Music Therapy in US Corrections: Philosophy, Practice, and Protocols of Music Therapists Working with Incarcerated People in the US
Kayla Stubblefield, MT-BC
When you think of settings in which music therapists work, the first facility that comes to mind may be a school, a hospital, or a nursing home. Oftentimes, people are surprised when hearing that music therapy can benefit those in correctional facilities. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, having 1 out of 5 people incarcerated in the United States. Approximately 7 million people who are serving parole or probation are under oversight of the U.S. correctional system, with roughly 2.3 million people being held in various facilities such as juvenile detention prisons, jail, federal prisons, and immigration detention facilities. Poverty and race correlate to mass incarceration rates in the U.S., and Black Americans as well as other people of color are overrepresented (Sawyer & Wagner, 2020)…