In brief
At New Bell in Douala, a prison city, inmates have created an underground studio and record label that has turned several prisoners into music sensations. The studio, known as Jail Time Records, offers a creative outlet that has reached audiences from South Africa to the US. Despite severe overcrowding and violence, the music program provides a beacon of hope and rehabilitation for inmates. The project’s success has sparked expansion beyond Cameroon, inspiring similar initiatives in Burkina Faso. Through art, inmates find a voice and a chance at a different future.
In Douala, Cameroon, the New Bell correctional facility has become a city of its own, complete with music markets, cargo “taxis,” and a makeshift police force that patrols its walled courtyards.
Among its inmates is Empereur, a gang leader whose music video for “Sa Ngando” has racked 24,000 views on YouTube, proving that talent can bloom even inside prison walls.
The catalyst for this cultural revolution is Jail Time Records, a studio and label founded in 2018 by former inmate Steve Happi and artist Dione Roach. Together, they equipped a cramped room with a recording booth and a solitary laptop, turning a ten‑year‑old prison into a launching pad for music careers.
The project has grown, staging a music‑video shoot in the clink’s courtyard and even navigating a full‑scale concert that drew hundreds of inmates. A film produced by Happi and Roach, which earned three awards at the Tribeca Festival in New York, documents how the music is a form of resistance and a path to self‑rehabilitation.
Despite the grim conditions—overcrowding that quadruples the capacity, a cholera outbreak that killed six inmates, and frequent violence—the prison authorities have embraced the program, in part because Cameroon is a nation of musical passion. Even the head of the facility attended a recent concert and danced with the performers.
Jail Time Records has extended beyond New Bell, opening a studio in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and promoting the voices of women prisoners. The phenomenon illustrates that a creative outlet can illuminate a fragile future for those inside the system.
