White House Performance Includes Song Written By Inmates

Nick Kangadis | April 27, 2016
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Maybe the prison inmates President Obama is always trying to keep out of solitary confinement felt some musical inspiration.

In celebration of the Department of Justice's "National Reentry Week," which aims to help the approximately 600,000 state and federal prisoners released each year reenter society, Decoda, a non-pofit musical ensemble, will perform a song Wednesday at the White House that the group co-wrote with inmates at South Carolina's Lee Correctional Institution.

Earlier this year, Decoda visited the inmates at the facility and wrote the song with them over the course of a week.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch expected to be in the audience during the show.

The performance marks another episode in a longrunning series of instances in which Obama has empathized with those who've had run-ins with the law.

MRCTV reported earlier this month the Obama administration would fine landlords that do not rent, sell or lease property to a person based on his or her criminal history.

In early March, Obama released a directive that would ban the use of solitary confinement for prison inmates, followed by a memorandum directing “the heads of executive departments and agencies” to limit the use of “restrictive housing” for all inmates, regardless of age.

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