'They might kill each other in the yard': Now NSW prisoners gather to make music
While on a journey across Australia, Oli Firth finds himself in a place he never thought he would end up: In prison. Mr Firth’s journey was cut short in the dusty NSW outback after he was caught on drugs and sent to the Broken Hill Correctional Centre. “It was the toughest time of my life,” he told ABC’s RN’s Life Matters. But while behind bars, Firth is involved in a program called Songbirds that teaches inmates songwriting. That changes it. “[Music] is a real beacon of light for me. It was the only thing that got me through it.” And Mr Firth is not alone in seeking entertainment through music in prison. Into the forest Murray Cook is a musician (as well as a marine biologist) who has played with Midnight Oil, Mental as Anything and Mixed Relations. But for more than 20 years, Mr Cook has also run music classes in various NSW prisons, including stints as a music teacher in the psychology ward at Sydney’s Long Bay Correctional Center. He is currently program director for Songbirds, a