Parc Prison in Bridgend, south Wales, is holding Hay in the Parc to mirror the annual Hay Festival, where authors and politicians get together for a 10-day event.
Hay in the Parc is taking place between 22 May and 1 June and will see authors including Guardian writer and ex-prisoner Irwin James and bomb disposal expert Chris Hunter coming to the facility to speak to young people about their experiences.
Phil Forder, art intervention manager at Parc's young people's unit, said it was the first time the prison had run anything like it. "I saw that the festival was doing an outreach programme and was setting up in South America and Spain," Forder said.
"I thought it shouldn't be limited to certain types of people and that we have a community here that would benefit from it."
Forder approached the event's organisers about holding an annexe to the event in the prison and they agreed. There will also be a live satellite link to the main event in Hay-on-Wye so the young prisoners can watch the live events.
"I can tell it's going to be popular because when I sent a programme for the young people to tick things they want to be involved in, it was oversubscribed and we're going to have to run some things twice," said Forder.
He said young people would be given the chance to take part in creative writing workshops during the festival and while some young people may not react well to traditional forms of art, they enjoy the meaning behind it.
"You can say 'I'm teaching you about poetry' and you can imagine the response but if I said we're going to write some raps' they all hop on board," he said. "Before you know it they're looking at the use of rhythm and writing poetry without them knowing it."
Forder said he hoped the positive influence of the arts would help the young people to look more closely at their own lives.
