By Claire Heald

Award-winning prisoners' art is on display in a London gallery and inmates' embroidery skills are turning a tidy sum. BBC News Online went to find out why prisoners are doing time with art and craft.

Inside prison's craft class In pictures

"Yes, it's always this chaotic," smiles Roy, 38, the proud creator of an intricate blue "rail fence" quilt and an inmate at HMP Wandsworth.

Tuesday evening and he is one of a dozen prisoners crowding through the cell doors in a unit of the Victorian-built jail for the weekly quilting and needlepoint class.

It is a hubbub of controlled chaos as the prisoners spread out across three knocked-through cells.

They pause to pick up new commissions for work from volunteer tutors, debate stitching patterns, pore over complex triangle designs, return completed quilt pieces and open letters from satisfied customers.

The unlikely activity is run by charity Fine Cell Work and produces elaborate quilts, cushions, rugs and wall hangings.

Locked scissors

Its volunteers teach the sewing skills and the organisation sells prisoners' work, returning a third of the profit to them, to save for their release or spend inside.

The scissors locked up on the wall are evidence that all cutting is done in class. Judging by the noise, most of the actual work happens in the banged-up hours the inmates have to fill.

Somebody is enjoying the products of your efforts, so we can't be all bad Nigel HMP Wandsworth

That is what Spike, 26, calls the 2am 'chill-out time' when "you haven't got people yelling out of windows and slamming doors - silence is golden".

Works from 16 prisons are sold through the charity's website, at exhibitions and on commission.

"The idea is that they can have a nest egg when they get out, a down payment on accommodation or a new set of clothes," says executive director Katy Emck.

Many of the group concede money was the motivator to sign up.

But they all stress the discovered benefits, like boosted self-esteem and a sense of purpose.

"There's a lot of people in here who have never had a job, never worked for anything apart from stealing," says Spike.

'Feel worthwhile'

"This makes you realise you can sit down and do something productive, fight back and do something useful."

Nigel, 59, a founder member, is reading a letter from a happy customer.

PRISONER ART In Pictures: Koestler Exhibition "You can tell people have just done what's in their heart" Exhibition visitor Kathryn Carr

"It makes you feel it's all worthwhile," he says. "Somebody is enjoying the products of your efforts, so we can't be all bad."

The charity's work is also part of a wide range of prisoners' art at the Koestler Exhibition 2004.

It is a show of award-winning pieces - from painting and sculpture to poetry - by prisoners, young offenders, secure unit and psychiatric hospital detainees in England and Wales.

Gathered in a smart Kensington church hall, works such as "Tree Born", "The Dream", "Jack's In The Brain" in turn make for beautiful, engaging and unsettling viewing.

The Koestler Award Trust, behind the exhibition, shares Fine Cell Work's aims, encouraging prisoners' self esteem and respect through creative arts.

'Look in the eye'

It tries to provide a learning foundation before detainees tackle literacy and numeracy problems or look at further education, training and eventual employment on release.

"It's the simple things," says Angela Findlay, the Trust's Learning to Learn Through the Arts scheme co-ordinator. "An ability to look at people in the eye, to engage.

ART PROJECTS They had to be incredibly sensitive - if they lose it, off falls the nose Angela Findlay Koestler arts co-ordinator

"To listen - instead of spouting off. Working as a group, towards a common goal."

At the Koestler Centre - a former guard's house in the shadow of West London's HMP Wormwood Scrubs - she says art projects make a firm difference.

"Patience, perseverance - dealing with problems when they arise."

"Planning something. Part of crime is wanting to do something without the steps between that. The art is step-by-step and about enjoying the process."

'Strong mirror'

Two artists went into eight England and Wales prisons for four-week projects last year.

Above all, she says, detainees get a "very strong mirror" of themselves, demonstrated by the stone-carving class run at Feltham Young Offenders Institution.

"They had this lump of stone in front of them but had to be incredibly sensitive - if they lose it, off falls the nose," she says.

"It gives them a really strong reflection of what anger does, and of themselves."

The charity wants to extend the number of classes

For many, the end certificate is their first recognition of an achievement.

The scheme runs, however, at a time when prison populations have reached an all-time high - 75,544 in April 2004, according to Home Office figures.

Security and overcrowding are pressing problems, punishment a public priority.

And a focus on meeting basic literacy and numeracy targets has seen the spectrum of prison education narrow, the Prison Reform Trust says.

Back in the cells at Wandsworth, Katy Emck says she plans to increase the number of prisoners involved from 190 to 500, wants official accreditation for skills learned and research into whether the work can help stop reoffending.

Yet another prisoner stops at the open cell door to call across: "I hear you can sew and get paid for it. Who do I speak to?"

He is told to join the waiting list. It seems the charity has its work cut out.

The Koestler Special Arts Event draw, with works from artists including Anthony Gormley and Tracey Emin, is on 19 October.

Fine Cell Work's Christmas exhibition is on 18-19 November.