As artists, Dione and Steve have always used their artistic mediums to help give a voice to incarcerated people, using languages that represented those they were serving, and that could be appreciated by a wider audience through an online stage and using digital platforms associated with music. Both Dione and Steve are interested in exploring and modelling the Jail Time project experience in other forms, angles and with different audiences.
How will it be possible, through video, sound, painting and photography, to create an experience that can connect audiences with Jail Time Records artists inside the prisons of Douala, Ouagadougou or Ngoma?
Dione and Steve intend to work on an interactive and immersive art installation that expresses the strength, vibration and power that underpin the identity of Jail Time and the artists who are part of the collective.
Since 2018, Dione and Steve have been working on Jail Time Records, a project they co-founded inside the Douala Central Prison in Cameroon. Dione Roach is a visual artist and Steve Happi is a music producer who was incarcerated inside the Douala prison at the time. Jail Time Records started out as a recording studio built inside the prison, the first of its kind in Africa, and has become a non-profit record label producing the music of incarcerated artists, as well as a collective of artists inside and outside the prison involved in the production and promotion of inmates’ music and art. Within a corrupt and degrading prison system and infrastructure, where the overpopulation rate is 1: 5, where juveniles, innocents, political prisoners and pre-trial detainees mingle with the most serious offenders, Dione and Steve believe that art is a powerful tool for expression and rehabilitation, offering a free and safe space for those in prison to find solace, work on paths of individual and social change, find non-violent forms of communication and build confidence, self-esteem and positivity while being part of one of the most marginalised and stigmatised communities in the world. Making music and art in these terrible circumstances represents an act of resistance, as well as a form of spiritual escape; a force capable of propelling those deprived of physical freedom beyond the perimeter of their confinement. History has often shown us how extreme human conditions have provided fertile ground for creatives to transcend the harshness of their reality through art, music and dance. In recent years, they have expanded our mission by building a new recording studio outside Douala Prison to offer rehabilitation and recording services to those leaving prison, as well as two new in-prison recording studios, one in Ouagadougou Prison in Burkina Faso and one in Ngoma Central Prison in Cameroon. These studios offer spaces for reflection, resistance and the opportunity to dream. Jail Time Records works as a collective and as a community: all spaces are run by inmates and former inmates who are trained in sound engineering and music production.
In a situation of forced cohabitation, it is interesting to note how music unites people from all walks of life, who learn to work in solidarity towards a common goal. The prison system around the world is a complete failure in terms of its very objective: that of ‘correcting’ people and behaviour deemed anti-social or dangerous. The very high recidivism rates demonstrate the ineffectiveness of these policies and their inability to address the core of the problem: punitive systems are not effective in ‘correcting’ behaviour and prison reforms are urgently needed, moving towards a rehabilitative model. Jail Time Records successfully offers an experimental ground for this, where the promotion of talent, embodiment, artistic expression and the right to dream are effectively lowering recidivism rates and forming a vibrant, positive and inclusive community.
DIONE ROACH
born 1989, Italy
Dione Roach is a visual artist working across media: painting, video, photography and community art practice. She graduated from EUL London in 2012 with a BA in Fine Arts and has lived between Africa, South America and Europe. She has lived and worked between Africa, South America and Europe for ten years.
For the past ten years, she has pursued a personal career as an artist and film-maker, as well as working on social and community art projects.
In 2028, she co-founded Jail Time Records, a non-profit record label working inside the central prison in Douala, Cameroon, the country where she has lived since 2017. Dione is responsible for the artistic direction of the project and all the visuals, as well as conducting painting courses and workshops inside the prison. Since 2021, Dione and Steve have been working on a documentary about the imprisoned artists who are part of Jail Time Records. This will be completed and published in 2025. Dione’s work as a painter and photographer has been exhibited nationally, including at the Italian Cultural Institute in London, Somerset House in London, Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, Guler Sanat Gallery in Ankara, Turkey, and the Annie Kadji Art Gallery in Douala, Cameroon. Her photographic works have been shortlisted for several prestigious awards, such as first prize in the Terna Photograhy Prize in 2023, second place in the creative category of the SONY World Photography Award in 2020, and has been published in many publications and magazines such as Vice, the Guardian, Carhartt Wip Magazine, etc.
STEVE HAPPI
born 1988, Cameroon
Music as a heartbeat, Steve Happi is an activist, music producer (known as Vidou H), sound engineer and filmmaker. His ambition to pursue a career in music began at the age of 16 as a DJ and then as a beat maker. While graduating from university in Casablanca, Morocco, he continued DJing and touring with his sets, before returning to Cameroon and deciding to devote himself entirely to music production in 2013. In 2018, he was arrested with his brothers over family matters and spent almost two years in jail in Douala Central Prison before being acquitted of all charges. During his detention, he co-founded the jail Time Records, a record label and recording studio inside the prison that produces inmates’ music. Being in charge of the studio, he recorded and produced hundreds of songs and became the sole producer of Jail Time Records. Since 2021, Dione and Steve have been working on a documentary about the inmate artists who are part of Jail Time Records, which will be completed and published in 2025. His work has appeared in various publications, including: The Guardian, Vogue Italia, BBC Radio, Vice IT, Crack Magazine, Crahartt Wip magazine, I-D, Huck Magazine.
this residency project was born thanks to CASE REMAPPED is a call for two artistic residencies curated by BASE Milano and Erica Petrillo. The call is aimed at artists whose research focuses on alternative social islands, i.e. places (physical or digital) inhabited by communities that are experimenting with radically collectivist forms of coexistence. Find out more about CASE REMAPPED