| It's Jah Cure |
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Music at centre of new prison rehab programme. |
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A new effort using music to help rehabilitate talented prisoners has been designed by the authorities, and incarcerated reggae singer Jah Cure has released the first single under the programme.
The single, True Reflection, was recorded at the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre, more commonly known as the General Penitentiary. Music industry sources say the song is growing in popularity, an encouraging sign for the Rehabilitation Through Music partners - the police, correctional services and Kingston-based Down Sound Records - who now say their next goal is the recording and release of an album. That set will include four songs by Jah Cure.
According to police superintendent Gladstone Wright, the Rehabilitation Through Music proposal had been at the police commissioner's office for some time, but was recently approved by Commissioner Lucius Thomas.
"It started out with us seeking ways to enhance our community policing services," Superintendent Wright, who is based at the Half-Way-Tree Police Station, told Splash Wednesday.
Wright and his colleagues recently staged a concert at Police Officers' Club in Kingston to assist three inner-city basic schools - Victory in Trench Town; McLeod's in "Mud Town", Papine; and Anilhill in Waterhouse - as part of the Constabulary's community policing project. He said that during the planning of that concert, Jah Cure was suggested as the ideal catalyst for the talented prisoners' rehabilitation proposal.
The choice of Jah Cure (real name Siccaturie Alcock) was no doubt influenced by the fact that he has, since being imprisoned six years ago, firmly established himself as a gifted reggae singer with two albums - Free Jah Cure: The Album and Freedom Blues: The Testimony of Jah Cure - and a number of singles, including the smash hit Longing For.
Acting on the suggestion to use the singer, Wright and his colleagues contacted the head of the Correctional Services, Major Richard Reese, who agreed that Jah Cure's involvement would contribute immensely to the prison service's rehabilitative efforts.
"We then discussed it with Jah Cure, because the Correctional Services require that we get the approval of the inmate first," Wright said. "He (Jah Cure) responded, 'I am ready'."
True Reflection was written by Wright, artiste Sonita 'Electric Dread' Walker, and Dwayne Stephenson of To-Isis.
The team then approached Josef Bogdanavich, head of Down Sound Records, to produce the song and start the project.
"We invited Down Sound to participate and Joe was delighted when we approached him. He felt it was a step in the right direction," Wright added.
Bogdanavich said that when he went to the prison to visit Jah Cure, "we just kind of hit it off".
"He seemed like a humble person and he was quite personable," Bogdanavich said. "I think he has got the right kind of personality, being that effervescent, even behind a prison wall."
According to Wright, the programme is also being expanded to include persons wishing to develop other skills in the music business, including producing, arranging, engineering and playing instruments.
Wright said that while Rehabilitation Through Music will concentrate on the music aspect of prison rehabilitation, it is only a segment of a much wider programme seeking to rehabilitate inmates through various skills.
Jah Cure, who was transferred to the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre from the St Catherine Adult Correctional Centre two years ago, had his application for parole turned down last year despite a passionate campaign by concerned friends, family, and entertainers. He had become eligible for parole on July 28, 2003.
Major Reese said, however, that a prisoner can re-apply for parole within a year of his application being rejected. The Parole Board, which makes the decisions, is separate from the Corrections Department.
Jah Cure was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment on April 26, 1999 for two counts of rape, robbery with aggravation, and illegal possession of firearm, all arising from the same incident. At the time, he was 19 years old.
The opening of the computer laboratory at the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre has helped Jah Cure and other inmates interested in music, as it forms the basis of a digital recording facility.
Major Reese has promised that all the necessary equipment will be provided for inmates to be able to produce their own music and be advised of their intellectual property rights.
He said that it was possible for persons from outside the prison to send in music for Jah Cure to use, but only at the singer's request. However, do not look for him on stage at a show before he is on parole or released. |
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Posted by: Hacki
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| LINK:
www.jamaicaobserver.com/lifestyle/html/20050818... |
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