Clarence Maclin spent 15 years in Sing Sing. Now, he stars in a movie about it

Clarence Maclin had to return to Sing Sing Correctional Facility, but not because he had committed a crime. It was for a screening of his new film, Sing Sing, which he stars in alongside Colman Domingo.

In the same prison where he began his acting career, Maclin, also known as “Divine Eye,” watched himself acting out a fictional version of his own life story on screen.

“It’s like a surreal, magical moment, where it’s almost in five dimensions,” he tells Q‘s Tom Power.

Maclin spent 15 years as an inmate in the New York State maximum-security prison, known for its police abuse and inhumane conditions. He discovered his love for acting in the prison’s Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program.

But Maclin didn’t seek out RTA. He had enjoyed drawing and performing when he was younger, but left his artistic passions behind after realizing that’s not what the “cool kids” do. One day, he accidentally stumbled upon the program when he got lost on his way to the prison yard and decided to join.

Maclin started off as an unspeaking background actor in an original play written by people in prison. But when the director gave him two lines, something changed in him.

“I was bitten,” Maclin says. “I wanted to be an actor from there.”

WATCH | Official trailer for Sing Sing:

Filming Sing Sing wasn’t easy for Maclin. He had to go to a decommissioned prison every day to film the movie. 

“It was difficult.… Nobody wants to go back into confinement,” he says. “Decommissioned or not, just the space itself is oppressive.”

Maclin also had to wear a prison uniform again during filming. But he says the difficulty of reliving his time in prison was worth it. 

“We had a purpose that was way bigger than apprehension, way bigger than any stress that we had to endure to get this work done,” he says. “Because more people need to see this, more people need to know that we are a lot bigger than … whatever label you may have for me, I’m a lot bigger than that — and so are a lot of brothers and sisters still inside.”

Sing Sing shows the beauty and friendships that form inside prison, which is something that not many movies explore. Maclin tells Power about the men who support each other in hard moments. For example, the Department of Corrections usually won’t allow a man to attend an aunt’s out-of-state funeral, even if she was like a mother to him. The men around him in prison will support him through his grief. 

Inhumanity toward people in prison comes not just from the Department of Corrections or Hollywood, but also from practitioners within the prison. Maclin remembers civilians who would volunteer at the prison to pat themselves on the back or use it as a tax write-off. 

But that wasn’t the case for RTA practitioners. The program required genuine connection from both the people in prison and the volunteer civilians. 

“It’s a life-changer, it’s a life-saver,” he says. “It allows individuals to come in as themselves and really find themselves by going deep and searching within — it’s really a prerequisite for the program.”

This is most evident in the low recidivism rates of RTA participants. The RTA website says that only three per cent of its participants return to prison, compared to 60 per cent of the American prison population who return three years after release. 

Maclin credits this low statistic to the camaraderie developed in RTA. 

“No matter what we go through in society, we know a group of brothers that can understand exactly what I’m going through, so we always have someone to talk to,” he says. “Hopefully you get to see a glimpse of it through Sing Sing.”

The full interview with Clarence Maclin is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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Interview with Clarence Maclin produced by Matthew Amha.

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