Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville counts numerous musicians among its inmates. Such is their talent that they have attracted the attention of DeCoda, a New York-based chamber music group. For four years now, the prison has sponsored a program with the group in which DeCoda comes to work with the prisoners at Lee for a week to write and play music for an annual performance.
DeCoda co-founder Clair Bryant, a native of Camden, is very impressed with the Lee musicians, and says they have improved to the point that, while in the beginning DeCoda members were helping them write, this year the inmates had 24 songs written by the time the New York group arrived. Two musicians also talk in this segment about what the program means to them.