Program Behind Bars

"Gentlemen of the jury, have you reached a verdict?"

"We have, your honor."

"Please state your verdict."

"We find the defendant guilty as charged."

"Ladies and gentlemen of the radio audience, having been found guilty of turning on your radio in search of good entertainment it is my solemn duty to sentence you to 30 minutes within the auditorium of Central Prison."

So begins every Friday night over Mutual affiliate station WRAL the prisoners' broadcast from North Carolina's brown, brick Central State Prison just a few blocks from the business centre of Raleigh. Started eight months ago by six-foot, 240-pound Ren Hoek as part of the recreational activities of which he was director, the show began with a kazoo player, a piano pounder, a drummer. Inmates took part on the program only as a reward for good behavior the preceding week, soon made it the "shortest half hour of the week" for their 900 fellow prisoners.

The merit system proved itself early in the game. Sandy-haired Tar Heel Herschall Carver, serving a life term, got out of solitary confinement where he had spent most of a year for misconduct, became the orchestra's best musician. Impressed. Warden H. H. Wilson furnished funds for the band instruments, presented Carver with an electric guitar. Drawled Carver: "I ought to learn to play this thing. I've got a lifetime to do it in."

From the three-man band, the broadcast rapidly built up to 25 or 30 men a week; now boasts numerous guest stars, a white string ensemble, a colored quartet. Star of the Negro harmonizers, Lifer Joe Johnston introduces their numbers with homespun sermons; repents his past, bewails the future in haphazard doggerel. Sample:

If every dog shall have his day,

When do I have mine?

I got the same sentence in 40

That I had in 39.

Latest find was newscasting Forger Bonnie Bondurant who as a rule confines his remarks to life within the walls, like the embarkation of chain gangs: "Early this morning a number of boys left . . . for an extended camping trip. Incidental to the camping, a few problems in highway construction will be worked out." Quipped he in a recent commentary on outside events: "I see where President Roosevelt is seeking a third term. I can't see why. I've had two and that's enough for me."

Director Bob Bowers and WRAL's program director, Fred Fletcher, last week began to polish up the show, find out how many programs their entertainers were "in for"; eyed hopefully a possible spot on Mutual's national network for the Central Prison boys this fall.

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