The overall idea of the project was that young inmates must reflect on their offences and imagine a future without crime. We also wanted to take them back to their youth when they had ambitions and dreams. We wanted them to learn from their mistakes and to formulate ambitions and take steps to realize a better future. Music fosters social connections and community within prisons, reducing feelings of isolation and promoting solidarity among inmates. It serves as a therapeutic tool, alleviating stress, promoting relaxation, and aiding in the processing of trauma. Importantly, music contributes to detainees' rehabilitation by instilling discipline, perseverance, and teamwork — qualities crucial for successful reintegration into society. Overall, music in detention transcends mere entertainment, offering hope, empowerment, and avenues for personal growth. In our opinion the project achieved this by working with autobiographical storytelling techniques and writing rap songs. The overall ambition was to create an opportunity to rework the experience related to the crime but also to realize an opportunity for mutual reflection on the experiences shared by all participants.
Through an innovative approach we wanted to develop a method that could help to reduce reoffending among young (ex) prisoners and offenders. We wanted to help them to set targets for their future and hand them tools to become better and more active citizens. The basic idea of the project was to use rap music and storytelling as a tool to communicate with our target group and as a language for them to formulate their ideas and goals. In the project we aimed to carry out comparative research in the various partner countries to the existing methodologies, to work with storytelling and rap music and above all to the indicators that could define the quality of the interventions. In prison environments where freedom is constrained and tensions are high, music serves as a vital outlet for emotions and a source of solace. Prison music programs, ranging from choirs and bands to songwriting workshops, offer detainees a sense of freedom within their confined spaces. Through music, inmates express themselves, share their stories, and find comfort in familiar tunes, fostering a connection to life outside prison walls.