“Restoration through Music”: A Concert Series for Incarcerated Women seeks to provide concert music experiences for incarcerated women in Louisiana during the year 2019 and beyond in the form of a series of performances. The benefits of such events go beyond alleviating the emotional hardship of incarceration (a worthwhile goal in itself); more importantly yet, incarcerated persons’ exposure to and engagement with music and arts in general, is increasingly recognized as a powerful tool in their rehabilitation and post-incarceration reintegration into society.

While men’s prisons in Louisiana have thriving music and arts programs, women’s prisons have not been afforded equivalent opportunities, and we seek to help alleviate this imbalance. On December 17, 2018, NOCO performed a holiday concert at the Jetson facility of Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in Baker, Louisiana, which elicited a supremely enthusiastic response from the audience of about 200 incarcerated women (as evidenced by the video linked below) and won high praise of the present correction officials. Our concert was a subject of a news story in Baton Rouge media; video of that report, including fragments of our performance and a short interview with the head of the facility Warden Frederick Boutte can be accessed by clicking here

 
The population of Jetson is only a fraction of Louisiana women’s prisons population, which is currently divided between several facilities, and we are hoping to make our concerts available to the entire population of incarcerated women in Louisiana. Both NOCO and OR are currently working on raising funds for this project with several grant applications pending, but public support will be still crucial for this endeavor to succeed. You can help make this happen by donating here: