On 15 April 2008, FREE FM, the first and only prison community radio in the Caribbean, moved its transmission beyond the walls of the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre to the world through the participation in the Caribbean Community Internet Radio Portal (CIRP).
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Major Richard Reece, Commission of Corrections, addressing the inmates in prison from the radio studio / Photo credit: UNESCO
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You can now listen to FREE FM by visiting CIRP website and clicking on “On-Air."
FREE FM is a prison radio/community multimedia centre developed to enhance prisoner rehabilitation and education in Jamaica.
The pilot project was launched in June 2007 through a partnership of UNESCO and the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), in collaboration with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and Student Expressing Truth (SET).
With the support of UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), the Department of Correctional Services is now graduating the project from the pilot phase to establish a Prison Radio Network.
It is planned to expand the project to other institutions such as the Fort Augusta Adult Correctional Centre (Females), Rio Cobre Juvenile Correction Facility and South Camp Correctional Centres.
The ultimate aim is to link eleven correctional facilities via radio and broadband Internet connections so that radio programming can be generated from each of the institutions and distributed throughout the system.
CIRP is a pilot project in its embryonic stage, which seeks to strengthen networking among members of the Caribbean Network of Community Multimedia Centres.
Source: UNESCO
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