Watching Gareth Malone's Aylesbury Prison choir documentary - Lifestyle Monday

Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,

I truly believe that the choirmaster himself, Gareth Malone, has a way of bringing people together. Not only does he get people to sing in harmony, but he also gets them to act in harmony. I watched the spectacular performance he did with Watford General Hospital at Christmas, where he promoted the amazing nurses and people who have worked tirelessly for their patients and children; the end performance was so beautiful that I think it made people with even the strongest of hearts, cry. It may not be your usual method of cooperation but I think there's truly something therapeutic behind music and singing that Gareth has managed uncover. 

In contrast to this, I watched his second documentary, where he tried to get the supposedly "reckless" youth of Aylesbury Prison to sing. I was shocked and perhaps not quite as sympathetic to the young offenders at first because I immediately learnt of the crimes they'd committed. Some of them were serving extensive and life sentences for murder and ABH (Actual Bodily Harm). Some of these criminals were as young as 21 years old, serving these life sentences. Others were arrested for drug dealing and armed robbery. I also learnt that within the short space of a month, only 4 weeks, there were on average 20 fights between rival gangs in the prison. There was so much discord and violence in that place that not only did the initial first impressions of the prisoners seem terrible, I could not understand how Gareth was going to make them sing in harmony together. As Gareth said "there is no harmony in this place."

However, he did get them to sing, and he got them to sing really well. This is taking into consideration that the only thing that these guys could do at first was rap. Getting them to sing a note, was a huge accomplishment. Yes these prisoners deserved to be where they were and yes they deserved to serve this punishment but equally, there stories deserved to be understood. As well as the high levels of fights, there were also many prisoners self harming and the suicide rates were extremely high. Many of the prisoners were very unstable mentally and that was the biggest thing that prevented them from doing what was right because one day they were very good and the next day they were very bad. One prisoner, Lewis, had an extreme personality disorder and he had to take medication for bipolar. Although he did wrong in the past, he was actually quite a bright person, who could sing really well. What let him down the most was the fact that his mental health issues, really knocked his confidence. Consequently, Gareth adopted a method that he saw another choir use, where the lady got the public involved with the prisoners and the singing. The prisoners at this choir didn't even look like prisoners; there faces lighted up with joy and you couldn't even tell that they'd done wrong. Baring this in mind, Gareth organised a performance to the public.

We always say, don't judge a book by it's cover and I very much think that it's a cliché thing to say and is overused by many people. When we look at a prisoner, yes  we see that they act rude at first and dress very informally but behind that front cover is a decent person. It was quite inspiring to see the performance that was made. The parents came to watch and although they may not be proud of where their sons were, perhaps they were a little more proud of the people they've become. It was very emotional and all the parents were in tears. Lewis's father, like the rest of the dad's there, was only relying on the postman to send his letters to his son and now he could see him perform a beautiful song. The setting wasn't exactly idyllic, as there were cells to the left and right of the audience, but I'm glad that that was the place that Gareth decided to conduct the performance because it was their story and their truth being portrayed.

We may call them reckless youths and in some ways they still are. I'm sure many of them will continue to battle their mental health but as Oscar Wilde said, "all saints have a past, and all sinners have a future." One of the 21 Year olds, Usher, was serving a life sentence for murder. He was particularly reckless but I honestly saw a smarter person at the end of it. I think everyone has the potential to change they just need to make the change themselves. I know many businesses such as Timpson, who hire people who've just got out of prison so it's not completely impossible.

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XOX, Juliette

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