband Hans Hallundbaek partnered in a marketing management and consulting firm that annually put together more than $2 million in sales between trading and other business all over the world, she said. But after 14 years, her husband had a mid-life correction, as she put it, and went back to school and became a professor. He taught classes at Marist College, John Jay College and the Sing Sing Correctional Facility. The prison is the only one that offers advanced education.
Vockins found her husbands work and life change fascinating and, eventually, enlightening, helping guide her to her own correction.
You dont plan to do this. You go through a series of chapters in your life, and I dont know if anyone who plans their futures actually go through with them, she said. Life seems to unfold while were planning it. I didnt plan this, I dont think [Hans] planned it either, but it was one of the ways life unfolded for us.
Vockins program is proven, she said, as John Jay College and Purchase College have both conducted studies to show RTA has made an impact on the inmates. In 2003, John Jay found that the rates and severity of the actions by prisoners within prison were significantly improved. In 2010, Purchase and the New York State Department of Correctional Services found that RTA is a catalyst for learning, and the inmates were more inclined to further their education because of the program.
Even without the hard evidence, Vockins said she is seeing the improvements in the individual pupils. Whether its through improvisation to help future interviewing skills, vocal presence to improve posture, or full-length productions to promote better teamwork, Vockins said her program gives inmates values they can grow on.
The use of the arts help people transform cognitively, giving them visions they didnt have before but could be had now, Vockins said. It makes more sense to offer programs that help change them so that when they go home, they stay home.
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