Colorful painting of plants growing through cracked cement.

About the Journal

The International Journal for Creativity Inside (IJCI), established in 2025, is a not-for-profit, open-access journal dedicated to exploring and promoting the role of creativity in prisons and jails worldwide through a cross-disciplinary perspective. Its mission, in brief, is to highlight, support, and expand the value of creativity within carceral systems to people in prison and to society. Toward this end, IJCI will advance knowledge and public discourse on the role of creativity in carceral institutions globally by publishing high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarly research and practice-based explorations along with curated, insightful perspectives, creative work, and book reviews related to artistic, literary, and other creative endeavors within carceral settings. IJCI will be freely available online, and its operations will be sustained through volunteer editors.

Announcements

The featured artwork above: A Crack in C Yard’s Curb Taken Over by Nature, 2025 by Timothy, watercolor and ink. Courtesy of Prison Arts Collective. From the artist: The curb reads ‘Out of Bounds and Restricted Area’. This is a symbol of the fact that everything man makes is transitory, but nature left alone regenerates itself.