{"id":18106,"date":"2022-11-12T15:03:26","date_gmt":"2022-11-12T20:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/?p=18106"},"modified":"2026-01-19T16:49:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T21:49:34","slug":"berklee-online-and-breakfree-education-collaborate-to-offer-music-courses-to-incarcerated-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/berklee-online-and-breakfree-education-collaborate-to-offer-music-courses-to-incarcerated-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Berklee Online and BreakFree Education Collaborate to Offer Music Courses to Incarcerated Students"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo by Richard Ross of <\/em>Juvenile-in-Justice<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collaboration Aims to Provide Music Training, Creative Expression, and Support for Justice-Involved Students<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Those who have worked inside juvenile justice facilities in the US know that education is not a priority in the incarceration system\u2014and music<\/em> education certainly is not a priority either. Kat Crawford, a technology innovator for BreakFree Education<\/a>, can attest to this, having worked with more than 120 facilities over the past decade to try and change this reality.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMusic is huge for our students,\u201d says Crawford. \u201cIf they can\u2019t hear it, they\u2019ll make music themselves, either by tapping a pen, or singing all the lyrics to a song, or getting a whole group of people to sing together. So there\u2019s really no way to turn music off in this space.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BreakFree is a nonprofit with a mission to provide educational solutions to students who are incarcerated. When Mike Moyes<\/a>, the Assistant Vice President of Enrollment Strategy and Operations at Berklee, learned about BreakFree, he knew that Berklee Online could help be a part of that solution. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was something that was always on my mind, that there are incredible musicians who ended up in the prison system, often because of circumstances out of their control,\u201d says Moyes. \u201cThey have the skill, ability, and talent, and just need the opportunity.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Circumstances out of their control include the disproportionate number of in-school arrests of students of color and students with disabilities, according to the ACLU<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Infographic by Community Coalition<\/a> and featured in the Unsung Songwriting Contest curriculum. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The partnership began with an initiative called the Unsung Songwriting Contest, which Crawford developed. Currently in its fourth year, the Unsung Songwriting Contest provides students with a curriculum to learn how to write and produce their own protest song. Crawford and Moyes decided that the contest would offer insight into who would be a great candidate for a Berklee Online course scholarship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first lesson in the Unsung curriculum discusses lyrics in songs like \u201cWe Shall Overcome,\u201d \u201cSunday Bloody Sunday\u201d by U2, \u201cGet Up, Stand Up\u201d by Bob Marley, and more. Students are then encouraged to write about issues in the world that impact them, such as the school-to-prison pipeline. They are then taught how to adapt their writing to a song format, and finally, produce their song in the online DAW program, SoundTrap, and submit. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A slide about the protest anthem “We Shall Overcome,” featured in the Unsung Songwriting Contest curriculum. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo matter what, you can change people\u2019s perceptions through music by creating protest songs,\u201d says Crawford. \u201cThat was the idea behind the curriculum that I designed and when we pushed it out there, we got so many incredible songs and we\u2019ve continued to have some just amazing stories.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the amazing stories that Crawford references is that the two, first-place winners of the 2020 contest were separated in their facility as a punishment for singing together too often. A teacher who knew about the situation asked for permission to bring the two students into a visitation room, where they went on to create their winning song in that one session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat to me was just absolutely incredible,\u201d says Crawford. \u201cNot only that the teacher recognized that this wasn\u2019t something students should be punished for, but also that they took the initiative to say, \u2018We\u2019ve got to not think of this as a barrier, but what can we do to bring these students together to create great music?\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the 2022 contest, five winners were selected from student entries from across the country. Moyes consulted with Crawford about how to choose students who would be most equipped for success in a Berklee Online course. There were many factors to consider, and the last thing they wanted was for a student to have a bad experience in a course because their technology was not up to par, or because they did not receive the support they needed within their facility. BreakFree coordinated with the teachers from the winners\u2019 schools to determine the scholarship recipients.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Here is a playlist of the 2022 top five winners.<\/a>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n