For wardens running bigger and fuller prisons, letting in people and technology was one more avoidable security risk. The racial prejudice that underpinned the War on Drugs infected how a lot of prison music was perceived. Throughout the 1990s, a rising victims’ rights movement framed any creativity behind bars as a moral affront to crime survivors. Much of society lost interest in hearing the voices of people inside prisons, but they didn’t stop creating and often they used music as a form of resistance. There are hopeful signs that our prison system could return to seeing music as a way to maintain hope inside — and prepare society to accept the people they’re going to release.

---

Persons: Merle Haggard, ”, Darrell Wayne Caldwell, Earlonne Woods, Antwan, Banks ” Williams, Jim Crow, — Organizations: Black, San, Jim Crow Records Locations: Angeles County, San Quentin