{"id":1344,"date":"2011-09-29T18:51:29","date_gmt":"2011-09-30T00:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/?p=1344"},"modified":"2011-09-29T19:01:37","modified_gmt":"2011-09-30T01:01:37","slug":"jail-guitar-doors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/2011\/09\/29\/jail-guitar-doors\/","title":{"rendered":"jail guitar doors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/files\/2011\/09\/jgd.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1345\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/files\/2011\/09\/jgd-150x150.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>My colleague Josh Page&#8217;s\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Toughest-Beat-Politics-Punishment-California\/dp\/0195384059\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1317227124&amp;sr=8-1\">The Toughest Beat<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(2011, Oxford) is getting much-deserved good press from many quarters. Today&#8217;s props come from Wayne Kramer, the MC5 guitarist now writing at <a href=\"http:\/\/jailguitardoors.org\/blog\/?p=700\">Jail Guitar Doors<\/a>.\u00a0Mr. Kramer calls <em>The Toughest Beat <\/em>a <em>&#8220;well researched history of how the prison guards union grew from a minor municipal association into the second most powerful political lobby in California. It\u2019s a fascinating journey into power politics.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>So how do legendary guitar players end up reviewing cutting-edge scholarship in the sociology of punishment? The name <em>Jail Guitar Doors\u00a0<\/em>comes from a fine\u00a0old\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YiwFOTC71Ag\">Clash song<\/a> that name-drops Mr. Kramer, who once\u00a0served time in Lexington Federal Prison for a drug offense. His work with the MC5\u00a0once earned him <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/lists\/100-greatest-guitarists-of-all-time-19691231\/wayne-kramer-19691231\">92nd place<\/a> on <em>Rolling Stone&#8217;s<\/em> all-time\u00a0top-100 guitarist list.\u00a0Today, he&#8217;s working with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/jailguitardoors.org\/about.html\">Jail Guitar Doors<\/a>, an organization that Billy Bragg and\u00a0friends put together to\u00a0provide prisoners with musical equipment in the United Kingdom\u00a0and, now,\u00a0the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t\u00a0cite rigorous evaluation data\u00a0to show\u00a0the positive effects of such programs, but it doesn&#8217;t take a top-100 guitarist to grasp the\u00a0group&#8217;s vision: <em>We believe prisoners provided with the musical tools to create songs of their own can achieve a positive change of attitude that can initiate the work necessary to successfully return to life outside prison walls. Creating music, along with other educational and vocational programs, can be a profound force for positive change in a prisoner\u2019s life.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>If\u00a0the idea hits you like Wayne Kramer power chord &#8212; or if you&#8217;ve ever just\u00a0found a little peace and focus while plunking away at an instrument &#8212; you\u00a0might consider a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/jailguitardoors.org\/donate.html\">donation<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My colleague Josh Page&#8217;s\u00a0The Toughest Beat\u00a0(2011, Oxford) is getting much-deserved good press from many quarters. Today&#8217;s props come from Wayne Kramer, the MC5 guitarist now writing at Jail Guitar Doors.\u00a0Mr. Kramer calls The Toughest Beat a &#8220;well researched history of how the prison guards union grew from a minor municipal association into the second most [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1344"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1349,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1344\/revisions\/1349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/pubcrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}