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Kate Herrity (Dr)

Leicester, UK

A Criminologist with a focus on sound, music and the sensory in prison, working at the crossroads between fields and disciplines. I have curated https://sensorycriminology.com/ since 2019, which accompanies the co-edited Sensory Penalities. My doctoral research explored the soundscape of a local men’s prison in the Midlands, UK,  and was the subject of Sound, Order and Survival in Prison. Current work explores the intersections of sound and music and places and practices of confinement, including the volume Sound and Detention co-edited with Áine Mangaoang and Lucy Cathcart Frödén, with accompanying sound archive.

Contact: kzherrity@gmail.com

I've included a number of links above, but these two articles in a special issue of Prison Service Journal on arts in prison are both freely available and possibly more relevant: https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/prison-service-journal-239

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Exploring sensory experience of the criminological

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Teri Dobbs

Madison, Wisconsin, USA

Professor Emerita, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Wisconsin Prison Humanities Project

Oakhill Correctional Institution (men), Fitchburg, WI

In the Spring 2025, I taught an 8-week song-writing course at the Oakhill Correctional Institution (so-called minimum security) south of Madison, WI, as a first-time volunteer with the Wisconsin Prison Humanities Project (WPHHP). It was the first time a music-related course had been offered with the WPHP as well as my first experience teaching song-writing (!!). We were not allowed to access musical instruments, mobile phones (for recording), nor computers--it is a highly restrictive space. Hence, I really want to learn more about how to make the experience much more communal and collaborative in such an environment.

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Eden Jones

Chapel Hill, NC

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Eden Jones is completing a doctorate in musicology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has taught rock history classes at UNC Chapel Hill and two North Carolina prisons. She recently began her third prison music class as a pilot teacher with the newly formed Carolina Prison Music Initiative led by Dr. Mark Katz, of UNC Chapel Hill. A community-engaged project, CPMI provides arts-based workshops and training for incarcerated North Carolinians.

Jones is in the early stages of developing her dissertation proposal on the role and impact of music for incarcerated individuals in North Carolina.

Contact:

edenj@unc.edu

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Dr Ella Simpson

University of Greenwich, London, England

Ella is a prison creative arts facilitator turned academic Criminologist who researches the significance of creative arts in the criminal justice sector. Ella is committed to co-researching with people in prison and is a leader in using creative research methods and narrative analysis to reveal the nuanced effects of creative engagement for people with lived experience of criminal justice.

Contact:

E.A.Simpson@greenwich.ac.uk

Links:

Simpson, E. (2024) ‘Making the Story Count: An argument for the development of a narrative evaluation tool in the arts in criminal justice sector’, in Caulfield, L. and Gardner, A. (eds.) Arts in Criminal Justice and Corrections: International perspectives on methods, journeys and challenges. London and New York: Routledge.·

Caulfield, L.S. et al. (2022) ‘‘It’s not just music, it helps you from inside,’ Youth Justice, 22(1), 67–84.

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Murilo Rezende

Subsecretariat of the Juvenile Justice System, Secretariat of Justice and Citizenship, Government of the Federal District (Subsecretaria do Sistema Socioeducativo, da Secretaria de Justiça e Cidadania do Governo do Distrito Federal - SSE/DF)

Brasília, Brasil; Gerência de Atendimento em Meio Aberto de Taguatinga

Murilo is a professional with a degree in Music and Pedagogy, a Master of Arts, and a Doctorate in Education. His work with music in the Juvenile Justice System focuses on facilitating access for sentenced adolescents to public art and culture facilities, as well as creating spaces where they can engage in meaningful musical experiences. His current key projects include DJ Training, Podcast Production, Audiobook Recording, Music Classes, Musical Education, and Music Production.

murilo.rezende@sejus.df.gov.br; https://www.linkedin.com/in/murilo-rezende-0482b046/

http://lattes.cnpq.br/5691301449541910

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Based in CT, USA and the Greater NY Metropolitan area.

Lori LeDonne is a formerly incarcerated person who founded "IN/JUST/US" to give a voice to those who would otherwise not have one by providing alternative ways of expression.  Music allows the chance to bring about awareness, which is so important, considering that societal institutions have become systemically broken. Creating art generates confidence, purpose, and hope as we heal our wounds and become important to ourselves, our families, and our communities. Musicians will have access to a recording studio and working musicians to guide them through the recording process and provide them with their expertise in promoting themselves as a musician.

Contact:

Ledonnemusic.com

@ll_keyz

loriledonne@gmail.com

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Art and Music Programs for Education in Detention Centers (AMPED)

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Art and Music Programs for Education in Detention Centers (AMPED)

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Northwestern University is in Evanston, IL, USA and we connect with incarcerated youth in the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center in Chicago, IL, USA.

Art and Music Programs for Education in Detention Centers (AMPED) is primarily supported by Northwestern University’s Center for Civic Engagement.

Dr. Patrick Horton is the program administrator with AMPED, supported by Northwestern University’s Center for Civic Engagement. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in music education and most recently completed a PhD at Northwestern University where he studied creativity and technology in music teaching and learning.

Program Information: AMPED leverages hip hop and other forms of popular music to build authentic connections between Northwestern student volunteers and incarcerated youth at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC). You can learn more about our program by visiting the AMPED program site.

Contact: patrick.horton@u.northwestern.edu

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Rijul Kataria

Head of Research, The Yuva Ekta Foundation

New Delhi, India

The Yuva Ekta Foundation is a non-profit trust dedicated to youth empowerment through Expressive Arts. For the past six years, we have been developing a ‘Comprehensive Program for Rehabilitation and Reintegration for Children in Conflict with Law’ at a Juvenile Observation facility in Delhi, NCR. Initially centred on Expressive Arts, the program has expanded to include Personalized Adaptive Learning, sports-based rehabilitation (basketball), vocational training, and an internal podcast channel. Our approach aims to empower each child, helping them find their voice and successfully reintegrate into society.

To learn more about our work, you can connect with us at rijulk@yuvaektafoundation.org

Publications:

Kataria, R., Roy, P., & Mehta, B. (2020). Playback theatre with children in conflict with law. In B. Tasker & B. Gopal (Eds.), Playback theatre around the world: Diversity of application. Christ University Publications.

Roy, P., Kataria, R., & Mehta, B. (Eds.). (2022). Building Emotional Intelligence and Self-Esteem with Children in Conflict with Law, using Expressive Arts and Psychodrama Therapy. [Self-published report]. Available on request

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Prison Performing Arts

St. Louis, Missouri

Prison Performing Arts is a multi-discipline, literacy and performing arts program dedicated to enriching the lives of youth and adults in Missouri’s criminal and juvenile justice systems. We foster individual and social change by providing incarcerated adults, system-impacted youth, and returning citizens with opportunities to participate in the arts as artists, students, and audience members.

Prison Performing Arts

3333 Washington Ave

Suite 203-B

St. Louis, MO 63103

(314)410-8741

prisonperformingarts.org

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Bluebirds Choir (Miami Sound Space)

Everglades Correctional Institution

Miami, FL

The Bluebirds Choir rehearses at the Everglades Correctional Institution, a Level 5 Security Prison designed for inmates with special considerations. Over the past year, we have successfully created a harmonious singing environment for over 60 inmates. Our mission is to invite incarcerated individuals into the world of community music-making, specifically through the joy of singing together. We strive to create a space where individuals are recognized by their first names rather than their inmate numbers. Here, they are free to express their feelings, creativity, and voice.

Laurah Merisier is the choir director

Contact: https://www.miamisoundspace.com/the-bluebirds

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My nickname is JJ, my production company(new) TheRUTHless.

You'll find the truth within the ruthless and my stage name is TRUTH.

I spent 25 years in prison having been sentenced to her majesty's pleasure at 16 years of age.

I'm in the UK, specifically uddersfield but I'm mobile

I'm a performance poet, musician, artist, counsellor and the list goes on.

I have a project called bubblegum dreams and nightmares which is both a double album with a combination of my singing and style of spoken word combined and the backdrop is my artwork, my performance tells a brief story about how and why I became an artist and the life I have lived and the lengths I have gone to using art for social change.

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Mary Cohen

University of Iowa, USA

Iowa City, Iowa; was going to the Oakdale Prison, officially the Iowa Medical and Classification Center, but the warden will not let the Oakdale Community Choir restart. Now (starting Sept 2023) going to the Linn County Juvenile Detention Center

Mary L. Cohen, Professor of Music Education at the University of Iowa, is lead author of Music-Making in U.S. Prisons: Listening to Incarcerated Voices (2022). She co-leads our IMAJIN Caring Community network. From 2009 to 2020 she led the Oakdale Community Choir with incarcerated and non-incarcerated participants. She founded the Inside Outside Songwriting Collaboration Project with partnerships between incarcerated and non-incarcerated songwriters. She has been a keynote for conferences in Germany, Canada, and Portugal, interviewed by the BBC3 Music Matters, and has over 40 publications in journal articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings. She co-facilitates weekly music groups inside the Juvenile Detention Center of Linn County (Iowa).

Contact: mary-cohen@uiowa.edu

Oakdale Choir

website: https://oakdalechoir.lib.uiowa.edu/

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Dennis Castiglione

Power of Harmony Foundation

Cleveland, Ohio, USA

I developed (2019) and direct a prison music program exclusively for justice-involved youth. We bring music education, live professional concerts, youth ensemble formation & direction, and adult mentorship into youth facilities in Ohio, Indiana and Texas. We serve youth in 5 different facilities with a faculty of 18 teachers in those states with plans to expand to others as funding allows.

Phone: 440-781-2763

Email: dennis@powerofharmonyfoundation.org

Link to website: https://www.powerofharmonyfoundation.org

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Dr. Andreas Heye

Bielefeld University, Faculty of Linguistics and Literary Studies, Bielefeld, Germany

Dr. Andreas Heye is a music therapist and music psychologist. Parallel to the work as music therapist, he was a research assistant at the Institute for Research on Musical Ability at University Paderborn, Germany (2009-2018). Since 2018, Andreas Heye works at the University of Bielefeld, Germany. There he works in higher education, especially in the master programs music education and cultural education. His research interests are in the fields of the Psychology and Sociology of musical development. He is part of the project team AUFTAKT: Music as a development resource for the resocialisation of young people and adolescents who have committed offences (2023-2026).

Contact: auftakt@mh-luebeck.de

Link to my work:

Info to AUFTAKT: https://www.mh-luebeck.de/en/university/centre-for-teacher-education/auftakt/

https://ekvv.uni-bielefeld.de/pers_publ/publ/PersonDetail.jsp?personId=144910067&lang=EN)

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Julia Peters

University of Music, Luebeck (Schleswig-Holstein in Germany)

Prison: Center for short-term detention for youth Moltsfelde (Jugendarrestanstalt Moltsfelde, Schleswig-Holstein)

Julia Peters is a violinist and a music teacher for instrumental music. She works in particular with children and young people facing challenging life circumstances and phases: E.g. in South Africa (2002), in Chile (2005) and at the Boarding School “Birklehof”, Germany (2010 – 2019) and currently with delinquent youth within her research project (see below).

Parallel to her work as instrumental teacher, she was responsible for the quality management and course development at the University of Music, Luebeck (2020 – 2023). In 2023 Julia became head of office of the German Rectors’ Conference (RKM) where she supports especially working groups in music education (research and practice). At the same time, she works as research assistant at the University of Music, Luebeck, where – as part of the project AUFTAKT: Music as a development resource for the resocialisation of young people and adolescents who have committed offences, she is currently writing writing her PhD about the role and potential of music practice in short-term detention.

Contact: auftakt@mh-luebeck.de

Links:

Info to AUFTAKT: https://www.mh-luebeck.de/en/university/centre-for-teacher-education/auftakt/

Peters, J., Ziegenmeyer. A. & Heye, A. (2023). Lebenswelten hinter Gittern: Inhaltliche und konzeptionelle Überlegungen zum Forschungs- und Praxisprojekt „AUFTAKT“: Musikangebote für straffällig gewordene Jugendliche und Heranwachsende [Poster bei DGM-Konferenz in Hannover). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373717995_LEBENSWELTEN_HINTER_GITTERN_Inhaltliche_und_konzeptionelle_Uberlegungen_zum_Forschungs-_und_Praxisprojekt_AUFTAKT_-_Musikpadagogische_Angebote_fur_straffallig_gewordene_Jugendliche_und_Heranwachsende [29.08.2024].

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Prof. Dr. Annette Ziegenmeyer

University of Music, Luebeck (Schleswig-Holstein in Germany)

Prison: Center for short-term detention for youth Moltsfelde (Jugendarrestanstalt Moltsfelde, Schleswig-Holstein)

Annette Ziegenmeyer is Professor of Music Education at the University of Music Luebeck. One main area of her work focuses on how music can be used as a resource for the development and support of delinquent adolescents. Therefore, she has developed and carries out a specific course-design for students in music education who plan and facilitate so-called “music weeks” for and with arrested young people in Moltsfelde (2021 – ongoing).

She authored and co-authored several articles on this topic, including a book that she co-edited (De Banffy-Hall, Eberhard & Ziegenmeyer, 2021). Furthermore, she also led a survey of music activities in German prisons in all 16 states (Ziegenmeyer & Mühlinghaus, 2021) and as one result discovered blank spaces such as the lack of music within the measure of short-detention for youth.

Since 2023, she leads the project AUFTAKT (Music as a development resource for the resocialisation of young people and adolescents who have committed offences) that deals with the question to what extent the measure of short-term detention for delinquent youth can be(come) a space for cultural education and be integrated into the cultural infrastructure of the state of Schleswig-Holstein.

Contact: · annette.ziegenmeyer@mh-luebeck.de · auftakt@mh-luebeck.de

Links:

Info to AUFTAKT: https://www.mh-luebeck.de/en/university/centre-for-teacher-education/auftakt/

https://www.mh-luebeck.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Dozenten/Annette_Ziegenmeyer_Publikationen_und_Vortraege_-_AEmter_und_Mitgliedschaften_-_Projekte.pdf

Publications linked to “Music and Prisons”

Ziegenmeyer, Annette (2019). Musikpädagogisches Handeln im Freizeitbereich des Jugendstrafvollzugs. Perspektiven und Lernpotenziale für eine inklusionsorientierte Musiklehrerbildung. Diskussion Musikpädagogik 82, 39-44.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Annette-Ziegenmeyer

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Áine Mangaoang

University of Oslo

Oslo, Norway (and also in Ireland)

Áine Mangaoang is Associate Professor in Popular Music at the University of Oslo. Her books include Dangerous Mediations: Pop Music in a Philippine Prison Video, winner of the 2021 IASPM-US Woody Guthrie Book Prize, and Made in Ireland: Studies in Popular Music. She is Principal Investigator for the four-year interdisciplinary project Prisons of Note, supported by the Norwegian Research Council’s Young Research Talent Award. Recent writing on music on the margins appears in Musicæ Scientiæ, the Journal for the Society for Musicology in Ireland, and in her forthcoming collection Sound and Detention: Towards critical listening, sonic citizenship, and social justice (co-edited with Kate Herrity and Lucy Cathcart Frödén).

Email: ainem@imv.uio.no

Links:

Prisons of Note research project website: https://www.hf.uio.no/imv/english/research/projects/prisons-of-note/

Podcast episode about the Prisons of Note project:

Cathcart Frödén, Lucy and Áine Mangaoang (2023) Songs from the Inside IMV Radio / Radio Nova  [Radio/Podcast]

Academic publications on music and detention:

Mangaoang, Á. ‘A reward rather than a right’: Facilitators’ perspectives on the place of music in Norwegian prison exceptionalism. Musicae Scientiae, 25(3), 2021: 274-89.

Mangaoang, Á. Dangerous Mediations: Pop Music in a Philippine Prison Video. Bloomsbury 2019.

Mangaoang, Á. Performing the Postcolonial: Philippine Prison Spectacles after Web 2.0. Postcolonial Text, Special Issue: The Parapostcolonial, 9(4), 2014: 1-18. [OA]

Mangaoang, Á. Dancing to Distraction: Mediating ‘Docile Bodies’ in ‘Philippine Thriller Video.’ Torture: International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (Special Issue on Music &  Detention), 23(2), 2013: 44-54.

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Sergio Sorcia Reyes

Xico, State of Mexico, MEXICO

I am a community musician and music sociologist interested in researching the uses of music in everyday life, with a special focus on young people from marginalised communities.

Since 2011, a significant part of my work has taken place in detention centres facilitating educational concerts and workshops for young people. During my PhD at the University of Exeter, I used songwriting workshops as a method for research and conducted this work in detention centres for youth in Mexico

In August 2024 I started facilitating songwriting workshops in twelve facilities for incarcerated adults across Mexico City. I do this work with the belief that music-making in prisons provides opportunities for creating meaningful forms of socialisation and an understanding of imprisoned people as human beings with hopes, dreams, and rights who must be treated with compassion.

Email: sergio.sorcia.reyes@gmail.com

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New Harmony Line, 501c3 non profit

Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA

Linn County Juvenile Detention Center

I was invited to participate in music sessions held weekly at the facility led by Dr. Mary Cohen from the University of Iowa. I am the Director of Education for a company whose mission is for anyone of any age or ability to be able to compose music. My intention is to work in collaboration with the graduate student who also attends and is a rapper.  He will teach them how to structure a rap and I will assist them in making quality beats using the cloud-based music composition application Hyperscore. The beginning raps will be on school-appropriate topics of the participant's choice with the goal of moving toward life-affirming, forward-thinking and goal-setting lyrics.

Cecilia taught Hyperscore to thousands of students for 15 years in the local school district and then joined the non-profit New Harmony Line after retiring in 2021.  As part of the pilot study for the we-based version, she worked with students in Iowa, Kansas, California, Toronto, Porto Portugal and Athens Greece.  As a long-term substitute teacher, she shared Hyperscore with entire schools in the area and a nearby private school system.

Contact:  cecilia.roudabush@newharmonyline.org; www.newharmonyline.org

Resources:

Botcamp (students wrote theme songs based on their robot's capabilities and imagined character) June 2024

Play Daze ( local rec center offers families with toddlers and young children to come to a new park each week with activities--I invited them to compose with video prompts; I also had a club with their 1st -5th grade 'campers' who were there for childcare during the work day) and Catholic Worker House (weekly afternoon 'camp' for children living in the home) June and July 2024

Boston Children's Museum 2023 and Cambridge Science Festival 2023

F2F Foundation Summer Music Camp 2022, 2023 for youth at risk in Houston, TX: Student presentation, students independent work

Seoul Projectory (our Executive Director, June Kinoshita, and her husband, MIT "Opera of the Future" Professor Tod Machover traveled to Seoul for a project-based school presentation 2023)

Portugal peer-selected Hyperscore winners of student contest 2021

Toronto Symphony (students in local schools in Toronto created motifs that were arranged  by Professor Tod Machover "A Toronto Symphony" performed by the Toronto Symphony in 2016)

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Krystal Morin

Boston University Prison Arts Initiative and the Race, Prison, Justice Arts Project

Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Krystal Morin (she/her) is a New England based conductor, singer, and educator who is passionate about leading singing experiences rooted in empowerment, co-creation, culturally responsive pedagogy, and interdisciplinary storytelling. Krystal's background includes ten years as a public high school choir and music teacher, designing and implementing music curriculums in varied settings, providing artistic development and ensemble leadership, multi-modal artistic work in incarceration settings, field leadership, and experience performing in community and professional ensembles. Currently, Krystal is the Associate Director of Choirs for Boston Children’s Chorus, sings with VOICES 21C, and a teacher for Boston University's Prison Arts Initiative.

Race Prison Justice Arts Project link: burpjp.weebly.com

Contact: krystalamorin@gmail.com

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Alexis Anja Kallio

Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University

Brisbane, Australia

With expertise in music education, criminology, and qualitative inquiry, Alexis Kallio's research examines music-making as a political arena, whereby individuals and social groups negotiate meaning, value, ideals and power. Focusing on highly complex contexts such as youth justice centres, community provisions for under-resourced youth, and the relations between law enforcement and popular musics and musicians, her research frames music as a unique form of cultural production that holds creative potentials for agency, equity, and justice.

Contact: https://experts.griffith.edu.au/27279-alexis-kallio

Links:

https://www.sydney.edu.au/law/our-research/research-projects/policing-australian-popular-music.html

https://theconversation.com/how-a-healthy-community-should-be-how-music-in-youth-detention-can-create-new-futures-227684

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Bethany Thompson

TrueCore Behavioral Solutions, The Florida Orchestra, Lakeland Symphony Orchestra

Tampa, Florida, USA

Les Peters Academy (juvenile residential facility for girls ages 14-18)

Tampa Residential Facility (juvenile residential facility for boys ages 14-18)

Bethany Thompson, DMA, directs string (violin/cello) programs for youth in detention. In these programs, the youth learn the violin or cello in group classes. Each string ensemble performs approximately six concerts a year, both inside facilities for peers, staff and family members, and also outside in the community through partnerships with The Florida Orchestra and Lakeland Symphony Orchestra. Bethany’s academic research on the benefits of music with youth in detention was conducted with youth in one of her string programs and published in the String Research Journal (2022).

Contact: https://www.bethanyuthompson.com/contact

Links:

ABC Action News WFTS Tampa Bay: https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-hillsborough/tampa-teacher-brings-music-and-hope-to-troubled-teen-girls

Tampa Bay Times: https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2024/08/24/tampa-cello-instructor-teaches-at-risk-kids-more-than-just-music/

String Research Journal:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/19484992221094818?icid=int.sj-full-text.citing-articles.8

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Katerina Chatzovoulou MSc, MA

Athens, Greece and Edinburgh, Scotland

Music Cognition Computation Community Lab. National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.

Scientific Journal of the British Association of Dramatherapists

Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh

I am a psychodynamic music psychotherapist working in Greece and Scotland, offering holistic support to vulnerable and underrepresented communities through my evidence-based practice and research. I have worked in an array of settings, including war-affected camps, military bases, and children's hospitals, and have been involved with IMAJIN Caring Communities since its inception. My research focuses on power dynamics and trauma in conflict situations, with a particular interest in the role of art and music in Second World War concentration camps. I have also been involved in projects supporting children living in incarceration due to family issues.

Contact: chat.katerina@gmail.com

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Nicole Erin Morse

University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), The Community Hotline for Incarcerated People (CHIP)

Baltimore, MD (UMBC) Fort Lauderdale, FL (CHIP)

Nicole Erin Morse is an associate professor of media studies in the Language, Literacy, and Culture program at the University of Maryland Baltimore County where they research LGBTQ cultural production. One of the founders of the Community Hotline for Incarcerated People (CHIP), they serve on the Steering Committee and are Executive Producer of the album "Bending the Bars" featuring original hip hop by incarcerated artists.

Contact: nemorse6@umbc.edu

Links: https://chipsouthfl.org/, https://www.instagram.com/bending_the_bars/

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Nicole Erin Morse

University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), The Community Hotline for Incarcerated People (CHIP)

Baltimore, MD (UMBC) Fort Lauderdale, FL (CHIP)

Nicole Erin Morse is an associate professor of media studies in the Language, Literacy, and Culture program at the University of Maryland Baltimore County where they research LGBTQ cultural production. One of the founders of the Community Hotline for Incarcerated People (CHIP), they serve on the Steering Committee and are Executive Producer of the album "Bending the Bars" featuring original hip hop by incarcerated artists.

Contact: nemorse6@umbc.edu

Links: https://chipsouthfl.org/, https://www.instagram.com/bending_the_bars/

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Erinn Epp

Calvin Prison Initiative (Calvin University, Grand Rapids, MI)

Richard Handlon Correctional Facility, Ionia, MI

I am a music therapist and music educator in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as well as a  PhD candidate at Goldsmiths College, University of London. I direct a choir and teach music classes for the Calvin Prison Initiative, an accredited BA program at the Richard Handlon Correctional Facility in Michigan. My doctoral research is an inquiry into audience experience and engagement in Community Music Therapy performances and other musical-social events.

Contact: erinn.epp@calvin.edu

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Pam Blevins Hinkle

Founder/Facilitator, SongSquad Indianapolis and Director, Spirit & Place, Indiana University Indianapolis

Indianapolis, Indiana, USA / Indiana Women's Prison

Pam Blevins Hinkle is a songleader, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and arts administrator. She believes that collective singing helps us metabolize what it means to be alive. She has over 30 years’ experience leading college, congregational, and community choirs. Her projects have included SongSquad Indianapolis (a non-auditioned, all ages group), place-based community singing and performances, music improvisation and community singing in prisons, and Spirit & Place, an Indiana University project that uses collaborations among the arts, humanities, and religion to catalyze conversation, collaboration, and creativity.

Contact: pbhinkle@gmail.com / 317-213-7522

Links: songsquadindy.com, pblevinshinkle.com, spiritandplace.org

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Lalia Mangione

Renovare Music

Cleveland, Ohio (USA), Grafton Correctional Institution and the Northeast Reintegration Center

Renovare leads weekly string classes at two prisons, offering men and women behind bars the opportunity to learn to play violin, viola, or cello in a supportive group setting. Renovare’s “Unmuted” class at the Grafton Correctional Institution began in 2018 and provides an opportunity for undergraduate students at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music an opportunity to serve as assistant teachers. Renovare’s “Music for the Soul” class at the Northeast Reintegration Center began in March 2022. Both groups give public performances twice each year. Renovare also performs concerts and plays for chapel services in these correctional facilities and others on a regular basis.

Link: www.renovaremusic.org/

Contact Lalia Mangione at lalia@renovaremusic.org

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Jody L. Kerchner, Ph.D.

Oberlin Music at Grafton Choir, all-male prison choir at a minimum and medium security state penitentiary.

Grafton, OH (USA), Grafton Correctional Institution

Jody L. Kerchner is the National Education Association (NEA) Professor of Music Education at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she teaches classes on community music, choral conducting, principles of education, and music psychology. She founded the OMAG choir in 2015 at the Grafton Correctional Institution. It is an all-male choir comprising 30 singers who perform concerts twice yearly. For more information about the choir, please go to www.singingbehindbars.com.

Readings about the OMAG choir experience can be found at:

-Kerchner, J. L. (2024). Documentary Songwriting in prison: I feel good 'bout myself. International Journal of Community Music, 17(2), 233-248.

-Kerchner, J. L. (2020). Group singing in prison: Discovering and developing best possible self. In R. Heydon, D. Fancourt, A. Cohen, Eds. The Routledge Companion to Interdisciplinary Studies in Singing (Vol. 3: Well-being), pp. 158-169. Routledge.

Contact: jody.kerchner@oberlin.edu

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Mitsi Akoyunoglou

Assistant Professor, Department of Music Studies, Ionian University

Corfu, Greece

Mitsi Akoyunoglou is an Assistant Professor of Music Therapy and Inclusive Music Practices at Ionian University, Corfu, Greece. She completed her BA and MA in music therapy at Michigan State University, and a PhD and a PostDoc at Ionian University. For the period 2023-2026 she is the Regional Liaison for Europe at WFMT and the Country Representative of Greece to EMTC. She is a member of the scientific committee of Mousikopaidagogika and on the editorial board of Approaches: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Music Therapy. Mitsi has co-edited the open access resource Music Therapy Dictionary: A Place of Interdisciplinary Encounters.

As part of an elective course provided to music students in their fourth year of studies, "Community Music", we have been visiting and providing music groups at the Correctional Facility of Corfu, in the context of a practicum. We have been collaborating since 2018 with the Second Chance School that is operating in the Facility.

Contact:  akoyunoglou@ionio.gr

Links: https://tinyurl.com/r7687heu (Music in a prison community: A music project in the Second Chance School of the Corfu Prison - in Greek)

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Sandra Sinsch-Gouffi

PhD candidate KU Catholic University Eichstaett-Ingolstadt

Stendal, Germany, Salus Forensic State Hospital Saxony-Anhalt

Membership in the following associations: community music netzwerk Germany (community music netzwerk), German Society for Music Geragogy (Start - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Musikgeragogik (dg-musikgeragogik.de)), German Society for Music Psychology (DGM Website - German Society for Music Psychology (musikpsychologie.de), European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music ESCOM (European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music, Finland, Jyväskylän Yliopisto (escomsociety.org), International Corrections & Prisons Association ICPA (Homepage (icpa.org) , Musical Care International Network (Musical Care International Network – Musical Care Research)

Sandra is a music pedagogue, music therapist, music geragogue and community musician. She works at the Forensic State Hospital Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Her dissertation project (Catholic University Eichstaett-Ingolstadt) generates guidelines for musical practice with mentally disordered offenders. She was previously lecturer at the State Conservatory of Turkish Music at ITÜ Istanbul and also worked in Egypt with children with special needs. Other research interests include classical Oriental music therapy. She is an alumna of the German National Academic Foundation and was honoured with the Rast Music Award in 2023 for the publication "Music educational processes in old age".

Contact via my website:  https://www.sandrasinsch.de/kontakt/

Links:

Music offers in the Uchtspringe (Saxony-Anhalt) psychiatric hospital: Conditional factors for strengthening resources and promoting participation, social learning and cultural education.

KU.fordoc: Forschungsprojekt :: Musikangebote im Maßregelvollzug Uchtspringe (Sachsen-Anhalt): Bedingungsfaktoren zur Ressourcenstärkung und Förderung von Teilhabe, sozialem Lernen und kultureller Bildung

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Dr Kirstin Anderson

Edinburgh Napier University

Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Kirstin Anderson has taught for twenty-two years in schools, universities and prisons. She has a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, and led the first empirical study to look at music education and music making in Scottish prisons. Kirstin has written about education and arts in prisons, public health and criminal justice, prison overcrowding, and prison abolition. Kirstin is a Lecturer in Criminology at Edinburgh Napier University.

Contact: k.anderson3@napier.ac.uk

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Research Group PArticipation and Learning in Detention (PALD), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.

Within her PhD research, Silke Marynissen focuses on participatory music programs in prison, where people in prison engage in group music-making activities. While previous studies have noted the benefits of such programs for incarcerated individuals, such as managing and expressing emotions and facilitating self-development, there is limited understanding on how, why, for whom and under which circumstances these music programs contribute to these outcomes. By employing a realist lens, Silke aims to uncover the mechanisms of change that influence music programs in prison, as well as the underlying contextual factors. More details about Silke’s work can be found here: https://researchportal.vub.be/en/persons/silke-marynissen

Silke.stefan.marynissen@vub.be

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Fergus McNeill is Professor of Criminology and Social Work at the University of Glasgow where he works in the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. He is also the Chair of the Board of the Howard League for Penal Reform.

Prior to becoming an academic in 1998, Fergus worked for a decade in residential drug rehabilitation and as a criminal justice social worker. Since then, his teaching and his many research projects and publications have examined institutions, cultures and practices of punishment, rehabilitation and reintegration. In 2021, his book ‘Pervasive Punishment: Making sense of mass supervision’ was awarded the European Society of Criminology's Book Prize.

Fergus’s engagement with creative methods of research over the last decade or so has also had the unanticipated effect of enabling him to become an award-winning singer-songwriter.

Email: Fergus.McNeill@glasgow.ac.uk

Phone: +44 7795 252823