All In The Name Of Liberty

Do the crime, do the time. Not all convicts find this to be an acceptable agreement as numerous attempts at escape are made every year.

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Of course, there is considerable risk in this activity. More often than not, escapees are recaptured and returned to prison, often to serve more time than their original sentence. If you do make it out, assume you will be living on the lam for the rest of your life, wary of every siren, dreading being pulled over for speeding. Then again, you could just as easily be shot dead. I suppose that's one way to avoid going back to the big house.

Prisons are intended to be correctional facilities, not resorts, so the experience should fall short of "Enjoy your stay."

Prison reform policies have improved the comfort level of many penitentiaries to the point that some accommodations are better inside than out. In addition to the three hot meals a day, inmates receive alotted time outside for excercise, televisions and medical care. Some even find loving companions with whom to spend the long, cold nights.

It can't be any worse than it is back in the ghetto or flipping burgers for minimum wage? So why bother trying to leave?

Then again, you might get shivved and occasionally pepper-sprayed by the guards for no reason. Just keep to yourself, and maybe you won't get noticed.

Remember, it's your own fault that you're in this predicament in the first place.

From Australia, AC/DC featured Angus Young, sporting British-schoolboy trousers and suspenders, on lead guitar and Bon Scott's raspy lead vocals. Scott died in 1980 after a night of excessive drinking and was replaced by the even raspier-voiced Brian Johnson.

AC/DC was a popular target of the religious right who made many claims to the band's affiliation with evil. Ok, so they released an album with the hit title-track of "Highway To Hell," and Bon Scott donned devil horns for the cover photo. Where is your sense of humor? Does that necessarily mean that "AC/DC" was an acronym for "Anti-Christ/Destroy-Christ" or was it truly intended in the electrical sense of "Alternating Current/Direct Current?" I suppose if your tradition is deep-rooted in persecuting others (while claiming that it is you yourself who is being persecuted), you are always on the lookout for new targets.

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Dig My Grave With A Golden Shovel

Prison labor has long been used on public works projects and chain gangs have achieved an almost legendary status with portrayals in feature films such as "O Brother, Where Art Thou" and "Cool Hand Luke."

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In prisons of today, through prison reform, an over-abundance of inmates and greater demand for cheap, domestic labor, much of the work performed is in manufacturing, ranging from stamping out license plates to sewing.

Prison reform introduced the idea of providing skills training to inmates so that when their sentences were completed they could be reintroduced into the workforce, thus reducing the odds of their return to a life of crime.

Chain gangs were first introduced after the civil war as a replacement for slave labor. The work was often accompanied with severe cases of abuse and neglect, such that many a man would rather die than be subjected to what many states declared to be cruel and unusual punishment.

Georgia was the last state to end its chain gang program in 1962. However, in 1995, Alabama reintroduced the chain gang into its penal system. A 1996 shooting death of a convict forced the state to abolish the chain gang, in favor of shackling prisoners individually.

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What Good Do You Think You Do?

Opened in 1852 on 432 acres of prime real estate in Marin County, California, tourists often mistake San Quentin for a resort complex, from a distance.

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San Quentin is the oldest penitentiary in the state and second in popular recognition to Alcatraz, which is a few miles to the north.

On an annual operating budget of $120 million, San Quentin houses nearly 6,000 inmates and the state's only gas chanber, with over 500 men on death row.

Originally, a prison ship was anchored just off-shore of where the prison now stands, however it quickly became overcrowded during the lawlessness of the time. The prisoners were hence put to work building their new residence.

Johnny Cash recorded San Quentin in a 1969 concert performed at the prison. The concert was released as an album, "At San Quentin." At the time, Johnny Cash was selling around 250,000 albums per month of the "At San Quentin" and "At Folsom Prison" albums. During this period, he was even outselling the Beatles.

San Quentin was a particularly hated house of detention for inmates. Men were sent to prison for their crimes to serve their time or to await their execution. It was a hard life with little hope for improving one's situation.

Cash wrote San Quentin for the inmates of San Quentin, thus the lyrics hold much disdain for the institution. Evidence that prison reform was in great need can be heard in the prisoners' reactions to passages in the song such as "Do you think I'll be different when you're through?" and "The whole world will regret you did no good."

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But I Rode It 'Til I Rolled It Down

As if going to jail wouldn't make you feel bad enough, consider how much worse you would feel if you were to go to jail for a long time.

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Though much has changed in today's prison system where convicts are allotted time outside, reasonable meals, conjugal visits and television, at the time this song was written, incarceration often meant no contact with the outside world in addition to the hard labor of a chain gang.

Thus, the singer laments not receiving mail with news from home and the likely passing of his mother. All the while maintaining the hope that his sweatheart will be waiting for his release.

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So Here We Are

Mexican prisons are notorious houses of detention. Squalid and overcrowded where if you have no money or someone to bring it to you, there is no food.

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Of course, if you do have money, the guards will bring you anything you want.

Playing only acoustic guitars and banjos and singing simple melodies with three part harmonies, The Kingston Trio was formed in 1957 by Bob Shane, Nick Reynolds and Dave Guard.

Though they disbanded in 1967 to pursue individual careers, Bob Shane reformed the group in 1976. The Kingston Trio still performs and tours with the current lineup of Bob Shane, George Grove, and Bob Haworth.

Both original member Dave Guard and John Stewart, an interim replacement, learned to play the banjo from Pete Seeger's book, "How To Play The 5-String Banjo."

On September 18, 2002, the Tijuana Jail, otherwise known as La Ocho Prison, was closed as part of prison reform in Mexico. The closing ended a legacy of riots, escapes, corruption and loathing which spanned five decades.

Tijuana Jail was the Kingston Trio's third highest charting single.

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