By Cindy Hoedel
Sac Bee
LANSING, Kan. — On a summer-like day in November, native wildflowers are still blooming on a slope below the outdoor track and weight area of the oddly picturesque minimum security East Unit of Lansing Correctional Facility. Cedric Johnson, 29, is doing pull-ups when a group of fellow inmates spot him and walk over.
“Hey, Lion King! What’s up?”
Johnson flashes a full-on smile and says, “That’s right. That’s me. I get paid the big bucks.”
The native of Louisiana is built like a running back. He played arena football for the Wichita Stealth, a now-defunct arena football team, but the wild lifestyle he adopted off the field landed him in jail on a sex charge.
At Lansing, Johnson passed on prison sports teams to sing lead tenor in the prison’s classical choir, the East Hill Singers. He also sings frequently at worship services at the prison chapel for the many denominations. His voice is clear and sure, its timbre burnished by singing in church and school choirs since he was 6, The Kansas City Star reports. Somebody filmed an East Hill Singers concert and put a clip of Johnson singing a solo in “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” on YouTube. He’s been “Lion King” ever since.
Today East Hill Singers is part of the nonprofit Arts in Prison, which sponsors many arts-related activities for inmates at prisons in Lansing, Leavenworth and Topeka. In addition to choirs, there are programs for writing, yoga and visual arts. But East Hill Singers came first, founded in 1995 by a choir director from Newton, Kan., named Elvera Voth; the other arts programs were added later.
For the inmate singers, the choir is a dress rehearsal for life on the outside. Learning musical roles, attending regular practices and performing in front of an audience require discipline, teamwork and commitment — the same qualities the men will need to hold down a job and avoid returning to crime when they are released.
It’s working. Recidivism rates for men who participate in the East Hill Singers from its inception in 1995 through 2013 is 18 percent, compared with 32 percent statewide in Kansas.
Full story: Kansas prison choir inspires discipline, joy