Beyond the Bars

Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail Inmate Programs

For a complete list of songs, go to the Music & Poetry page.

Some of our latest recordings – Enjoy!

• Win-Win Situation
• Stress
• I Gave You a Name
• Is It Too Late?
• Stuck in a Box
• The Adventures of the Mind
• Emotions Start to Fly
• Eternity
• Dare To Be the Best
• Change

Via Kris Bowmaster, Proud Angel Music

It is our goal to provide programs that address inmate education needs, the utilization of leisure-time, and to assist in their successful transition back into their communities, their families, and their workplaces as productive citizens.

The article quoted below appeared last summer in The Daily Progress.

One by one, the inmates in striped and orange jumpsuits are let into the multipurpose room, some of them clutching lined sheets of paper upon which they have written what is in their hearts.

The Daily Progress/ Andrew Shurtleff

Save for a television mounted on the wall, the room is stark and institutional. The men separate a few plastic chairs from the stacks along the wall and stand around chatting and listening to the newest remix of their work playing from the television.

Soon things quiet down. The men gather around the microphone stands and mixer and begin to perform, pointing at one another and ad-libbing lyrics to a song that’s one part rap and one part gospel.

It is the sound of eight men working in unity. (more…)