{"id":1015,"date":"2013-09-12T11:10:48","date_gmt":"2013-09-12T15:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/?p=1015"},"modified":"2023-10-17T09:15:56","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T13:15:56","slug":"johnny-cash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/12\/johnny-cash\/","title":{"rendered":"Honoring Johnny Cash’s prison reform activist legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Johnny<\/p>\n

Johnny Cash shaking hands with Glen Sherley during Cash’s performance at Folsom Prison, 1968 (photo by Jim Marshall).<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Johnny Cash<\/a> at the age of 71. The country music star was famous for his At Folsom Prison<\/a> and At San Quentin<\/a> live albums, and his hit Folsom Prison Blues<\/a> <\/p>\n

What is less known is how deep Johnny Cash’s activism went. Earlier this year, the BBC Magazine wrote a great article<\/a> to accompany a two part<\/a> radio documentary<\/a> about Cash’s work and effectiveness:<\/p>\n

Cash’s classic albums recorded at Folsom Prison and San Quentin are well known, but few are aware that these were just two of many prison concerts he played over three decades. <\/p>\n

Cash’s experiences in these jails turned him into a passionate prison reformer who donated his own money to the cause, took a released prisoner into his own home and even met President Richard Nixon to force the issue.<\/p>\n

Johnny Cash never served time in prison himself, but he struggled with his own demons, and the Man in Black identified with: <\/p>\n

…the poor and the beaten down,
\nLivin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
\n…the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
\nBut is there because he’s a victim of the times. <\/p>\n

Johnny Cash deserves a lot of credit for putting the issue of prison reform on the minds and radio waves of a generation, and for setting out a shining example of how our cultural leaders can help make social change.<\/p>\n

Since Cash’s death, I discovered an even rarer and more important song that I think illustrates the depth of Cash’s passion and vision for prison reform: Jacob Green. The song was first performed at a Swedish prison and released on the 1974 LP “Pa Osteraker” (Inside a Swedish Prison), and then on the recording of a 1976 concert at the Tennessee State Prison, A Concert Behind Prison Walls<\/a> visible on YouTube:<\/p>\n

Note: After this blog was published, the video referenced was removed from YouTube.<\/i> <\/p>\n

As I wrote 10 years ago in a short homage to both Johnny Cash and his song San Quentin<\/a>: “We’ll miss you Johnny. May all the world never forget you sang. All the world will rejoice you did so much good.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many honor Johnny Cash’s contribution ton country music, but few know of his passionate advocacy for incarcerated people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"coauthors":[11],"class_list":["post-1015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1015"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15167,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions\/15167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1015"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}