Prisons of Note: bringing harmony to rehabilitation
When you think of music in prison, you might jump immediately to the iconic image of Johnny Cash’s performance at Folsom Prison in California. However, music in prisons is not just a thing of the past.
It continues to prove an instrumental tool for rehabilitation and a means to allow prisoners to express themselves in difficult circumstances. There are a number of interesting research projects in this area, one of which is led by Irishwoman Dr Áine Mangaoang. Dr Mangaoang is taking a closer look at the role of music in the lives of persons in prison in Ireland, Iceland and Norway.
Meet Dr Áine Mangaoang
Since 2016, Dr Áine Mangaoang has been living and working in Norway, where she is Associate Professor of Popular Music at the University of Oslo.
Dr Mangaoang, originally from Wexford, has made Norway her home and is currently conducting a large research project on the use of music as a rehabilitative tool in prisons in Norway, Iceland and Ireland. The project, “Prisons of Note”, is funded by the Norwegian Research Council and will conclude in January 2026.
About the project
Having spent many years researching the role of music in the lives of the prison populations of each country, Dr Mangaoang and her research team, Lucy Cathcart Frödén and Noah Winther Krogsholm, have begun reflecting on the role of music in each society and how that is transferred to the context of prison.
Through listening to the perspectives of people in prison, as well as staff and other stakeholders, the ‘Prisons of Note’ project sets out to better understand music and incarceration to build a comprehensive understanding of music’s potential in contexts of crime, harm, punishment, rehabilitation, and restorative justice.
The Auld ‘northern’ triangle
As three countries on the northern fringes of Europe, Ireland, Iceland and Norway have much in common as societies and cultures. Iceland was founded by settlers from Norway, while Norwegian and Irish people have strong links through our heritage in folk music.
But what about these music cultures and what about the role of music in prison systems across these three countries? What is the impact on persons in prison, rehabilitation and recidivism? These are the questions Dr Mangaoang and her team were seeking to answer.
The research that Dr Mangaoang and her team have conducted has shed light on some surprising similarities as well as differences between each country and the approach taken by authorities to the use of music in prison in each place.
Of the three countries being researched in the project, Ireland and Iceland are the most renowned for the special place that music has in their cultures. However, the ‘Prisons of Note’ team have found that, despite music playing a less central role in Norwegian national identity, it is Norway which places the greatest emphasis on the use of music in prisons.
‘Musikk i fengsel og frihet’ project
Norway’s use of music in prisons is best exemplified by the ‘Musikk i fengsel og frihet’ [Music in prison and freedom] project, which is a nationwide programme for music learning in the Norwegian prison system and drug rehabilitation centres. This feeds into the idea of “penal exceptionalism” that tends to view the Norwegian prison system as an exceptional example of non-punitive prison systems.
However, as Dr Mangaoang points out, Ireland and Iceland, as small societies, also have a vested interest in prison systems that do their best to reintegrate people back into their communities once they have served their sentences. A good example of this is the InHouse Harmony Choir.
The Progression Sessions and In House Harmony Choir
In Ireland in recent years, there have been various music projects in Irish prisons, in particular in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, and in Cork Prison. In the Progression Unit of Mountjoy Prison, prisoners have learned to write songs and music, and even recorded an album called the Progression Sessions, which is available on Bandcamp. Many of the songs deal with the everyday mundane aspects of life in prison.
Another project has been the InHouse Harmony choir, o. Originally established as a workplace choir by employees of SOLAS, the State agency which oversaw further education and training in Ireland. In April 2019, SOLAS held a TEDx event at Mountjoy, which focused on reintegration.
This was the first TEDx event in an Irish prison and it was at this event that the InHouse men’s choir of Mountjoy performed alongside the SOLAS choir. The two choirs combined, becoming an “inside-outside” choir, with the members being a mix of SOLAS employees and men from the InHouse choir in Mountjoy.
Watch a video about the Choir on YouTube
What’s to come in the future
Although the research for the project is now largely concluded, the work for Dr Mangaoang and her team is just beginning in terms of presenting the findings of their research. The hope for the project is that it will show the positive power that music has not just in prisoners' lives, but also in the lives of prison staff, family, friends, and society more broadly."
In addition to the research already published as part of the project, a book on the topic titled Sound and Detention has been published with Bloomsbury.
Learn more:
Listen to Áine and Lucy discuss their project on Radio Nova>>