Our History

In 2014, Poetic Justice began with a writing workshop offered by Claire Collins and Ellen Stackable in the women’s pod of Tulsa, Oklahoma’s county jail.

In June of 2016, Poetic Justice held its first class at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center, Oklahoma’s largest prison for women. Today we are also at Eddie Warrior Correctional Center and three county jails in Oklahoma.

In 2018 classes began at Las Colinas Detention Facility in San Diego, California and at La Esperanza in Tijuana, Mexico. We are now at three locations in California and three locations in Mexico.

In the summer of 2019 we expanded our programming to offer visual arts and drama classes. The Pandemic put a stop to art classes for a few years, but in 2022, we were able to have several visual arts classes available in the prisons.

In March of 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible for us to continue in-person programming.  Within a week of the prisons shutting down to outside volunteers, Poetic Justice began our Distance Learning program. Because the Distance Learning program was so successful, we have kept it as one of our main programs.

In 2022, Poetic Justice classes began at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility for Women in Oregon.

Since Poetic Justice began, over 4,000 participants have been a part of the Poetic Justice classes and over 600 volunteers have joined us in our mission.