From a prison cell in Pinckneyville to Chicago’s West Side — a son’s music finally reaches his mother

We recently asked people in Illinois prisons this question: “If you could spend one afternoon on the outside with a family member or friend, where would you go and what would you do?" It’s part of Prisoncast – our statewide journalism project made with and for people incarcerated in Illinois and their loved ones. A man named Robert Jernigan wrote us saying he’d take his mother to her church, so he could play music and sing for her. He’s been locked up for nearly forty years. And in that time he’s learned how to play piano – but he’s never been able to play for his mom. So Prisoncast producer and editor Robert Wildeboer packed up a keyboard and drove to Pinckneyville prison – in Southern Illinois. HOST: DEGMAN