Voices from the Flats – A Joyful Noise
By Pati Crofut
This year the violin section in the Hiland Mountain Correctional Center Women’s String Orchestra was hit hard by attrition, good news for the inmates but bad news for the orchestra. Cathleen was released and relocated to California. Pam was released to a halfway house. Angela is out. Cassandra is at the Clitheroe Center. Intermediate players moved up to fill the vacated advanced slots but musically, the group slid back to accommodate this less experienced section. Prison orchestras are only as good as the members with the lengthier sentences so a prisoner’s release is bitter sweet.
Our conductor, Gabrielle Willis, took over the beginning orchestra in addition to teaching the advanced group. Twenty-two signed up for the beginning orchestra initially, and seventeen seem to be sticking with it, our largest beginning orchestra group ever. Gabi developed an incentive system to encourage the beginners. She rewards them with water bottles, coffee cups, lotion, shampoo and other luxuries for reaching musical milestones Four consecutive attendances gets you an orchestra t-shirt,. playing a musical passage solo in front of the group—a pencil. Each beginner also gets a mentor from the intermediate and advanced orchestras.
The women continue to struggle on the outside. Marquita has been in and out of Hiland several times over the last six years. Each time she reenters Hiland she checks out her viola and inserts herself back into the advanced group. She tells me that her dad has a lot of kids from several women and every time she returns home, he immediately leaves telling her “they’re all yours”. She flees upon his return, couch surfs for awhile and ends up reoffending..
Rebecca also struggles. She’s been out for four years and has a two year old daughter and a fragile relationship with the child’s dad. She has not managed to acquire any marketable skills. Her relationship hit the skids last week and she ended up at my house with her daughter. I was surprised to find out that a felon cannot receive any federal assistance. That means no food stamps or low income housing. Rebecca is now back with the boyfriend waiting to find out if she can qualify for a Pell Grant and enter a ten month dental assisting program at UAA. Being a dental assistant does not require a license so her felon status would only be of concern to the prospective dentist employer. Whether or not she will be able to stick with the program for ten months is another issue.
A lot of the women have lost weight this year. Zumba classes have arrived at Hiland and many of the women are working out twice a week to what seems to be their improved mental health as well. Innovative programs are possible with a forward thinking superintendent like Dean Marshall.. Usually holidays cast a pall over the facility, but this year the general mood of the women feels lighter overall. I think that the Spot Program contributes to this lighter atmosphere. Eighteen hand picked dogs at a time are removed from the Palmer shelter. Two inmates are teamed up with each dog. Some dogs are socialized to be family pets and some remain at Hiland longer to be trained as service dogs. I often wonder how the overall moods and health would improve with good healthy food instead of institutional food loaded with carbs and fat. It would be more expensive, but it might be worth it.
Concert rehearsal this week was marred by our bass player finding out that the space in the halfway house was in fact not available to her. Thirty five more months in Hiland. The rest of the group quietly informed Gabi and I prior to her arrival to ensure we made no stupid remarks about her release! The entire orchestra, giving no thought to musical dynamics was plunking away on a beginner piece called Seven Little Snowflakes. Gabi is a stickler for musical interpretation and was quite upset with us. She let us know by telling us this was a piece about snow flakes not hailstones or balls of sleet!! OK, we get the picture.
We were contacted by a national news show this past week. They may broadcast a story about our little orchestra and use it as a holiday piece. The producer asked me to identify an inmate for whom music was their passage. After a thoughtful back and forth I told him that maybe there wasn’t anything as dramatic as this. Maybe the affect of the orchestra on the inmates has been smaller and more subtle. Rebecca and Marquita are not playing music outside of Hiland. They are busy trying to survive.
I think music is one of life’s luxuries that a person gets to after their basic needs are satisfied. Almost all of the Hiland women were raised in some form of chaos and many of them see Hiland as a harbor in the storm. They thrive in the structure, the discipline, the support, the camaraderie. Maybe the orchestra is most valuable as a community. The musicians have a sense of belonging that is positive. They have many little successes as a member of the orchestra, like mastering a musical scale, polishing a piece, advancing to the next group level, and performing in public Their children get to see them in concert black attire once a year up on stage, making a joyful noise. And I still feel they achieve that all important skill—playing well with others.
Pati Crofut is the co-founder of the orchestra and has been playing with the Hiland musicians weekly since 2003.
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This year, flutist Sandra Kipp will join us for our holiday concert, featuring a selection of music from Vivaldi’s Piccolo Concerto in A Minor to Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus.
Sandra has performed with such orchestras as the Pacific Symphony, Opera Pacific, Pasadena Symphony, Long Beach Symphony, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Glendale Symphony, Moscow Ballet, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, New West Symphony, and the Symphony in the Glen, among other Southern California orchestras. Sandra performed for many years with The Nuance Ensemble, an artist-in-residence ensemble at Moorpark College. She performed with Sterling and Strings Chamber Music for over 20 years and has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, Thailand, Belize, Japan, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
Please join us on Saturday, December 4, 2010 at 1:30 pm in celebrating the rehabilitative and redemptive power of music, and in helping these women find their way back into society.
Purchase tickets:
- At Metro Music in Metro Mall on Benson across from Sears
- Email Pati Crofut for tickets
- Credit card purchases at Centertix
The concert is held inside the prison. All concert goers must be pre-cleared by submitting a driver’s license number PRIOR to the concert. Email driver’s license number and State to Pati Crofut NO LATER THAN December 4!
This post resonates for me. When I was working as a CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, from the Jimmy Carter era) artist, I conducted poetry workshops at hospitals (including mental health facilities), nursing homes, and prisons. I had never believed much in poetry workshops, until I realized that my job was bringing in some inspiration. It was very rewarding.
what a lovely article. Thank you for sharing the gift of music making with those who often get overlooked. this is what being a compassionate member of society is all about, and it’s so inspiring and motivating to hear about this.
Phil, I think that the women inmates would love a Music Appreciation class. And the summer is an ideal time because the orchestra is on hiatus.
Good. I’ll see what I can do to help the college do its part.
I’m involved in Kairos at Hiland Mountain and Wildwood. It is similar to Walk to Emmaus, a retreat that happens on the outside. I too am grateful for the superintendent’s willingness to bring positive programs to the women at Hiland Mountain. I am sad that society in general, our leaders in particular, don’t seem to be very concerned with the negative effects recidivism has on, not only the offenders, but society. EVEN if one only looks at folks as economic units, we are not spending money wisely. Building more space seems to be the answer.
Voting is also not an option without some sort of special dispensation. In my opinion, once a person has served their time and is off probation, the punishment should cease. Enough already. Give people a chance to have a life again.
Thank all of you for joy of mucis you share. The women with whom we have contact light up when discussing the topic of playing music.
Would it be possible, either through grants or a wonderful donor, to make a CD of these women?
It would be a way that those of us who are not in “dropping in” range could help.
What a great post and wonderful program!! I hope they perform to a sellout crowd. Thanks for sharing this.
What a wonderful program. These women must have such a sense of pride.
I had always assumed that having an extremely dysfunctional family could lead someone down the road to crime, but had never considered the obstacles these people face when they get out of prison. Who can they rely on if not their own family? What a struggle. And without any government safety net. Is it any wonder that the USA has the highest incarceration rates in the world?
Thank you for bringing some enjoyment into the Hiland women’s lives. A dear friend of mine had to spend time there–story is long, and I believe she was wrongly accused and convicted, but there she was anyway. Hiland is one of the better prisons for a woman to be in, but there is still not much to do to keep the mind and spirit alive. You are a wonderful person to bring this sorty of activity in and to support the members once they leave.
I was unaware that felons are ineligible for federal assistance. People have to eat and they’ll do what they have to in order to not starve. It’s just a shame that we would cut off something so basic.
What a wonderful post! Even if there have not been those sudden “major transformations,” no matter because it is in the small steady evolution of self that real change occurs. Learning to make music has a special magic that works deep in one’s soul. Blessings be to those who teach and to those willing to learn.
I would love to hear a performance… is there any way online?
Also, I had the opportunity to work as a literacy coach in a women’s prison here in CT this past Spring. Some of the programs they are incorporating really do make a difference. One that I know about was the Creative Writing program, led by Wally Lamb. These women looked forward to Thursdays with such passion that you could see it in their faces, no matter they were locked up. There was a lock-down one week I was there and the entire population was not allowed out of their cells. When they came back to school, there was a lot of talk about how they missed out on Wally’s class on Thursday. Missing that was more important to them than being locked down for a week.
There is also a service dog training program. I met two of the dogs, who accompany the trainer to classes. These kinds of programs and the one in Eagle River bring out the best in these people. It gives them a chance to be “good”. If you can catch people being “good” instead of always catching them being “bad”, you have the potential of changing their lives.
Well done.
“Many of them see Hiland as a harbor in the storm”
That statement really hit me between the eyes. So many of us, myself included, expect these women to learn to function in our community, according to our standards, when in fact, it may be impossible for them.
I wish these women a peaceful holiday.
Thank you for this post.
Pati,
I’ve been asked by the director of Eagle River Community College to consider teaching Music 121, Music Appreciation, at HMCC this coming summer, “if the money [from the State] is there.” I already teach it at UAA and at ERCC. Do you know if some of the women there might be interested in taking the course?
Congratulations on getting so many people involved in the orchestra!