Reading

Select bibliography on music, justice, prisons and education contexts and more by our members and friends.

Keep up to date with Dr Mary Cohen’s Working Bibliography on Music and Prisons.

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Bagaric, M., Hunter, D., & Svilar, J. (2021). Prison abolition: From naïve idealism to technological pragmatism. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), 111(2), 351-406.  

‍Baisley, M. (2024). Systemic resilience and abolition: Developing individual and communal capacities to respond to harm and violence. In C. Eppler (Ed.)., Cultivating systemic resilience in therapy: Applications and interventions for families, relationships, and individuals

‍Barrie, H. (2020). No one is disposable: Towards feminist models of transformative justice. Journal of Law and Social Policy, 33(4), 65-92.

‍Bell, M. (2022). Abolition as a project of personal transformation. Champ pénal/Penal Field, 27, https://journals.openedition.org/champpenal/13491

Braxton, A., & Katz, M. (2024). Rap and redemption: Seeking justice and finding purpose on death row.

Cohen, M. L., & Duncan, S. P. (2022). Music-making in U.S. prisons: Listening to Incarcerated Voices. Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Davis, Angela. (2003). Are prisons obsolete? Seven Stories Press.

De Quadros, A. (2016). Case study: ‘I once was lost but now am found’—music and embodied arts in two America prisons. In S. Clift & P. M. Camic (Eds.), Oxford textbook of creative arts, health, and wellbeing: International perspectives on practice, policy, and research (pp. 187-191). New York: Oxford University Press.

Doxat-Pratt, S. (2021). Musical communities in the society of captives: Exploring the impact of music making on the social world of prison. Musicae Scientiae, 25(3), 290-302.

Kaba, M. (2021). We do this till we free us. Haymarket Books.

Kallio, A.A. (2022). The transformative potentials and politics of music in juvenile justice settings. Music Education Research. DOI: 10.1080/14613808.2022.2046719

Kerchner, J. (2024). Documentary Songwriting in prison: "I am good 'bout myself.' International Journal of Community Music, 17(2), 233-248.

Marynisse, S., Vandermeersche, G., & Brosens, D. (2025). A realist lens on participatory music programmes in prison. In A. Gardner & L. Caufield (Eds.). Arts in criminal justice and corrections: International perspectives on methods, journeys, and challenges (pp. 67-84).

McNeill, F., Corcoran. M., & Weaver, B. (20216). Generative justice: Beyond crime and punishment. Bristol University Press.

Miller, Reuben Jonathan. (2021). Halfway home: Race, punishment, and the afterlife of mass incarceration. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

Pfaff, J. (2017). Locked in: The true causes of mass incarceration. Basic Books.

Rhodd, A.R., & Cohen, M. L. (2022). Finding mountains with music: Growth and spiritual transcendence in a U.S. prison. Religions, 13(11), 1012.    

Roma, C. (2023). Singing the stories of our lives: Protest and praise. In J. H. Harwell & H. M. Altman (Eds.), Theology and protest music (pp. 263-299). Roman & Littlefield.

Roma, C. (2010).  Re-sounding: Refuge and reprise in a prison choral community.  International Journal of Community Music 3(1), 91-102.  doi: 10.1386/ijcm.3.1.91/1

Roveda, A., Sydes, M., & Wood, W. R. (2025). Music-based interventions for the well-being of people in prison: A systematic review. Victims and Offenders, 20(1), 1-32.