Prison Story Extends Its Work

The Prison Story Project has extended its work beyond the boundaries of its native state, Arkansas. Beginning in March 2025, David Jolliffe, regional director for the project, has been working with inmates incarcerated at Joseph Harp Correctional Center in Lexington, Oklahoma.

Using a method pioneered by the Prison Story Project, two groups of inmates at Joseph Harp – one called EPIC (which stands for Encouraging a Perpetual Improvement Culture and one called simply the Writer’s Group – have written a play titled “Hope Deferred” about the complexity of the pardon and parole system that inmates in Oklahoma encounter.

The authors/incarcerated men themselves performed the play twice in July, the first time for an in-house audience of the Joseph Harp incarcerated and the second time for an incarcerated audience supplemented by an invited audience of “outsiders” – volunteers that serve in the many educational and religious organizations in Joseph Harp.

Conversations are now underway about the prospect of a performance by “outside” actors in the Oklahoma City theatre community.