This entry is only available in Español.

At Ironwood State Prison, and thanks to an award-winning Tex-Mex musician and a young trio and mariachi singer, a group of inmates are finding their long sentences more bearable.

A group of inmates at a medium-security prison in the city of Norco in Riverside County say that taking Afro-Caribbean drum lessons has helped to alleviate the racial tensions common in prisons.

For a group of inmates at the Norco prison, weekends are special. At this facility, located near Los Angeles, some inmates leave their cells for three hours to take classes on jarana.

Abdullatif Bell Tounkara, a master musician and teacher, is leading a group of men behind bars in a drum circle. Radio Bilingue’s Tena Rubio reports from Avenal.

At 79, the Mexican-American singer Carmencristina Moreno is taking center stage inside a makeshift classroom — performing and teaching in front of an unlikely crowd — Men serving time at Avenal State Prison. Radio Bilingue’s Tena Rubio has more.

By the time Luis J. Rodriguez was twelve years old, he was already a veteran gangbanger in East Los Angeles. At 18, he was hooked on heroine and had been in jail nearly a dozen times.