Series focuses on reentry, Actors’ Gang Project

May 10, 2023

Rich Loya, program manager for the Actors' Gang Reentry Project.

Actors’ Gang works with Male Community Reentry Program

The Actors’ Gang Prison Project and a Los Angeles reentry program are center stage in a recent episode of the KCET/PBS “Artbound” series.

Watch the full episode (CDCR begins at the 40:30 marker).

Showcased are incarcerated people at the Male Community Reentry Program (MCRP) enrolled in the Actors’ Gang Prison Project. Through dramatic exercises, culminating in a performance at the Los Angeles Theater, the program seeks to aid rehabilitation and help participants in their transition back to the community.

The MCRP is a voluntary program allowing eligible people to serve the remainder of their sentences in the community, in lieu of confinement in state prison.

The program links participants to a range of community-based rehabilitative services to assist with:

substance use disorders
mental health care
medical care
employment
education
housing
family reunification
and social support.

The Actors’ Gang is a theater company in Culver City founded in 1981 by several actors including Tim Robbins. Formed in 2006, the Actors’ Gang Prison Project now offers year-round programming in 14 prisons and the Los Angeles MCRP.

The teaching teams consist of working actors as well as several formerly incarcerated alumni of the program who return to teach and share their stories.

By Terri Hardy, acting Press Secretary

Learn more about the MCRP.

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