Maverick City Music provides hope at Florida prison
By Jamie Asaraf
In December of 2021, the popular Christian worship music group Maverick City Music took their first of two visits to Everglades Correctional Institution (ECI) in Florida. Organized by PandoApp, the first Christian app on prison tablets that provides access to sermons, worship, and a digital Bible, the music group gathered the inmates together to sing, rejoice, and worship.
The group was joined by Jake Bodine, the chief executive of Pando, who noted during the event that he “wanted to bless the men here and honor the ministry happening here.” The music group was also joined by Pastor Scott Free of the City Takers ministry in Atlanta who told the audience that “every single person in this room is a minister of the Gospel.”
The atmosphere was filled with hope, strength, and faith as the men celebrated, cheered, and sang the words to the songs of Maverick City. They swayed together and were given the opportunity to pray in groups, for those that chose to do so.
The event that happened in December was so empowering and moving that Maverick City Music chose to come back to ECI in March to produce a live recording of their new album that was set to release later that month. The album was the first to ever be recorded at Everglades and it took place on a small basketball court within the prison.
It was one of the largest events to ever occur within the Florida Department of Corrections with hundreds of people in attendance. The energy was even greater than it had been in December when Maverick City Music previously visited. Everyone felt the genuine love and passion flowing from the group, singer Kirk Franklin, who joined Maverick City Music at ECI, at one point turned to the men while shaking hands and said “sing it from your spirit, sing it like you’re a soldier.”
Franklin noted to the Prison Journalism Project that he “came with Maverick City to share in greatness with the forgotten of society…they [Maverick City Music] are changing the climate and culture in America and I wanted to connect with the brotherhood and serve with their great plans to become bigger as a brother and a family.”
Many of the band’s members had witnessed the results of mass incarceration firsthand so this movement and this album hit home and was important for them to record at the correctional institution. It was the first album that Maverick City Music along with other musical guests had recorded in a prison.
Maverick City Music generally supports prison reform through their works and their nonprofit. They work to change the perception of incarcerated people and they see this album as a huge step in that direction.
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