Peru Rehabilitates Inmates with Music

As a part of a pioneering project to rehabilitate criminals, Peru is creating a prison symphony in time for its bicentennial celebration in 2021.

The inmates are already practicing and have learned to play the theme from "Game of Thrones" and pieces by Beethoven.

Recently, two dozen prisoners were carried in an armored bus to learn music alongside the symphony orchestra in the national theater in Lima, Peru's capital. Prisoners attended the three-hour session at the Gran Teatro Nacional, witnessed by a team from The Associated Press and other journalists.

According to Martín Reaño, sentenced to 20 years in prison for murder, classical music sessions provide an "escape, something out of the ordinary".

Percy Trujillano, a professional musician who teaches at El Callao, said that a number of ex-inmates, who face stigma in the job market, earn a little money by playing in small orchestras. He adds that music "is an opportunity to be born again, to live again."

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