Welcome to From Insults To Respect. 

On an episode of Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour, the Nobel Prize winner discusses, as he puts it:

“The Big House, the brig, the clink, the coop, the gray bar hotel, the hoosegow, the joint, the jug, the pen, the pokie, the slammer, the stir–we’re talking about jail, a real hush hush subject where everyone is hurting for someone or something. We’re going to learn about cons, jailbirds, stoolies, lifers, and politicians. Prisons, a house of many doors.”

After Bob’s introduction, we hear the disturbing sounds of prison doors slamming shut.

People who get sent to lockup facilities are typically seen as worthy of being treated with disrespect. Is this the wisest mindset? And what about those who are actually innocent and yet are condemned to the slammer due to some grievous mistakes?

The vast majority of convicts, after serving their sentences, will be released back into our communities. How best to structure the time convicts spend incarcerated so it will be more likely to lead to their earning respect once they are released?

There are a great deal of strong emotions running through this topic, so I’m thinking that by intermingling it with the poetic lyrics and humor presentations from Bob’s radio show, it will at times lighten the discussion and deepen it as well. So, let’s see how this works out.

Respect As It Relates To Those Serving Time In Prison

It is hard to imagine showing any respect for the type of person who is the topic of the first song Bob plays for us, Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues.” Some of the lyrics are,

I hear the train a-comin’, it’s rolling ’round the bend
And I ain’t seen the sunshine since I don’t know when
I’m stuck in Folsom prison, and time keeps draggin’ on
But that train keeps a-rollin’ on down to San Antone

When I was just a baby, my mama told me, “Son
Always be a good boy, don’t ever play with guns”
But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die
When I hear that whistle blowin’, I hang my head and cry 

The song is told from the point of view of a guy who shot a man to watch him die, a mighty awful thing to do. The guy seems to be sad, but perhaps not about the life he cut short, but because he’s stuck in prison instead of on that train taking him to a better place.

Cash, during his lifetime landed in jail seven times, mostly for illegal possession of drugs. His ability to hire skillful lawyers probably saved him from serving any time in prison because people with so many repeated offenses don’t usually get off so easily. Cash’s awareness that he could have easily served some hard time probably led him to write sympathetic songs about convicts, and to perform them on a few occasions directly to convicts within their prison walls.

Cash’s songs about convicts were, and are still mighty popular. Given the hateful things that they have done, why do so many people find themselves relating to them? Perhaps the feeling expressed in the following saying offers an explanation–“There, but for the grace of God, go I.”

Cash and Dylan

These words capture the angst that many of us experience as we realize how outside factors play a role in who ends up in the slammer. If we had been raised in a terribly violent home or neighborhood, experienced crushing poverty, been in the wrong place at the wrong time, might we have landed behind steel bars? Such questions have led some to suggest a new approach to handling prisoners. I’ll return to this issue soon, but let’s get back to Bob’s show.

The Next Part Of Bob’s Show

After playing for us Cash’s song, and then moving on to Magic Sam’s “21 Days In Jail,” Bessie Smith’s “Send Me To The ‘lectric Chair”, and Warren Storm’s “Prisoner’s Song,” Bob tells us,

We’re about half way through our sentence right here on Theme Time Radio Hour, and there will be no time off for good behavior. Here’s the smooth voice of Joe Simon singing a song by Dan Penn. Joe was able to mix R and B [Rhythm and Blues] and country in a uniquely southern style and had a number of hits in the process, including this one, a song about stealing, knowing he done wrong, but his woman’s needs make him ashamed. He steals for love and now he has to say good morning to swinging that nine pound steel hammer. 

Here are a few of the song’s lyrics:

Through these walls
I see the sun
I’m here because
The wrong I’ve done…

Made me ashamed
I stole from her
Oh, when I should’ve stood up like a man
You see, I’ve got to say good morning 
To that nine pounds of steel.

Will Rogers, “There is no more independence in politics than there is in jail.” Harry Truman, “The White House is the finest prison in the world.” Nelson Mandela, “In my country we go to prison first and then become president.” Charles Bukowski, “I don’t like jail, they got the wrong kind of bars in there.”

Getting Back To The Issue Of Respect And Prisons

The old approach, and still the main approach in America, is to make life in prison miserable so people, hearing how awful it is, will be discouraged from doing anything that might land them there. There is also hope that such treatment will discourage those who had been imprisoned from ever doing anything that will lead to being imprisoned again. How successful has this approach been? America has the highest (and most expensive–despite questionable results) rate of incarceration in the world with a concomitantly high rate of recidivism. In contrast, Germany and the Netherlands, according to a Bloomberg report. prefer a more humane system. Some of the facts it provides are:

Incarceration rates per capita are nearly 90 percent lower than in the U.S.: 79 per 100,000 residents in Germany and 82 per 100,000 residents in the Netherlands, compared to 716 per 100,000 residents in the United States.

Resocialization and rehabilitation are central to the Dutch and German models. Life in prison there aims to inculcate fundamental skills that offenders will need when returning to their community. For example, prisoners are allowed individual expression and a fair amount of control over their daily lives, including the opportunity to wear their own clothes and prepare their own meals; and, in order to instill selfworth, both work and education are required and remunerated. In addition, respect for prisoners’ privacy is practiced as a matter of human dignity.

Contributing to engendering positive self-esteem is the fact that prisoners are trusted. They each have a private dormitory-like room with their own keys. Guards knock before entering. The rooms are spacious with natural sunlight (many inmates grow plants) and have a bathroom apart from the sleeping quarters. They dress with a sense of pride in the styles and fashions which they prefer.

Training for occupations and professions (with degrees) is provided and encouraged. Inmates are urged to pursue vocational jobs while in prison and must save a percentage of their earnings to help them make the post-incarceration transition.

Those inmates who have proven their trustworthiness and reliability are allowed to work outside the prison on a daily basis (all of whom voluntarily return after work). They have a phone to make calls to anyone (including family, friends, attorneys, media, etc.) and a television, radio, and computer (Internet access is not permitted).

Such respectful treatment creates a positive mind-set for those incarcerated. Not only that, but as a direct result of such positive treatment and interactions, violence within the prison is virtually non-existent among prisoners and between staff and prisoners.

The Conclusion Of Bob’s Show

“Well,” says Bob, “we couldn’t do a show about jail without talking about Merle Haggard, a man who turned his life around, walked out of the jail cell and into public acclaim. Here’s a quotation from chairman Merle:”

“‘Sing Me Back Home’ is a popular song because there are a lot of ex-convicts in America that form a troop of fans that want to hear that song and it’s funny that all ex-convicts have something in common, they got their time in and the rest of you still got yours to do.”

Here are a few of “Sing Me Back Home” lyrics:

The warden led a prisoner down the hallway to his doom
I stood up to say goodbye like all the rest
And I heard him tell the warden just before he reached my cell
Let my guitar playing friend, do my request

Let him sing me back home with a song I used to hear
Make my old memories come alive
Take me away and turn back the years
Sing me back home before I die

Bob DylanJails and prisonsprison reforms