Prison Culture: Using Music As Data
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PRISON CULTURE: USING MUSIC AS DATA DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Marianne Fisher-Gior1ando, B.A., M.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 1987 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Simon Dinitz, Advisor Alfred C. Clarke Advisor Department of Socio10 Clyde W. Franklin II Copyright by Marianne Fisher-Gior1ando 1987 To My Parents, My Children, and My Granddaughter ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I express sincere appreciation to Dr. Simon Dinitz for his guidance and insight throughout this research. I am also grateful to Dr. Alfred Clarke and Dr. Clyde W. Franklin II, who served on my reading committee. Each of these professors have generously given me their time and support during my graduate studies here at The Ohio State university. During the time it took to conduct this study, many people helped me in various ways. First of all, I thank all the inmates who so generously contributed their musical creations to this project. Without their cooperation, this work could not have been completed. Anyone who has conducted research in prisons knows that the work cannot be accomplished without the help of many prison employees. -I thank them all, from the members of the Research Review Committee of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, who approved this research project, to the many educational personnel and correctional officers of the Ohio and Tennessee Prison Systems. iii Hundreds of other people have also assisted me during the past three and a half years. I especially thank Jody Coe, Dr. Judith Cook, Ruth Ellison, Irene Gibbs, the McBride family, Judy Nagel, Bettye Pfau-Vicent, William Ritchie, the Ryer family, and Della Wells. I thank Jerry Holloway for assisting me through the end of this work. Dr. Susan Roach Lankford, Dr. Billy Williams~ and Patsy McBride helped me immeasurably by reading every single page of this dissertation. I especially thank Susan Kritikos for not only typing and editing every page of this work but also taking responsibility for the technical production. To my friend Dr. David Orenstein, I offer sincere thanks for your unfailing inspiration, support, and encouragement over the last nine years. To my chldren, Joanne Crane, Terri Giorlando, and Joseph Giorlando, I thank you for listening, understanding, and enduring my preoccupation with my work. Finally I thank my father, Francis x. Fi~her, for encouraging me many years ago in my very first adventures in education, and my mother, who always wanted me to be a teacher. iv VITA July 9, 1938 . Born - Newark, New Jersey 1975-1977 Interviewer, Supervisor, and Site Manager, National Opinion Research Center, Chicago, Illinois 1979 . B.A., Wright state University, Dayton, Ohio 1981 .....•.... M.A., Department of Sociology, The Ohio state University, Columbus, Ohio 1979-1984 Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Sociology, The Ohio state University, Columbus, Ohio 1981 . • • . Adjunct Assistant Professor of Sociology, Wproject Talents,W The Wilmington College Program at the Lebanon Correctional Institution, Lebanon, Ohio 1982 . .. Instructor, Department of Behavioral Sciences, Columbus Technical Institute, Columbus, Ohio 1984 . .. Instructor, Department of Behavioral Sciences, Columbus Technical Institute at Marysville Reformatory for Women, Marysville, Ohio v 1984-1986 Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology/Anthropology, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa 1986-Present • . • Assistant Professor, Department of Criminal Justice, Grambling state University, Grambling, Louisiana vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION . ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS • • • iii VITA v CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION 1 Research Objectives ••••••••. 1 Music as an Expression of Culture 5 Functions of Music • • • • • • • • • • 8 Music as an Expression of Inmate Subculture • • • • • • 10 Inmate Subculture • • • • • • • • 12 The Black Inmate Subculture . 13 Methodological Foundations • 14 Humanistic Methodology • 14 Prison Music as an Ideal Type • • • • 17 II. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY . 21 Introduction • • • •• ••• .•• 21 Historical Data • • • • • • • • • 24 Sample . 24 Definition of Terms ••••••••• 29 Folk Songs • •• •••••• • 29 Commercial Music • • • • • • • • • 33 Contemporary Prison Music • • • • • • • • 34 Sample . 34 Methods •• . • . • . 36 Source and Nature of Data • • • • • • 40 Analysis . • • • • • • • • • 42 Limitations and Delimitations 45 vii III. THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF IMPRISONMENT . 54 Ancient Uses of Imprisonment ... 56 Early Punishments . • . •. 57 Penal Practices in Europe . •• . .•. 58 State Use of Imprisonment . .• 58 Church Use of Imprisonment . .. 60 Classical and Neoclassical School of Criminology . • • . • . •. 64 Penal Practices in the united States . 65 Early Colonial Sanctions • • . • •. 66 A Glimmer of Penal Reform 69 Auburn and Pennsylvania Models of Prison . • • 74 The Establishment of Reformatories 79 Northern Industrial Prisons . .. 82 Prisons as Correctional Institutions .•...••. 86 The Rehabilitation Model • . .. 86 The Reintegration Model .. • .. 88 The Return of the Neoclassical Model . • • . • • •. 90 The Southern Prison . • . • 93 The Antebellum Prison • . •• 94 Post Civil War Prisons 99 The Chain Gang . 102 Plantation Prisons . • . • 105 IV. THE INMATE SUBCULTURE . 112 Deprivation Model . • . • . 115 Prison as a Total Institution 116 Emergence of the Inmate Subculture 121 Prisonization .....•..•. 123 Degradation Ceremonies • . .• ... 124 Role Dispossession . 126 Programming or Trimming ..••• 127 Dispossession of Property . • • • 128 Personal Defacement . 128 Contaminat i ve Exposure •. •• 130 The Prison Subculture as Counterculture . • 132 Integration of the Importation and Deprivation Models •••. 137 Black Inmate Subculture • . 140 critique of Classical Inmate Subculture Research • • • . • 142 viii Delimitations of Folklore Research 147 Contemporary Prison Subculture . • .. 152 V. ANGLO-AMERICAN MUSIC OF THE INCARCERATED. 154 Folk Ballads •••••.•••.••.• . 156 Pre-Execution Ballads and Criminal Goodnights • • • • • • 157 Criminal Goodnights: Prisons, Not Execution ••• . • • . •• 170 Folk song from Jails. • • . • • 176 Political Prisoners' Songs •••• 181 Country Music ...•••.•.. • • . 190 Early 1900s Recordings • • • • • • • • 194 VI. THE EXPERIENCE OF INCARCERATION FOR THE BLACK INMATE • • .• .•••••....•• 224 Introduction • •••.•••••• 224 Work Songs • . • • .•••.• •• 227 Blues ••• . • • • • • • • . • • 230 The Music ••••••• . • •• 233 Conclusion • ...•••••...•• .• 260 VII. THE 1980s COLLECTION. 263 Introduction .• .•.•.•••• ~ • 263 The Music: Syles, Functions, and Themes • ..•...••• 263 Styles • . • • • . · . 264 Functions . • . · . .. .... 266 Themes • 285 Summary • . • • · . 312 VIII. ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS • 314 Summary • • • • • • • • • • 314 Findings . .. 320 Importation v. Deprivation 336 Analysis • • . • • • •• • •.•• 338 Black Inmate Subculture Until· the 1960s ..•••••.•• 338 Functions of Work Songs • . • . • • 341 Hierarchy of Inmate Roles: Song Leader, Backgrounders, and Pull-Dos • • • • • • • • • • . 344 Decline of Prison Music • • • 356 Conclusions •.•.•.• . • • • 360 ix APPENDIX 364 BIBLIOGRAPHY 375 x CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION RESEARCH OBJECTIVES In spite of United States prison reforms over the last century, prisons are still ·Houses of Darkness· (Orland, 1975), and today's prisoners still experience the same basic pains of imprisonment as their predecessors (Mitford, 1984; Irwin, 1980; Johnson and Toch, 1982; and Johnson, 1987). These ·pains·-- deprivations of liberty, goods and services, heterosexual relations, autonomy, and personal security (Sykes, 1958)-- continue to be a major problem for inmates even with recent changes spurred by court interpretations of the First, Fourth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. Nowhere are these pains and deprivations more evident than in the musical expressions of the incarcerated. Prison music as a form of expressive culture offers a substantial data base which sociologists have previously ignored when discussing deprivations of the imprisoned. This study, then, will examine the music written and sung by the 1 2 incarcerated to determine if the inmates' perceptions of their experiences of incarceration have changed. Framed by the lack of change position of prison critics, this work traces the uses, forms, and themes of prison music in relation to imprisonment. It is the contention of this study that a historical analysis of prison songs from the early l800s up to and including the 1980s will illustrate that from the inmates' perceptions, prisons have not changed a great deal. Prison music includes both songs written and/or sung by the incarcerated and also those songs written after release. This work, then, uses music as data in order to understand the experience of incarceration from the inmates' point of view. The use of music as data provides a novel and creative way of understanding the incarceration experience for both black and white inmates from traditional plantation prison systems in the South and industrial prisons of the North. Additionally, the use of this form of cultural expression may possibly lead to new and interesting insights about varied aspects of the prison experience. This research both uses and extends our understanding of the inmates' experience. First of all, the use of music as a vehicle for understanding inmates' perceptions 3 of incarceration places this work in the inmate subculture body of research.