Guest blog: rehabilitation through song with Liberty Choir

In our latest guest blog, we hear from Liberty Choir, whose weekly choir sessions in prisons create a supportive space and encourage inmates’ personal growth, community connection and a new sense of purpose.

A small grant from King Charles III Charitable Fund (KCCF) is supporting the Choir to facilitate the training of new Music Directors and Accompanists and the expansion of our choir sessions from 2 prisons in 2022 to 10 in January 2024, with more to come. Read on to learn more from Jenny Holden, Trustee.

Education is a key component of rehabilitating prisoners and reducing reoffending rates, providing a route to employment as well as the self-confidence and mental health boost crucial for well-rounded development and navigating life beyond prison. People who engage with education programmes in prison are 7.5% points less likely to reoffend in a 12 month period.

Liberty Choir’s work forms a full circle – supporting 1,000 prisoners in a year and remaining in touch with over 120 former prisoners who have not reoffended. Indeed the re-offending rate for Liberty Choir graduates is just 2.8%, a dramatic reduction on the national average of 80% re-offending (MOJ 2020).

The first half of the circle involves bringing world-class musicians and volunteers from the community into prison to sing with the men and women in prison. Through singing and music, our choir programmes provide an appreciation of different genres of music and a basic understanding of musical notation, improving participants’ numeracy and literacy skills.

Our sessions also provide stability and a support network in an often difficult environment each week. Our participants consistently report positive changes in their mental health, self-esteem, wellbeing and confidence after taking part in our sessions. Prison staff also noted improvements in their eye contact, social interactions and behaviour.

Our Friends and Family concert series are an integral component of our programme, providing our members with the opportunity to demonstrate and celebrate their progress with their loved ones; a vital part of their journey.

The second half of the circle is when the ex-offenders are ready to be released and become our Liberty Choir Graduates. We encourage them to come be a part of our community choirs so that they can continue singing with us and being supported by our community.

In addition to supporting the development of our choir programmes, KCCF’s funding also helped facilitate our 4th Friends and Family at HMP Coldingley and our music team’s brilliant performance at our 10th anniversary celebration. Without their support, none of this would have been possible.

We were delighted that members of the KCCF team were able to attend our Friends and Family concerts in 2024. Yvonne Abba-Opoku, Head of Governance and Operations, joined us for our performance at HMP Coldingley, while Niamh Walsh, Grants and Operations Officer and Jenny Mak, Administrator, attended our first concert at HMP Brixton.