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Jail Time Records was founded in 2018 by former inmate Steve Happi and Italian artist Dione Roach, a BBC report published this week stated. The label operates a modest studio inside the prison that includes a basic recording booth and computer setup where detainees create tracks and videos. An album titled Jail Time Vol 1 appeared in 2022 with profits split evenly between the performing artists and further investment in the project. Prison officials have permitted the initiative with the facility head attending one concert and participating by dancing.
Human Rights Watch reported in 2022 that New Bell held approximately 4,700 prisoners at a time when the facility exceeded its designated capacity. The prison experienced a cholera outbreak around four years before that assessment resulting in at least six deaths according to the same monitoring group. Guards shot and killed 16 inmates during a 2008 disturbance Amnesty International previously documented in its reviews of Cameroonian facilities. Internal dynamics include prisoner-run transport systems and markets alongside occasional gang-related activities.
One prominent artist known as Stone served as a former presidential guard member before receiving a 10-year term for robbery and illegal firearms possession the BBC report detailed. Stone performs material including the lines “Heart of stone, it’s war. My senses shatter like broken glass. I’m closed and tight like a cell door. No solid ground I slip like a fish.” The inmate has sought to reach his daughter Maira through his released work though contact has not yet occurred. A female participant identified as Jeje became the label’s first woman artist after imprisonment linked to theft from a relative and released an Afrobeats song titled Show Me The Way.
Steve Happi described the label in the associated documentary as “this instrument of resistance… where we can really share friendship, love and our voices can be heard… We don’t think anymore about the four walls – we find the freedom.” Dione Roach characterized the undertaking as “a rehabilitation process… Music… is also a way of self-discovery… coming to terms with things you’ve done and hopefully changing for the better.” The six-year filming project won multiple awards at the Tribeca Film Festival last month according to the BBC. Executive producers Taika Waititi and Rita Ora lent support to the documentary titled Jail Time Records.
Taika Waititi commented that “The music that comes out of there is amazing… Having an outlet is an incredibly powerful and humane thing.” The project expanded in 2023 with the opening of a related studio in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, the report noted. Similar creative programs have appeared in other African correctional settings though specific outcomes vary by location and oversight according to regional prison reform organisations. New Bell’s history of internal governance by inmates has allowed the label to maintain consistent activity despite capacity strains.
A 2023 United Nations human rights overview flagged continued overcrowding across multiple Cameroon detention centers beyond New Bell. Monitoring bodies have tracked how such conditions intersect with occasional cultural initiatives inside facilities. The Jail Time Records model has drawn external interest for its focus on artistic production by those serving sentences.
