Working In The Big House
A look behind the walls as prison inmates in Oregon
are learning to be sound professionals
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Prison, for your average person, is a word that evokes images of
razor wire, hardened criminals and things that should not be written
about. I certainly never thought I would learn how to put together
live outdoor concerts for the prison population, let alone provide
sound reinforcement for all manners of events within the penitentiary.
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HISTORY OF THE ROADIE PROGRAM
The Roadie School/Music Program began in the early-1970s for inmates to
learn skills in music production, mixing, recording, stage set-up and
management, and video. Initially, volunteers from the community would
be brought into the institution and teach members various aspects of sound
reinforcement. Not only would members have written tests from these classes,
but would be tested when there was a show on the yard.
Over the years, the Roadie School has coordinated and presented numerous
concerts for the OSP inmate population, featuring many professional performing
artists. These include such luminaries as the late Stevie Ray Vaughn,
George Thorogood, Barbara Mandrell, Savoy Brown, Buddy Guy, The Fabulous
Thunderbirds, Robert Cray, Tower of Power, in addition to concerts by
Oregon-based musical acts and, of course, the inmate bands.
HOW IT WORKS
As the inmate director of the program, I am under the guidance of a staff
advisor within the Oregon State Penitentiary activities section. With
the help of two assistant directors, the program is our required institution
jobs. We take care of all maintenance of our band room, which has three
guitars, a bass, two keyboards, a drum set and small P.A. system. With
10 inmate bands playing each week, there is plenty to take care of.
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Our office, adjacent to the band room, is also a small recording
studio. With 16 channels of ADAT, an Alesis Masterlink and soon
a Cakewalk 9 computer DAW system, we will produce quality recordings
of the outside bands that come in to perform, as well as our own
inmate bands. We also oversee all training and operation of all
our large and small P.A. equipment for inside and outside shows.
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It is the job of the director and assistant directors to make community
contacts for our outside entertainment, donations in both equipment and
for finding people interested in donating time to help us learn more about
mixing and recording. When a band wants to perform inside, we coordinate
with the staff advisor, providing all pertinent information such as equipment
lists and names of band members for police checks, as well as informing
the band about entering this type of institution. There is coordination
with our professional OSP video department for taping shows. We work with
many of our inmate clubs to provide sound and/or recording equipment for
the many varied functions throughout the year.
PRODUCING A SHOW
A lot of work goes into producing a show inside of the institution. The
Roadie School has approximately 30 members that the assistant directors
and I work with. For a typical outside show, we meet at 7:15 a.m. with
our staff advisor to begin moving our equipment. From the activities section,
we gather the boards, mics and recording equipment, and move on to the
yard where the speakers, snakes, stage tent, amps and all other equipment
is located. We work hard as a group to move all equipment to our stage,
which is a 16-foot by 32-foot concrete riser, and get everything set-up
for a basic sound check before we have to return to our cells at 9:45
p.m. for a morning count.
Around 11:30 a.m., we are allowed back onto the yard to make our final
settings and checks before the band shows up around noon. We only have
about one hour to get the instruments set-up, miked, sound checks done,
monitor levels set and the recording levels set. The band begins to play
around 1:15 p.m., only if things are running smoothly inside of the institution
and with the admission of the outside guests.
Many things can happen that chew into the little time allotted. Staff
must supervise the transporting of equipment, moving from one area to
another if something is forgotten, or waiting for the bands equipment
to come in to start setting it up. The show ends around 3:00 p.m. when
the guests must leave. This gives the Roadies and myself less than half-an-hour
to tear all equipment down and have it put away before we are expected
to return to our cell at 3:30 p.m. Surprisingly, there is good cooperation
between the Roadies to make sure the job is done well.
PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS
One of the biggest problems in mixing at OSP is that a 30-foot concrete
wall surrounds the yard. The engineer must stay on top of his levels and
the use of reverb when there is a natural reverb that comes back from
all sides. It’s like being inside of a box canyon. However, the only effects
unit recently took a dive in the middle of a show and there has not been
a way to replace it. We have a Behringer Ultramizer, an Aphex Aural Exciter,
one tube mic DI and three dbx compressors, but no reverbs.
To provide the power to the FOH station, a series of 25-foot extension
cords are run from the stage power distribution box. Last season, someone
accidentally unplugged it by stepping on it, shutting down the ADATs and
the board for a moment, which made for an interesting panic.
For the audio feed to our video cart, I run a split off our monitor board.
This is an old, donated Biamp 16-channel board that has been here since
the beginning of the Roadie School. It may be a dinosaur, but it keeps
on working. Sometimes this board is quite finicky as to how it wants to
work and the sound it sends to the video cart.
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Beyond the live band yard shows, the Roadie school provides music and sound reinforcement for many other institution activities. Many clubs operate under the activities section at OSP, and each club has a couple of events that require the Roadies School’s services. For instance, at the Lakota Native American Club Pow-Wow, I mic up and record onto DAT, along with the annual Multi-cultural Extravaganza which combines the Chicano Culture club, Uhuru Sa Sa African American club and the Lakota club. Every year, the Highwaller’s Racing team has their annual car show that requires an announce-ment mic and ’50s-style rock and roll. |
Overall, the Roadie School/Music Program may not have the best equipment
to work on, but we do a great job with what we have. The members and I
try our hardest to make an enjoyable experience for the outside guests
coming in to perform. We welcome anyone in the sound business to arrange
a time to come in and check it out. We accept donations of both old gear
and time.
THE ACQUISITION OF GEAR WITHIN THE WALLS
The acquisition of new gear for the Roadie School is quite amazing, considering
where it is. Besides working on contacts for donations of new, used/refurbished
or factory second gear, the program is allotted a modest budget for buying
new gear and the repair of old gear. This budget is for two years and
does not come from taxpayer money, but from what is known as the Inmate
Welfare Fund. These funds are collected from inmate fines and sales that
have accrued from the inmate canteen, which is where, once a week, each
inmate may spend the money that is credited to their inmate trust account
and purchase food or hygiene items.
This budget is crucial for the small amount that we are able to pay the
outside bands and our Roadie crew. An outside band receives $300 for their
time, plus a video, photos and a CD mixed in the studio of their live
show. The Roadies receive a $5 merit pay for their work on each show.
Once everything is factored in, I try to determine what would best serve
the Roadies for the next two years and what is in need of repair. Then,
I create a written proposed budget that shows the cost of paying the bands
and the roadies over the two-year period as well as the approximate prices
of the gear that I would like to acquire for our band room and our outside
shows, and an amount is set aside for incidental repairs. The proposal
is presented to my section supervisor, who talks with me about what amount
of funds the Roadie School will have access to. Generally, many revisions
take place to my proposal before the final go ahead is given for me to
make the appropriate purchase order requests.
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Next, I make plenty of phone calls to find the best deal and the exact prices, so that I can draw up a purchase request that reflects a breakdown of the vendors name, location, the items being purchased, their individual and overall price. The purchase order is then given to my staff advisor for his signature of approval. Then it goes to the activities manager for his approval, who then sends it on to the Superintendent and Asst. Superintendent for their signatures of approval. |
When the activities section manager gets the request back, he sends it
to what I know as the dome building, which is where they do the bookkeeping
and the writing of checks. They then send the purchase order to the vendor.
When the purchase request is finally shipped from the vendor, it goes
to OSP’s central warehouse. When I get word that these items have arrived
in the warehouse, I create a memorandum for its transport into the institution,
which must be signed by the staff supervisor, activities manager and a
Captain who oversees the operations within the penitentiary. For example
this past year, I was able to purchase new mid/high bi-amp speaker cabinets
with matching power amps, which took, from start to finish, approximately
nine months. This is average, even for repairs.
This may seem like a long time to make anything happen. Patience is a
virtue, but I’m thankful that I can even get this kind of practical business
experience in running this kind of operation inside of a prison. As far
as I know, this is the only penitentiary in the country that allows an
inmate to learn these skills, and I am thankful to them for giving me
the opportunity to give my life some meaning while inside the prison.
Roadie School Equipment Manifest
FOH Speakers and Amplification:
4 Peavey 18-inch Black Widow speakers in homemade cabinets
4 Electro-Voice 15-inch speakers in homemade cabinets for mid/highs
2 Yamaha horns (unknown model for the highs)
2 Carvin 15-inch speakers in homemade boxes-center fills
1 Sunn Model SA 20 amp
1 Yamaha P2100 amp
1 Carvin FET 450 amp
1 Carvin FET 900A amp
1 Sound Tech ST300CX crossoverFOH Cart:
1 Soundcraft Spirit Live 4/2
2 Rolls REC 215 dual graphic EQ
1 Aphex 104 Aural Exciter
1 dbx 266XL compressor/gate
2 dbx 266A compressor/gate
1 Behringer Ultramizer ProMonitor System:
1 Studio Master Mixdown Classic 8
2 Sabine FBX2020 feedback eliminators
1 Carvin FET 450 amp
1 Peavey CS-800 amp
2 Yamaha S4115 speakers
4 Carvin 1-15 floor wedgesMics and DIs:
12 Shure SM57 mics
12 Shure SM58 mics
2 Audio-Technica CAD 95 Ni mics
2 Rapco DB-100 DI
1 SansAmp Bass Driver DI
To contact our program:
Attn: Ray Austin or Chad Ramsey
OSP Activities Section/ Roadie School
2605 State St.
Salem, OR 97310
Voice Mail: 503-378-4207
Fax: 503-373-1008
Wm. Scott Dorris is from the Medford/Ashland area of Southern Oregon.
He has been playing mainly bass guitar since the age of 12. In 1992, he
graduated from Southern Oregon State College with a B. A. in Performance
on the Double Bass, Composition/ Theory, Conducting and Education. After
graduating, he began working with the guitar player in his band A.O.D.
and building a live sound business.
After a serious flaw in judgment, he received 90 months at the Oregon
State Penitentiary and has only 26 months left before his release. Within
one year of arrival, he became the director of the Roadie School/Music
program, overseeing the operation of a crew of 30 inmates in the school
and helping the 10 inmate bands record and produce their own music. He
is currently playing bass and singing in his own band and hopes to have
their album finished soon. Dorris hopes that his experience will help
him secure a good job opportunity in the music business upon his release.
March 2003 Live Sound International