Above is a video of Hugh Christopher Brown (Chris), founder of The Pros and Cons Program, discussing the foundation. I wrote a little bit about it in my first blog post, but today I’ll be going into more detail about the work we do and how we do it. 

Over the last ten years, The Pros and Cons program has recorded four albums (with a fifth one on the way, but you didn’t hear it from me). Chris started this program as a way to help lower the recidivism rate in Canada through music, art, mental health support and connection. Unfortunately, because we are such a small organization, we do not have statistics to show what the recidivism rate is for people who’ve gone through this program, but we are hoping to expand out into different provinces over the next couple years, and hopefully soon, we’ll have some real data on how it works. 

In the meantime, we have to look at how art supports mental health. We know that music can provide therapeutic support for patients with dementia, and calm people down when agitated. Art therapy is becoming more and more popular, especially in regards to its positive effects on early childhood development. It goes to show that music can drastically improve people’s mental health. What I like about this program, though, is that it takes music lessons one step further. Chris doesn’t just teach people how to sing or play guitar, he gives legitimate job skills that people can use after release from prison. He brings in professional musicians as mentors that teach people how to write, produce and release albums, giving them authority on when it’s released, how the audio is mixed, and provides them with agency over how their music is being represented. These are all real skills that people can carry with them for the rest of their lives. 

Chris has agreed to sit down and talk to me about the ways in which he has seen this program affect people in real time, that blog post will be coming in January. Many people who have gone through The Pros and Cons Program and been released have gone on to do great things. The effects of this program have not been studied, so in the meantime, Chris will be providing an eye witness account of how it works (while maintaining as much anonymity for the participants as possible). The Pros and Cons Program has built recording studios in 5 different prisons across Ontario, so needless to say, Chris will have a lot to talk about. 

Is there more you want to know about the program? Comment below so I can ask Chris!