About Minutes Before Six

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Our Mission

“to give a voice to those silenced through incarceration”

– MINUTES BEFORE SIX MISSION STATEMENT

To achieve this, we facilitate a publicly-accessible, online platform that displays the contributions of many talented incarcerated individuals. We provide them with the opportunity to creatively express themselves and allow them the chance to feel connected to the free world by knowing their works are shared with the public. By carrying out our work, our organization offers prisoners a way to maintain a relationship with the outside world; an important lifeline many do not otherwise have available to them. 

Equally, our vision is to afford prisoners a productive outlet by contributing to the literary and arts communities, while also educating our readership about prisoner experiences navigating the criminal justice system, via our website. 

Engagement in arts-based activities can produce many positive benefits for prisoners; this has been evidenced in ample academic research at the individual-level, within program evaluation reports, and in meta-analysis studies. Though not delivered as an official in-prison initiative, we believe Minutes Before Six, in its own distinctive way, offers a means for our incarcerated contributors to participate in something constructive and, in turn, experience these same valuable outcomes. Being afforded this type of creative expression has been found to improve: social competence; achievement motivation; active initiative; intellectual flexibility; emotional control; self-confidence; self-awareness; constructive behaviors; and communication skills. Research has also shown positive correlations between artistic expression and a reduction in disruptive behavior and disciplinary reports, as well as improved, cooperative relationships between incarcerated individuals and correctional staff, more generally, as well as significant decreases in recidivism after release. Minutes Before Six views itself as offering this unique and important function to its contributors; many of whom are not otherwise allowed to participate in traditional arts-based programs due to the circumstances of their imprisonment.

Further, our efforts also intend to be a constant reminder to our readership that those who are incarcerated should not be ignored or forgotten. We wish to spotlight the remarkable talents of our contributors, and showcase the depth of thoughtfulness, humility, self-awareness, and humanity they possess. By hosting this type of online forum, we offer our viewership informative and educational insights into the realities and challenges faced by our incarcerated contributors; our content provides interesting and meaningful descriptions of prison life by way of first-hand accounts. Such raw, immersive, ethnographic representations are necessary, but are, unfortunately, ultimately scarce. Communicating these kinds of deep understandings, while also raising public awareness, are intrinsic characteristics of our organization, and what we aim to achieve.

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Our History