MetaFilter posts tagged with jail

"He takes a $1.98 tape into Folsom Prison and comes out with an album."

kirkaracha — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:56:51 -0800

"Hello, I'm Johnny Cash." On January 13, 1968, Johnny Cash played two concerts at Folsom State Prison with June Carter, Carl Perkins, the Statler Brothers, and his band, the Tennessee Three. At Folsom Prison, drawn mainly from the first show, is often ranked as one of the best albums of all time and turned Cash's career around. Reporter Gene Beley covered the concert and recorded some songs from the audience. Cash closed both shows with "Greystone Chapel," written by Folsom inmate Glen Sherley. Cash heard the song for the first time the night before the concerts, and acknowledged Sherley during the shows. Cash had been playing in prisons since the late 1950s; Merle Haggard saw several of his concerts from the audience at San Quentin. The 1968 concerts were the second time Cash had played at Folsom. He'd done a show there in November 1966. Reverend Floyd Gressett arranged the 1966 concert and gave Cash the tape of "Greystone Chapel" in 1968. The 1951 movie Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison inspired Cash to write his 1955 single "Folsom Prison Blues" when he was serving in Germany in the US Air Force. The song's melody and lyrics are very similar to Gordon Jenkins' "Crescent City." Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison [trailer] is a 2008 documentary about the concerts. (It apparently doesn't include concert footage.) In 1969 Cash recorded At San Quentin, which included the hit single "A Boy Named Sue." In 1973 he recorded På Österåker at Sweden's Österåker Prison. Cash's prison albums started a trend that included B.B. King's Live in Cook County Jail and Live at San Quentin, John Lee Hooker's Live At Soledad Prison, Little Milton's Live at Westville Prison and the Sex Pistols' Live at Chelmsford Top Security Prison, Thom Chacon's Live at Folsom Prison, Tracy Nelson's Live from Cell Block D, and Charles Manson's Live from San Quentin [AKA White Rasta]. Freddy Fender's Recorded Inside Louisiana State Prison is a fake live-in-prison album. "If it is a prison recording, then where, praytell, are the prisoners?" AMG Men singing at women's prisons was a trend-within-a-trend, with The Moments' Live at the New York State Women's Prison, Sonny George's Live At The Tennessee Prison For Women, Mack Vickery's Live At The Alabama Women's Prison. Leona Williams reversed the gender roles with her San Quentin's First Lady (with Merle Haggard, who'd done time there). At the time of Cash's concert, Folsom was a model prison. "Administrators came from New York and Texas to find out how Folsom kept its violence so low and its inmates from coming back." It's much worse now.

The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons

wcfields — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:48:11 -0800

Prison food is bad but it is getting better in some places, at least nutritionally. Other places, it is just getting cheaper. Who serves this stuff? Recently, Slate took a look at the Association of Correctional Food Service Affiliates Annual Conference. But there is food beyond 'prison food bad': Nutraloaf. It is so bad it is almost unconstitutionally bad.

Do you want to die in jail?

ChurchHatesTucker — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:01:19 -0800

They were very resentful about people in prison for horrendous crimes getting better medical care than their families.

National Prison Rape Commission releases its final report

Non Prosequitur — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:32:11 -0800

A Prison Nightmare. On June 23, 2009, the National Prison Rape Commission released its final Report and proposed Standards to prevent, detect, respond to and monitor sexual abuse of incarcerated or detained individuals throughout the United States. More prisoners reported abuse by staff than abuse by other prisoners.

The Practice of Photography in Sites of Incarceration

mediareport — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 06:31:55 -0800

Pinhole Photography by Incarcerated Girls at Remann Hall, Washington State. Prison Baseball. Guantanamo: Directory of Photographic and Visual Resources. Painted photographs of forgotten incarcerated Russian youth. 19th century prison ships. Pete Brook's Prison Photography blog links to lots of great stuff.

"The best I can do is to live a good life and maintain decent standards of behaviour towards others."

chorltonmeateater — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:20:41 -0800

Erwin James: the real me. Erwin James has written about prison for the Guardian for a number of years, from the point of view of an insider: when his column began, he was serving a sentence for two murders. He completed his sentence a few years ago, but continued to write under that name, a pseudonym. Here, he talks about the crimes that he was originally imprisoned for, his time in the French Foreign Legion, how he became a writer during his time in prison, and gives his real name for the first time.

The latest craze in adult dating.

desjardins — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:45:13 -0800

Conjugal Harmony : "Normally you wouldn't think an arsonist would be good at sex. Boy was I ever wrong!" [slightly NSFW]

Hellhole

Joe Beese — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:02:19 -0800

"The United States holds tens of thousands of inmates in long-term solitary confinement. Is this torture?"

CPJ's census of jailed journalists in 2008

jeffburdges — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:45:30 -0800

The Committee to Protect Journalists has released the 2008 prison census. China retains the lead with Tibetan issues bringing them 28 jailed journalists. Cuba claims 2nd place with 21 jailed journalists. Burma & Eritrea almost tied for 3rd with 14 & 13, respectively. But the biggest news is internet journalists are now the largest group of journalists in jail.

three squares greetings

Armitage Shanks — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 08:03:43 -0800

Three Squares Greetings is a new greeting card line designed to keep you in touch with your family members or friends who are in custody. NPR interview with the founder.

1 in 99.1

aerotive — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:56:39 -0800

1 in 99.1 American adults are now incarcerated according to a new Pew Center study (pdf). Some interesting numbers from a NYT article on the report: 1 in 36 Hispanic adults are incarcerated, 1 in 15 blacks, 1 in 9 black men aged 20-34, 1 in 355 white women aged 35-39. Some context from the World Prison Population List (pdf).

Fundamental differences of Culture

Brockles — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 07:21:12 -0800

A few months ago, a British Schoolteacher in Sudan allowed a class of hers to vote on a name for a teddy bear. The class of seven year olds decided - with a majority of 20:3 - to name the stuffed toy Mohammad. Last week, she was arrested for this 'crime' after several of the parents complained, and has been sentenced to 15 days in prison and will be deported. However, that isn't good enough for the thousands of people that marched on martyrs square today and demanded that she instead be killed for this crime. Despite the fact that one of the pupils voted for the name as it was the same as his own, and the Foreign Office intervening (calling it a 'storm in a tea cup'), the cultural differences raised over the simple naming of a toy and its deep religious implications to the Sudanese Islamic people may well be creating an international incident worthy of watching. Interestingly, the school has felt the need to close until January for fear of reprisals.

Found Art From Jail

jonson — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 23:38:06 -0800

Jail Finds is a flickr set of art found stuffed inside books by the account holder at the jail where they are a volunteer running the book cart.

I LIKE IT HERE IT'S NICE!

klangklangston — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 18:24:25 -0800

Hi, Dad, I'm in Jail. Earth to Doris.
Two brief videos made for Was(Not Was) by Christoph Simon, which aired on Liquid Television.

That's Hot

Stynxno — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 12:43:21 -0800

TV actress and hotel heiress Paris Hilton, infamous for her inadvertent comedic stylings on reality show "The Simple Life", was ordered to return to serve her incarceration sentence today. The order comes fast on the heels of an evacuation from her correctional facility in Lynwood due to supposed health problems(nsfw).

To many, He might not "look" like much.

Sticherbeast — Mon, 14 May 2007 16:38:24 -0800

Yahweh ben Yahweh is dead. He was an advocate of black separatism and supremacy, dubbing Martin Luther King, Jr. a "dead dog preacher," who would later go to prison on conspiracy charges, thanks to the helpful testimony of a certain Cardinals quarterback who is now serving 25-to-life himself for writing bad checks. Alternatively, you can check out his own website for his side of the story.

The velvet rope goes to jail.

Pope Guilty — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 14:58:53 -0800

Are you about to do some time in a California jail, but feel that people of your quality shouldn't have to mix with the other inmates? For just $82 a day, you don't have to! I suspect it's an extension of that classic Clinton-era program.

Death of a Real-Life Natural Born Killer

miss lynnster — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 23:08:14 -0800

Actor Woody Harrelson's father just died of a heart attack at age 69. Don't care? Well, let's add a few fun facts into the story to make it more interesting & newsworthy for you. Charles Harrelson died in prison, where he was serving two life sentences for murdering Judge John Wood, Jr. (the first federal judge to be murdered in the 20th century) for a payment of $250,000. Oh, and also? Many conspiracy theorists feel that he was also deeply involved in the murder of JFK.

It's no wonder Woody smokes pot and feels like an alien creature. Can anyone blame him?

...from that block came the sound of screaming ...

amberglow — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 12:00:42 -0800

Meet the new jailers-- Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad is at the centre of fresh abuse allegations just a week after it was handed over to Iraqi authorities, with claims that inmates are being tortured by their new captors. Mass executions, torture again, etc. How bad is it when the inmates plead for us to come back? (Warning--this second link is graphic evidence of what we did there--NSFW)

Bust a squirrel deal, face the squirrel wheel

Astro Zombie — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 12:49:13 -0800

Why did I annoy that black squirrel in Council Bluffs? I hope they don't put me in their special haunted jail.

Village Idiot

scblackman — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 13:23:02 -0800

We may run out of oil, but we'll never run out of irony. Victor Willis, the policeman from the 70s disco band "Village People" was arrested for going AWOL (at the age of 54) after agreeing to a plea bargain for 2005 gun and drug possession charges. He'll be exploring a new fan base in prison. Good thing the folks from America's Most Wanted were on this case. It's not like we have terrorists out there on the lam. Maybe he should've hidden in Paris. Somebody there seems to fancy him.

Cellblock Cafe

gottabefunky — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 10:04:00 -0800

Cooking Behind Bars. In 1986, upon my arrival at the county jail, my cooking lessons began. There, I witnessed men using empty toothpaste tubes as spoons, and burning toilet paper to heat up coffee or reheat the food served. Complete with recipes.

I ain't seen the sunshine since--I don't know when

fandango_matt — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 17:08:00 -0800

Throw Away The Key dot org seeks to lengthen the sentences of criminals on the premise of their mission statement: "Incarceration Works!" From their site: "If you believe a girl should be able to walk down the street in broad daylight without being abducted and murdered by a convicted felon, then it is time for you to get involved."

...and I can carve the soap into a gun and...

saysthis — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 05:45:47 -0800

Weight lifting in prisons & correctional recreation. With interesting legal commentary and videos.

Lots of lockups

Gyan — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 10:54:09 -0800

The Prison Policy Initiative conducts research and advocacy on incarceration policy. Some interesting data include the proliferation of prisons in the US over the last century, disenfranchisement of potential black voters, global incarceration rates and percentage of US population under control of the criminal justice system.