Can music rehabilitate?

As a Probation Officer I have worked with people who have used their creativity to express themselves, in song, poetry, creative writing and art.  Anecdotally I can say that I have witnessed this being used effectively.  A big part of what I have seen is how the creativity can help someone who struggles to express themselves to better understand their thoughts and feelings
and to express this.  It can be a hugely personal and private aspect of yourself to share and I consider myself very privileged if someone allows me to share this with them.

As part of arranging a film screening of The Road from Crime, I was looking for examples of desistance and how this can be supported.  This led me to exploring the role of using creativity.  Changing Tunes is a charity that uses music to support the rehabilitation of prisoners and ex-prisoners.  This takes the format of music teaching, rehearsing, recording, performance, improvisation and composition.  As I’m typing this I am listening to the album “People Jam” and singing along to “Sobriety” which is my favourite song. 

Shadd Maruna (2010, see links) evaluated the work that Changing Tunes do with prisoners.  Without going into an in-depth examination of the evaluation, the analysis identified seven, key elements of the work that Changing Tunes do:

A) Participant-led/Sense of Collective Ownership/Responsibility

B) Therapeutic Alliance with Facilitator

C) Group Bonding and Mutual Support

D) Challenging Participants to Test Their Limits

E) Public Performance and Acknowledgement

F) Praise

G) Fostering a Sense of Achievement

These elements can support desistance and people in making positive changes in their lifestyles.  All too often, people involved in cycles of crime can lose hope in their situation changing, but perhaps this type of rehabilitative approach can support reigniting the hope.  There is also the same element that re-occurs in my reading and research: the importance of the therapeutic relationship and mutual support.  Relationships really are key.

The participants identified short, medium and long term outcomes of the work.  Although some individuals identified that the work may not directly lead to paid employment for example, the improved self esteem and confidence could certainly improve the job prospects.

For me the benefits of this type of approach are that it can form part of an approach to support change and encourage individuals to work towards something positive.  The benefits of working towards a collective goal with a facilitator be it learning a musical instrument or working towards a performance can be truly rewarding.  However, it’s not as simple as simply giving a prisoner a guitar and then expecting them to make such big changes without support and opportunities.  The song “Sobriety” sums up how an individual may need to go through a process of self discovery before making the changes:

“I was so deluded but I couldn’t really tell

My life was such a mess, I wouldn’t ask for help

Even though I’d had enough of this living hell, that’s alright”

For people to desist there needs to be the internal changes to self, but perhaps music can support this.