Four people sat in front of Yamaha keyboards on May 19 learning to play the Christmas classic "Jingle Bells."
They each sat in front of their own keyboard, tapping away at the black and white piano keys while following along with class instructor Joe Zempel. The men laughed and joked around with each other as some of them played the wrong notes.
"I always wanted to play piano because I actually sing and I rap. That's the artist in me," said Koran Adams through a wide smile.
Adams, 32, is finally getting the chance to learn to play while incarcerated at the St. Louis County Justice Center as part of a 15-week piano class.
Melodies of Hope is run by St. Louis-based nonprofit Pianos for People and is a test run of a new creative outlet for detainees at a facility that has struggled to provide detainees with enough time outside their cells, due to limited staff. Mental health in the jail population has suffered as a result.
An iteration of the program was introduced last year for a hopeful violin class, but jail officials said the class never launched.
Taking it one step at a time
"Eventually I'll learn how to engineer and make beats and all that type of stuff, just by coming to this class," Adams said, who is charged with leaving the scene of a car accident that resulted in death and has a pretrial hearing set for July 10.
Pianos for People provided the instruments and sponsored the lessons.
"It's just getting the fundamentals because I know they want to play all sorts of songs. They were like, 'Hey, how do I play this?' I'm like, 'We're getting there, you know, like we'll get it,'" Zempel said.
One jail resident, 36-year-old Aaron Futrell, said he wasn't sure what to expect, initially.
"Once I seen the keyboards and how nice everything was and the equipment, I got acclimated," Futrell said. He's been in custody since last year and is facing a felony charge of invasion of privacy. A counsel status hearing is set for Aug. 28.
Other detainees, like Adams, said they plan to put the newfound music skills to use once they're out of custody. He said his stage name is "Ayo Gifted" and he spends a lot of time writing music in his cell.
Futrell and Adams were joined by Sean Michael Harrold, 23, who is charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action with a counsel status hearing set for Aug. 20; and Elijah Gantt, 30, charged with first-degree assault, resisting arrest and property damage. He has a jury trial set to begin July 20.
For Gantt, the overall jail experience has been humbling. He said he used to look down upon people in jail before he became a detainee himself. Gantt said he plans to use skills gained in the piano class in ministry once he's released.
"I was like a little bougie," he said. "It humbled me, and it showed me these are the people that need God, you know what I mean, need God the most. They need a light."
Together, they formed a class band called "Gifted Fingers" — a name they coined together.
Nicki Bond, superintendent of administration for Justice Services, said detainees were selected for participation in the class based on good behavior and an interest in music.
Detainees were only allowed to practice with their keyboards for two hours a week during class, but the sheet music they were learning to read was also uploaded to their tablets so they could continue reading outside class.
"Pianos for People's mission is essentially to bring music into places that you wouldn't necessarily find music, and so I think that this was a really great partnership," Bond said. "Each of these individuals (has a) connection to music, and whether that is music as therapy for them, whether they believe that they have a future in writing music, or rapping or singing."
Improving mental health
It's no secret that conditions inside the county jail have declined in recent years. It's been riddled with frequent flooding as it nears the end of its 30-year lifespan, and officials say millions of dollars are needed for infrastructure improvements.
The county jail is the only adult detention facility in Missouri with an American Correctional Association accreditation, but that hangs in the balance after a failed inspection last year.
On top of that, officials say the jail is overcrowded and understaffed, which means detainees are locked in their cells more often than they're allowed out for recreation. Acting jail Director Tim Ware said last month that the facility was facing an 80-officer shortage and that it is actively hiring.
The staffing crisis at the county jail is part of a larger national trend, said Lisa Jaegers, a professor at St. Louis University and co-founder of the university's Transformative Justice Initiative. The group works to improve health and safety inside prisons and jails.
"So many locations are just in survival mode, where it's very difficult to get a program like this off the ground, because it takes more people power," Jaegers said.
According to the Prison Policy Initiative, roughly 44% of people detained in locally run jails have been diagnosed with a mental disorder. Jaegers added that detainees' mental health will continue to suffer until staffing problems are addressed.
"The isolation, being disconnected from family, friends, social networks and deprivation, in a sense, of many … outdoors, different lighting, night and day. Some spaces don't have windows, for instance," Jaegers said.
Jail leaders said this spring's piano class was a success, but whether or not the class will return in the fall remains to be seen, according to Bond.
"Naturally I think that (this class) is going to mitigate behaviors potentially that may have arisen, but I think in general, what I see from (detainees) is just wanting to do something positive and wanting to be a part of something positive, they all just have very great attitudes, very great spirits," Bond said.
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