Rock the Yard concert battles through rain to deliver ministry to incarcerated individuals

https://chroniclet.com/news/398483/rock-the-yard-concert-battles-through-rain-to-deliver-ministry-to-incarcerated-individuals/

Usually on Wednesday afternoons, incarcerated individuals at Grafton Correctional Institution are at their assigned jobs or rehabilitation programs.

But not this Wednesday.

At 1 p.m., music reverberated around the prison as its recreation yard came alive.

Grafton Correctional Institution hosted a concert as part of the Rock the Yard concert series, a tour co-sponsored by True Freedom Ministries, a Cleveland nonprofit that spreads Christian messaging to rehabilitate incarcerated people, and a recently launched record label called Impact Records.

The concert brought Tyler Conti, a country music singer-songwriter, to perform an hourlong set.

Damon Mintz founded Impact Records alongside his brother, Judd, earlier this year. Conti is the record label’s first artist. Mintz said the label’s goal is to spread Christian values through music.

In February, Mintz had helped organize a steak dinner for incarcerated people at Grafton Correctional Center. Mintz asked Conti to perform a set after the dinner.

“I think we were more impacted than (the incarcerated people) were,” Mintz said. “It was out of that event that we got together as a record label and said there may be something here that could go way deeper.”

After the February concert, Mintz and Mike Swiger, the executive director of True Freedom Ministries, started to plan the Rock the Yard concert series. Grafton Correctional Center was the sixth stop during the series, which will visit two more prisons this summer.

Conti said he built an “instant bond” with some of the people incarcerated at Grafton Correctional Center when he visited in February.

“They’re humans, just like everybody else,” Conti said. “Some of them have made really horrible decisions. … I’m trying to bring some light to them and bring some hope.”

A crowd of about 100 incarcerated people gathered in front of a small pavilion in the prison’s recreation yard for the concert. Conti sang country songs and music from other genres alongside a small backing band, which Mintz said has accompanied Conti on the series.

Around 1:30 p.m., the concert was paused as rain started pouring down. Conti initially kept singing — playing Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” as the rain pelted down — but eventually the concert’s attendees and band huddled under the pavilion.

Shortly after 2 p.m., though, the concert restarted and the energy returned.

Conti said the show is really an effort to bring Christian messaging to incarcerated people and give them a relationship with God.

“We’re ministering to these guys,” Conti said. “We want to help rehabilitate them. For the guys that are locked up here for life, man, we haven’t forgotten about them either. We have forgiveness in our heart and want to bring them some type of light.”

Swiger started True Freedom Ministries in 2012. He was himself incarcerated in Grafton Correctional Institution in June 1990, he said, and was there until 1999. He would go on to serve 17 years in prison.

Swiger helped launch True Freedom Ministries to set up rehabilitation programs to facilitate reentry because he said such services didn’t exist when he was in prison. Though it primarily spreads Christian messaging, he said the ministry works with incarcerated people of all faiths.

“As an organization, we work with anyone who comes to us, if you have demonstrated that you’re serious about reentering society,” Swiger said. “This would have never happened (in prisons in the 1990s), and even currently we still have a punitive system.”

Matt, an incarcerated individual serving a life sentence at Grafton Correctional Institution (prison policy prohibits the use of incarcerated individuals’ full names), attended Conti’s first concert at the prison in February. He said there was a large impact on those who attended, and incarcerated people at the prison had been talking about Wednesday’s concert since it was first announced.

“The humanity we experienced that day was just incredible,” Matt said. “For people who have walked that walk — they’re not just, like, ‘Hey, I want to help,’ they’ve been through a lot of terrible experiences themselves. For them to share that and say how they’ve risen above it, they have more validity to it … that was powerful.”

Another incarcerated individual, John, also went to Conti’s concert in February and on Wednesday. John, a 65-year-old who said he was first incarcerated in 1989, has used programs with True Freedom Ministries since the 1990s. Events like the concert series have huge impacts on incarcerated people, he said.

“It’s a matter of faith and spirituality and starting to learn, grow and look for that relationship,” John said. “To hear the message and see people coming in here, eventually they realize they genuinely care. That’s something that some of these guys have never had in their lives.”

Jerry Spatny, the prison’s warden, said the event was advertised with flyers around the prison and electronic alerts. He said those in open general population were excused from their normal work responsibilities to attend the concert. The prison has 1,639 people in general population, he said.

Spatny said ministries like True Freedom Ministries help rehabilitate incarcerated people, prepare them for life outside of prison and reduce recidivism, which refers to people who reoffend after leaving prison.

“You treat the incarcerated population like they’re going to become your next door neighbors, they do better,” Spatny said. “We have a holistic approach for them to get better. It’s not just about going to school or a vocational — it’s also the fun opportunities like Rock the Yard.”

Mintz said there were two goals behind the concert series — helping rehabilitate incarcerated people and challenging preconceptions held about them by people outside of prison.

“They belong here because that’s their punishment, but I believe wholeheartedly that everybody under the right conditions can make a huge impact and everybody under the wrong conditions can go on a really bad path,” Mintz said. “Music has the ability to break that wall down and allow us to connect with these guys.”