Carr - Bad: The Autobiography of James Carr

HIGH PRAISE FOR

BAD

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JAMES CARR

For those interested in prison reform, James Carrs autobiography BAD is a must read. His life is a testimony to the need to make fundamental changes in our system of prisons. We all will benefit if changes are made that stress education, rehabilitation, and employment opportunities instead of just incarceration. Reading Carrs autobiography forces us to think about just that.

Jim Beall, California State Senator

These are the stories I grew up with, the epic mythologies that sustained me during my long years of exilegladiator tales of a legendary, furious hero who flew so very close to the sun, burning hot, reckless, ruthless. These are the great and terrible exploits of my godfather, the Black Spartacus who goes harder than all the rest and makes no apologiesvivid, visceral, vital, shining with charisma. His undying bond of comradeship with Uncle George [Jackson, Soledad Brother] serves as a crucial example for everyone in the struggle.

Jonathan Peter Jackson, artist; godson of James Carr

James Carrs autobiography escapes many traps that befall stories of incarceration and radicalization, confronting the reader with brutal honesty rather than framing the subject as a passive victim or martyr in order to further a political agenda or provide a moralistic argument.... Avoiding the sensational and the romanticized, he embraces the full complexity of his life and forces the reader to do the same. Carr demonstrates deep insight and sensitivity in his condemnation of the prison system, leaving us with lessons which resonate clearly with todays urgent mass incarceration crisis.

Alejandro Van Zandt-Escobar, Regional Field Manager,
The Petey Greene Program

The California of illusion, commerce & hype became reality to a throwaway kid of street soul in one of the most compelling books Ive read... Our hero bled while studying higher math and philosophynot really suited to nationalistic racismbut he survived with it. Between hell and chaos that he made, he could also make such statements: Guerrilla ideology reduces all revolutionary questions to quantitative problems of military force. His story will mess with your mind and stick to your ribs like a shiver. If the other James Carr who sang You Got My Mind Messed Up was one of the worlds greatest soul singers, this James Carr was one of the greatest souls... and the baddest mutherfucker society tried to hold.

Charles Plymell, publisher, Zap Comix,
author, Benzedrine Highway

Outstanding... Revealing on a personal level.

Penny Schoner, member,
Prison Activist Resource Center collective

Brutally vivid, shockingly beautiful, a real life Dickensian tale told in the ghetto. Full of pain, pathos, and political savvy with deep insights into the American prison system that everyone must read.

Royal Young, author, Fame Shark

BAD was very difficult to read because of the physical violence that permeates the book.... Today, a person in prison still has a fear of being physically attacked especially from gangs. But there seems to be more psychological violence like long-term solitary confinement... The total elimination of both physical and psychological violence continues to be an ongoing need.

Charles Sullivan, President, International
Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE)

BAD

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
JAMES CARR

JAMES CARR

THREE ROOMS PRESS

NEW YORK CITY

Special thanks to Dan Hammer and Isaac Cronin for working with James Carr to create the original edition of BAD: The Autobiography of James Carr.

Also, thanks to Isaac Cronin for introducing Three Rooms Press to the Carr family and helping to arrange for the publication of this edition.

And many thanks to the Betsy and Gea Carr for their kindness and dedication to making this edition a reality.

BAD: The Autobiography of James Carr

by James Carr

This edition copyright 2016 by Betsy Carr and Three Rooms Press

First published in 1975 by Herman Graf Associates

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without permission of the author or publisher, except for brief quotes for review purposes. For permissions, please write to

ISBN: 978-1-941110-38-6 (trade paper)

ISBN: 978-1-941110-39-3 (ebook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015955342

COVER AND BOOK DESIGN:

KG Design International

www.katgeorges.com

INTRODUCTION AND AFTERWORD PHOTOS:

Thomas P.E. Rothchild

COVER PHOTO AND PHOTO ON PAGE ix:

Courtesy Betsy Carr

PUBLISHED BY:

Three Rooms Press, New York, NY

www.threeroomspress.com

DISTRIBUTED BY:

PGW/Perseus

www.pgw.com

FOREWORD

BY DAN HAMMER

WHEN I WAS NINE YEARS OLD I burned down my school. James Carr started fighting when he was very young and never gave up. He was a child prodigy of crime in the streets of the L.A. ghettos and the scourge of half a dozen boys homes and reform schools. In his teens he advanced to armed robbery and bookmaking, a career which was quickly cut short by arrest. In prison he fought harder than ever, and became one of the most notorious rebels in the seething California Penal System.

Because he was a fighter and not a preacher, James Carr relates the story of his life with a cold passion that allows him to illuminate the details of daily life on the streets and in prison powerfully, yet free from political polemics and moralistic complaints. Jimmy reveals the horrors of penitentiary liferace riots, murders, unexplained and irrational punishments, corruption of prison officials, to name but a fewfrom the standpoint of one who has overcome them. At the same time, he shows us the tremendous force and even joy of condemned men who refuse to die, who confirm their humanity through rebellion.

Jimmys relationship with George Jackson and his other black comrades was in sharp contrast to the chaos around them. As they progressed through the system they formed the Wolf Pack, a brotherhood that protected its members and came to guarantee them a certain margin of material security. Forged in deadly battlefirst against the authorities and the other convicts, then almost entirely against the formerJimmys and Georges friendship grew into much more than a partnership for survival. The Wolf Pack stayed alive for so long not only by fighting but by loving; their love for each other was fed not only by common dependency but by a great intellectual development and their amazing ability to have fun in this most unpleasurable environment.

Through Jimmys evolution we see the gradually dawning consciousness among many convicts that they have been manipulated to struggle against their own interests, both by making war on each other and by fighting the authorities on the latters own terms. Led by George and Jimmy, the Wolf Pack first fought its way to a position of strength in the prison race war, then worked to stop that war entirely in order to work solely against the system. With this development, the authorities were forced to increase their brutality and to separate Jimmy and George.

On his own after 1965 in the more subdued atmosphere of the California Mens Colony at San Luis Obispo, Jimmy transformed himself from an openly rebellious con whose actions were self-defeating automatic reactions into a coldly calculating thinker who manipulated the authorities and ultimately engineered his own release. In the process he became an accomplished mathematician, a champion weightlifter, and a wise adviser to the new generation of prison rebels.