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According to a 2010 report by the Pew Center on the states, California has the second highest prison population in the nation after Texas. The golden state dropped to number two after leading the nation in inmate population in prior years. However prison overcrowding remains a serious and largely unmitigated issue. California’s correctional facilities are built to house 80,000 inmates. But they hold between 144,000 and 156,000 people. A legal battle to end overcrowding has been waged in California courts and after a three-judge panel in 2009 ordered 40,000 inmates released, the state appealed to the US Supreme Court. The Court heard arguments in the case in early December 2010 and has not yet issued a ruling. While the constitutional rights of California’s incarcerated are debated in court, their daily existence is laid bare for audiences who attend this weekend’s performance of “State of Incarceration,” by the Los Angeles Poverty Department. The LA Poverty Department, or LAPD for short, is a non-profit organization that seeks to expose the causes and effects of poverty through art. State of Incarceration will immerse audiences in the prison environment by replicating those spaces, filling the performance area with 60 bunk-beds. The performance was created with collaboration from formerly incarcerated adults.

GUEST: John Malpede, Founder of the Los Angeles Poverty Department, artist and activist; Ricarlo Porter an LAPD performer and contributing writer on the piece

State of Incarceration
Friday and Saturday January 28th and 29th; Friday and Saturday February 4th and 5th
All performances are at 8:30pm; Friday the 28th is sold out!

Highways Performance Space
1651 18th St. @ Olympic Blvd., in Santa Monica
For more info, visit www.highways performancespace.org or call (310) 315-1459.

Visit LAPD’s website at www.lapovertydept.org.