tonight, a very special contest spearheaded by a Grammy
award winning rapper to bring hope to incarcerated
people in our country, their families and their
communities. That is the focus of our american heart
series tonight where we look for and amplify the best
in America participants in the contest were asked to
compose original song lyrics an a title to one of
three beats. They got them over this technology and
then they sat down and they came up with it tonight. We
are excited to bring you the winning track, I think
work from the shoes, Great song, The Voice you hear
right there belongs to Carmela mo's A K A. Good. Her
track was chosen from hundreds of submissions around
the country, rapper Look Ray met Carmela to record the
song on site with the help of technology companie
secure us joining me now are two people very intimately
involved with this project. Dave Abel is the President
Ceo of Security Technologies and with him, Grammy award
winning artist like Cray Cray Good to have you. Let's
start with you. You're lending your name, Passion
followers, your presence to this first ever original
hip hop track contest. Why what what hooked you about
this What Got you excited Um well you know, I've been
involved with the corrections community for years and
secures, gave me the opportunit to kind of broaden my
access to people behind those walls and you know, just
to be able to deliver hope through music to over half a
million incarcerated people was very fulfilling and
important aspect of my life and so it's important to me
and my history and my story. Mhm Hope. Um yeah, I mean,
in churches or in in the crowds that you play too, I'm
sure, you know, people are there and and they're
excited. Hope is not a word generally associated with
penitentiary. You know, that seems like a really unique
opportunity. It is man, it's a it's a really unique
opportunity. Um you know, the reality is is that there
are people behind those walls who are the family
members of folks like you are not, who have some have
made some mistakes. Some may be there for different
reasons that are questionable, at the end of the
day, they're still human beings and um they have a
voice and oftentimes their voic is not heard. So we're
providing them with an opportun to be heard to be
seen and to participate in an aspect of society that
demonstrates that uh rehabilitation and restoration
possible. Dave this is kind of a novel idea. Plenty of
prisons have reading programs or you can become a
paralegal or something of that sort. I know you work
with new technology to keep people who are incarcerate
connected to the outside world every day. But rap music,
why rap music, well music in general has the ability to
be able to inspire, it has the ability to be able to
connect people. It allows peopl to be able to express
their feelings and emotions in a way that throughout
history has helped to be able to create better
rehabilitation through prisons go back to johnny
Cash, recording a song by Glen Shirley on Live at
Folsom Prison has a long history of artists,
collaborating in prisons and with incarcerated
individuals to help to be able to express positive
outcomes for individuals who are incarcerated. Look,
Ray, the winner of the contest, Carmela Mose, year old
she's a Mexican and Samoan descent, I believe she's
serving time in the central California women's faci
and there were tons of submissions. It got whittled
down to 25 like we said, and then she was ultimate
chosen as an artist as a philanthropist who really
cares about not just, you know, prison populations, b
the hearts and souls who are there. What spoke to you
about her Yeah. Carmela mose is just a phenomenal
person in general. Um, mismos a k a good, which is her
ravenous good, just represents a voice that would
otherwise have been silenced. Um, but she's talking
about things in her lyrics, you know, from the
submissions, we saw that she she was talking about, you
know, such profound and, and, and ingenious things in a
creative way that I was like, wow, how in the world has
this voice not been heard And so to get the opportunity
to give her a voice to speak to the world is actually
gift to me, Dave your company secures it's more of a
tech company than it is a music company. Why did you
decide when speaking with your board and speaking with
your fellow employees This is something we want to put
our resources behind. Yeah. Our company is focused on
being able to get a tablet in the hand of every
incarcerated individual in the United States. We deploy
technology that helps rehabilitative justice and we
were watching all around the industry and it was an
absolute no brainer to work with. Like Ray. Um, he has
spoken for years, not only in his lyrics, but in his,
in his public statements about the need to reinvest in
the community of people who were incarcerated and help
to be able to create better outcomes throw. So in
partnering with like Ray and being able to use our
technology, we felt that it would be a great outcome
for those who participated for those who submitted
lyrics and and frankly being able to provide resources
to the prison fellowship program. We thought it would
be a great outcome for everybody involved in the end.
know that this is not something you just came to in the
last few weeks or a year, that this is something yo
cared about for a long time. If there are themes that
you hear, if there are lyrics that speak to you, do you
think the broader world should hear because we get the
air carmelo, but there are so many more, anything that
you think we need to know as a society Yeah, I think
that again, you know, I'm the product of somebody who
has had family incarcerated. Um you know, my father
being one of them. And you know, when you can humanize
folks behind those walls, you also send a message to
their Children and their family members that um that
they matter as well. And so giving them a voice on this
original hip hop track contest, you know, opens the
door for other creative opportunities uh to showcase
the talent and the humanity of people behind as well as
oftentimes their type casted as you know, just anything
other than human. And I think this humanizes them and
it helps us to see ourselves in the David has talk
about the importance of finding and an inspiring hope
within every population inside and outside prison walls
connectedness. I know people do better when they
reenter society um when there's a connection, a deep
connection and I know you work to keep people connected
to the outside. Did that seem to be in the same way
wavelength here Absolutely. And and study after study
shows that individuals that have greater connection
from with friends and family outside facilities are
much more likely to successfully reenter society af
their sentence is complete. Um And we also find that
when individuals are sharing music when they're sharing
stories about um songs that they've heard or
experiences that they've had with people on the outside,
that it creates a connective bond that also aids
towards successful reentry. Loo Ray, I was reading up
on your prison fellowship progr and I loved part of
the tagline. They're working to bring hope and
restoration to the incarcerated, their families an
communities impacted by crime and incarceration and,
and what does this world need more than hope right now
I think that's phenomenal. Dave able. Look Ray, thank
you both for your time and all the work you're putting
in. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate y'all. And if
you want to look it up, it is online right now, I think
coming up tonight.