The role of music among prisoners and prison staff: A qualitative research study
| Date | 01 November 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1477370818775295 |
| Author | Moshe Bensimon,Ortal Edri |
| Published date | 01 November 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
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Article
European Journal of Criminology
2019, Vol. 16(6) 633 –651
The role of music among
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DOI: 10.1177/1477370818775295
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A qualitative research study
Ortal Edri and Moshe Bensimon
Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Abstract
Music is an integral part of every subculture, including that of prisons. However, no research
has yet examined the meaning of music for prisoners and prison staff. The present research
examined the role of music in the world of prisoners in Israel and how prison staff experience it.
Content analysis of interviews with 10 convicted prisoners and 9 prison staff members indicated
four central themes: the different ways prisoners consume and are exposed to music; the role
of music in provoking positive and negative feelings; the role of music in the relationships among
inmates – closeness and conflicts; and the role of music in the relationships between prisoners
and prison staff, particularly in terms of prison regulation of music consumption.
Keywords
Music, qualitative research, prison, prison staff, prisoners, problem music
Introduction
Evidence indicates that prisoners are exposed to music in diverse ways. They participate
in choirs (for example, Silber, 2005); create, write, listen to and perform music (for
example, Daykin et al., 2012); and take part in educational (for example, Anderson and
Overy, 2010) as well as therapeutic (for example, O’Grady, 2011) processes via music
within the criminal justice system (for a qualitative meta-synthesis, see Kougiali et al.,
2018).
From the perspective of the psychological ‘pains of confinement,’ including the loss of
liberty, the deprivation of autonomy and the frustration of sexual desire (Sykes, 1958),
research literature has suggested that art programs in prison are essential to coping with
pains of imprisonment (Kougiali et al., 2018). According to Kougiali et al. (2018), prisoners’
Corresponding author:
Dr. Moshe Bensimon, Department of Criminology, Bar-Ilan University, 5290002 Ramat-Gan, Israel.
Email: moshe.bensimon@biu.ac.il
634
European Journal of Criminology 16(6)
descriptions of their participation in music programs can be explained as ‘rhizomatic (i.e.,
non-hierarchical, multiple, complex and non-linear, with ceaseless and shifting connections,
attractions, meanings and influences) affective spaces’ that can temporally and spatially dis-
rupt the pains of imprisonment. The non-authoritative and egalitarian approach usually
employed by the music instructors enables the development of socially safe spaces within
music groups, promoting autonomy and the conceptualization of an agentic self.
Music programs have been studied comprehensively, but listening to music as a daily
activity in prisons and its role within the prisoners’ personal and interpersonal life has
been explored less. The purpose of the present research was to examine the role of music
in prisons, on the levels of the individual and of interpersonal communication. This qual-
itative study examined how the prisoners experienced music, what it contributed to their
different interactions during incarceration (with both prisoners and with prison staff) and
how the prison staff experienced the music that prisoners listened to.
Prisoners and music
Most of the research on the subject of music in prison has focused on educational or
therapeutic programs in prisons. For example, a music-playing workshop in England was
shown to increase self-empowerment, openness to others and control of anger, create
positive relationships in the prison and prevent drug use recidivism (Digard et al., 2007).
Music programs have been found to improve prisons’ wellbeing in Europe, in countries
such as the UK (Anderson and Overy, 2010), Norway (Gold et al., 2014) and the
Netherlands (Hakvoort, 2002) and outside of Europe, for example in the US (Cohen,
2012), China (Chen et al., 2014) and Israel (Silber, 2005), to name just a few.
However, alongside extensive study of music programs, less research has addressed
the subject of listening to music as a daily activity in prisons and its role within the pris-
oners’ personal and interpersonal lives. Many prisoners customarily listen to music dur-
ing their free time in their cells, for pleasure, for relief from boredom or as a means of
joint activity and building relationships with other prisoners (Johnston, 2010). Some
prisoners use music as a background for reading, writing or while working in the prison
(Bonini and Perrotta, 2007). To the best of our knowledge, no research to date has exam-
ined the role of the music prisoners hear in the course of their daily life, which is charac-
terized by its own subculture (Hancock and Jewkes, 2011). Furthermore, no research has
presented the perspective of the prison staff members (PSM) regarding the music they
hear from the prisoners, nor the role that music plays in the relationship between the two
groups, which the literature has shown to be complex and loaded (Carrabine, 2005).
Prison staff and music
In most prisons, PSM are forbidden to listen to music when on shift, in order to maintain
high awareness (Jacobs and Retsky, 1975). Therefore, the music that staff members hear
while working is usually the music the prisoners are listening to (Tewksbury and Higgins,
2006). However, a review of the literature employing the APA PsycNET, EBSCO,
Google Scholar, ProQuest, Sage Journals, ScienceDirect (Elsevier) and Wiley Online
Library databases indicated that no study has been conducted to date regarding the
Edri and Bensimon
635
meaning that PSM attribute to the music they are exposed to by prisoners during their
long work shifts and how it influences them. Many studies have examined the impact of
exposure to music during the workday in different occupations, such as those of hospital
nurses (Teng et al., 2012), employees of hi-tech firms (Lesiuk, 2005) and lecturers and
academic staff at universities in the US (Bernhard, 2005). However, even though PSM
work long shifts, sometimes lasting up to 12 consecutive hours (Vila et al., 2002), no
research has been conducted on this population to date.
Moreover, no research has been done on the intergroup relationships between prison-
ers and prison staff in relation to music. The role and influence of music in the relation-
ships between prisoners and staff members should be explored, since the two groups
share the same physical space day and night (Crewe, 2011b) and their relationship is
complex, involving aspects of authority and, in some cases, hatred (Carrabine, 2005;
Goffman, 1961).
Prisons have clear policies regarding the ways in which inmates may consume music.
In some prisons, music and radio programs are piped into the cells and the inmates have
no way of turning them off. Other prisons insist that television and radio listening be
conducted with earphones and not speakers (Fairweather, 2000). The prison creates a
particular kind of tension between the home world and the institutional world, which the
staff use as strategic leverage for regulating the prisoners (Goffman, 1961). Given this
association with home, music assumes a powerful role in this system; the privilege of
music is exchanged for good behavior, thus achieving the goal of discipline (Hirsch,
2012). Therefore, it seems that music regulation serves as another mechanism that ena-
bles guards to maintain institutional control, resulting in another, unexplored aspect of
the pains of imprisonment.
The current study
In light of the literature reviewed above, the purpose of the present research was to exam-
ine the role of music in prisons in Israel. More specifically, we sought to answer the
research questions: What is the role of music in the lives of prisoners? What music do
prisoners listen to in prison? How are they exposed to music during their incarceration?
What role does music play in the dynamic among prisoners and between prisoners and
PSM? How do the staff members view the music they hear from the prisoners? Such an
investigation is particularly important because it concerns personal, interpersonal and
intergroup aspects of intensive daily interactions in a fenced-in facility.
Method
The methodology employed in this research was based on the phenomenological approach
(Moustakas, 1994) of qualitative research. Phenomenological studies focus on exploration
of the meaning and interpretations that the research participants ascribe to a given phenom-
enon (Van Manen, 2014). This method is particularly suitable for the purpose of the present
research, in which a unique phenomenon was studied in the setting where it took place, by
means of examining the meanings attributed to it by those involved.
636
European Journal of Criminology 16(6)
Participants
The research population consisted of two groups. The first group comprised 10 convicted
criminals incarcerated in prisons in Israel. Their ages ranged from 20 to 60 and they were
serving their sentences in medium- and high-security facilities. These participants had
been sentenced to long terms of imprisonment in closed wards, for a wide variety of
offenses. At the time of the interviews, they had been in prison for at least three years.
Six of them were native-born Israelis, one was...
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