Young in Prison Project

This project uses the medium of radio to facilitate individual and collective growth, and - through collaborative media production - to provide participants with practical skills applicable to a working environment. Specifically, through involvement in the project, organisers hope that the youth participants will acquire the technical and conceptual skills necessary to be a radio journalist, including:

• communication and organisational skills
• media processes, practices and journalism ethics
• sound recording, storytelling, and editing
• individual and collaborative work
• task and time management
• conflict resolution

During the initial 3-month training module, the group began to collaboratively work on producing short radio stories for broadcast among their peers and inside the prison. Starting with short commentary and reflection pieces, the youth participants worked their way up to pre-produced documentary stories, audio diaries, and multi-media presentations. Together with the project producers, the youth participants edited the final stories from the collected sounds, deciding what parts would be included in the final production and what parts must be discarded. This collection of stories was made available for broadcast on community and national radio stations.

To foster young prisoners' engagement in meaningful issues, each weekly training session has been organised around a particular theme. These themes are devised by the participants in the project, and are used to structure the dialogue. Previous themes have included sexuality, HIV/AIDS, gang involvement, warden/prisoner relations, drug use, family life, conflict resolution, and post-release solutions. During the week prior to the session, the youth prepare for these discussions by making a list of issues that they want to bring to the table; they often write short stories, poetry, rhymes, or songs relevant to the issue of the day. As all of the participants are trained in sound recording at the beginning of the project, they take turns leading the dialogue and recording the weekly discussions.

Youth, Conflict.

According to the organisers, “Giving these young people microphones and the means to tell their own stories is simultaneously giving them a voice, offering them hope, and investing them with much-needed mechanisms of self-esteem.” By moving their stories beyond of the prison walls, the project also aims to highlight the issues of young people in prison, fostering a public dialogue about youth incarceration and rehabilitation.

”Radio production not only allows young people to get feedback on their thoughts and ideas, but it creates a space in which the young people can air their views, discuss what’s on their mind, and hopefully negotiate tensions that may exist within the prison and in the society at large. Conversations about topics for radio programmes can bring about discussions among the youth that do not typically take place in the confines of the prison. In this instance, the microphone operates as a catalyst for dialogue, as an agent of negotiation and transformation. In our weekly meetings, we attempt to create such a transformational space, a forum for dialoguing about issues important to the incarcerated youth.”

By training young people in radio production, the organisers aim to develop their communication and critical thinking skills, teamwork, social awareness, and personal/collective social responsibility. “We endeavour, in our conversations with the youth, to instil in them a sense of personal responsibility, self-esteem, and social motivation, and to encourage a productive lifestyle post-release. We see our roles as both media trainers and social workers providing them with valuable and marketable skills in the media, and also offering them mechanisms of support for themselves and their families.“