On 11 October, the Corrections Accountability Project debuted the opening of an exhibit titled Capitalizing on Justice at the Urban Justice Center’s exhibition space in Manhattan.

Capitalizing on Justice features the works of incarcerated artists from across the nation who have used their talents to express the ways they and their loved ones have been commodified. Spanning a variety of genres and styles, the works in this exhibition were made using limited resources: state-issued materials, prison contraband, and yard scraps. They were shipped in makeshift envelopes and tattered boxes from as deep in our criminal legal system as Arkansas’ death row and come together to make a strong statement against the prison industrial complex.

Paul Cortez’s art submission took first place of all the submissions nationwide. Bianca Tylek, director and founder of the project, referred to Paul Cortez, as an “agent of change” and along with many others, is “illustrating the ways in which mass incarceration and mass surveillance have been commercialized”.

The Guardian recently featured an article highlighting Paul Cortez and the Capitalizing on Justice effort. Click here for the article.