La Modelo Bogota, Colombia Prison Inmates Record And Launch 3 Music CDs

Prisoners at Colombia's La Modelo Prison have recorded, produced and released three musical albums while behind bars. Two of the discs were hip-hop and one was Christian Evangelical. The music was recorded as a part of the prison's social reintegration program.

The inmates that took part in the musical creation performed their songs in front of the correction facility and their families in the prison chapel. The bands--the Abarco, Reincidentes and Pasos de Guerrero--assembled a sound studio from scratch to be able to record their pieces. And the songs they produced are related to their life in prison. For instance, the lyrics of "Basta, Me Siento Muerto en Vida" (Enough, I Feel Dead in Life) talk about the drama of an inmate saying, "May God on high end this torment."

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"Abarco," the leader of the eponymous rap band says he is a "musician by profession" and told Efe that the music will be "bringing street art inside the jail is a total relief among so many dead hours."

"We represent what is true...we make music with meaning because we are prisoners in body but not in soul," said Carbonero, of the hip-hop trio Reincidentes.

Jairo Sanchez, the man behind the project at La Modelo, told Efe in a statement that "the idea is to take this pioneering project to the country's other penitentiaries as a good social reintegration program based on music," because "these guys are what matter most of all."