US prisons have started using virtual reality to help people in solitary confinement (4 photos)

Creative Acts has begun implementing a virtual reality training program in U.S. prisons to help people in long-term solitary confinement regain an understanding of their current environment.





The program takes place in common areas of correctional facilities, where special cages with a chair are installed. Inmates are placed in these cages and given a virtual reality headset that is programmed to work in cramped conditions.



During the seven-day intensive program, participants experience scenes from everyday life, as well as some more adventurous ones, like traveling to Paris or paragliding, for four hours each day.

At the end of each day, Creative Acts facilitators ask participants to express the emotions that arise in these VR scenes through a variety of artistic exercises, including theater, poetry, and painting. “VR triggers, traumas, and emotions — and then the art transforms,” explains Creative Acts founder Sabra Williams.





California-based Creative Acts relies on the arts as a resource for behavior change and practical reentry preparation. They run VR programs at four institutions — Valley State Prison (VSP), Kern Valley State Prison, Corcoran State Prison, and the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF). The organization is increasingly receiving requests from other California institutions to offer the VR program.

Williams first began thinking about bringing VR to prisons five years ago. After founding Creative Acts in 2018, she said she was “so tired of hearing about people coming home after serving life sentences, decades in prison, literally landing on another planet.” She felt there was an urgent need for her organization to visually break through the concrete barriers that separated prisoners from the outside world. “Because the world was changing all the time, and we were missing that,” added Creative Acts program coordinator Star Van Pool, who previously spent 17 years in prison.