‘Nashville’ entertainer sings with Kansas prison workers

In the aftermath of prison unrest at El Dorado, Wichita-area corrections workers gathered for a concert by country music entertainer Mark Collie to celebrate their achievements in reintegrating prisoners into the community.

Collie is known for his 1990s country hits “Even the Moon is Cryin' ” and “Born to Love You,” along with more recent screen credits as Frankie Gray in the ABC network series “Nashville” and as a guitar-picking assassin opposite John Travolta in the 2004 movie “The Punisher.”

A friend of legendary prison musicians Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard, Collie is an advocate for and practitioner of music therapy behind the barbed wire, especially active with Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Tennessee.

“I started many years ago taking my guitar into prisons and jails,” Collie said. “I was able to see firsthand how music and song can communicate. And sometimes we can learn things through a song we might not hear in sworn testimony or humble confessional.”

The Kansas Department of Corrections is facing understaffing and overcrowding crises that led to a mass transfer of prisoners from a prison in Lansing to El Dorado, culminating in the June 29 unrest where prisoners took control of a gym, dining area and part of the yard.

But amid the problems, Kansas prison workers have made strides in helping prisoners prepare for life after incarceration, said Corrections Secretary Joe Norwood, who introduced Collie at the Thursday night performance.

About 5,000 to 6,000 prisoners a month are released each year by Kansas prisons.

Since 1999, the state has lowered its recidivism rate – the proportion of prisoners who commit additional crimes and return to prison – from 55 percent to about 35 percent now.

“The work goes unnoticed because so much of it happens in the facilities,” Norwood said.

Gov. Sam Brownback was scheduled to address the corrections workers who attended the “Reentry Week” event at the Spiritual Life Center in Bel Aire. He canceled to attend a funeral.

This story was originally published July 14, 2017 at 1:43 PM with the headline "‘Nashville’ entertainer sings with Kansas prison workers."