Please download and share this FREE Jailing is Failing Song

I am pleased to make available a song recorded by volunteers for the Justice Reform Initiative which I chair.

My hope is that more volunteers from around the Australia, including more people with lived experience, will record more songs to help mobilise community opinion in support of justice and prison reform in this country to cut our over-incarceration rates and turn lives around.

Please download and share.

This song “Jailing is Failing” was recorded by some wonderful Queensland volunteers who are acknowledged below:

Play or download your copy:

Acknowledgements:

Original lyric contribution: a Justice Reform Initiative volunteer 

Song composition: lyric arrangement and musical score - Jo Reid-Speirs

Choirmaster /Musical Director: Ann Birmingham

Sound Engineer: David Crane

Musicians:

Banjoleleist and Lead vocalist: Jo Reid-Speirs

Guitarist and vocalist: Jen Lockwood

Ukuleleist and vocalist: Madonna Cuskelly

Cellist: Allyson Reynolds

Choir: Peace 'n' Choir

Lyrics:

Jailing is Failing

The prison door slammed shut behind me, I heard him turn the key,

I’ve heard that sound all my life, I’ve tried to find peace, I’ve tried to find light.

I knew it then and I know it now —that jailing is failing.

We need to turn things around, turn lives around,

Turn it around, turn lives around – cause jailing is failing.

As a kid of ten, I stole a bike, my life at home had not much to like,

I was out of school with repeated suspensions, a kid on the street then juvi detention.

I knew it then and I know it now —that jailing is failing.

We need to turn things around, turn lives around,

Turn it around, turn lives around – cause jailing is failing.

At 18 no job or place to live, drink and drugs washed my tears, I’d no more to give,

In the wrong crowd, more trouble with the law, my health in decline then the prison door.

I knew it then and I know it now —that jailing is failing.

We need to turn things around, turn lives around,

Turn it around, turn lives around – cause jailing is failing.

20 years on – my life is no better, so much money spent to keep me in fetters,

I needed a chance to break the cycle of prison - find a job, be proud and escape derision.

I knew it then and I know it now —that jailing is failing.

We need to turn things around, turn lives around,

Turn it around, turn lives around – cause jailing is failing.

So many behind those prison walls, share life’s journey with me,

For they too have lost right out, in life’s lottery!

We are people too, change this situation,

Let’s invest in people - not ‘Incarceration Nation’.

I knew it then and I know it now —that jailing is failing.

We need to turn things around, turn lives around,

Turn it around, turn lives around – cause jailing is failing