Rehab Radio Broadcasts Hope

The microphones and monitors at Radio Focus are standard broadcasting equipment. This studio, however, is not located at a slick downtown office building, but rather at Ayalon prison near Ramle. Radio Focus is a groundbreaking, inmate rehabilitation initiative of the Israel Prison Service, in cooperation with Sapir Academic College. Now in its fourth year of operation, the station broadcasts 24/7 to prisons throughout Israel. At Radio Focus, inmates are in charge of production, content and editing. They serve as radio hosts and announcers, reaching out to prisoners throughout the corrections system – and building bridges to the community at large.

Students and faculty from the radio and digital broadcast program at Sapir’s communications department visit the prison on a weekly basis, training the prisoners in broadcast and production skills while helping them plan and build their programs. For the prisoners themselves, the experience is life changing. It builds their social and cognitive abilities, while affording them valuable employment skills and job experience for the day after their release.  In the long run, it boosts their chances of reintegrating with the community and reduces the likelihood of recidivism.

Dr .Ella Ben-Atar, head of radio and digital at Sapir, says the Prison Service chose to partner with Sapir because of our expertise and professionalism.

Communications Department chair, Dr. Moti Gigi, thinks the program reflects Sapir’s broader role in Israeli society. “It’s a win-win arrangement,” he says. “Our students don’t just come here to learn. They come to serve. And as they help give the prisoners a second chance in life, they themselves become better people.  It’s a collaboration of hope.”