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Protest over VH1's "Music Behind Bars" Series
« on: Oct 19th, 2002, 9:39pm » |
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Governor, Others Protest VH1's 'Music Behind Bars'
Sat, Oct 19, 2002 12:20 PM PDT
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - A group of victims-rights advocates, including the governor of Pennsylvania, is protesting VH1's new series "Music Behind Bars," which features bands formed in prisons.
The debut episode, which aired Friday (Oct. 1 , focused on a group called Dark Mischief at a Pennsylvania state prison. One of its members is Christopher Bissey, who's in the state penitentiary at Graterford, near Philadelphia, for killing two teenage girls at Lehigh University in 1995.
"Music Behind Bars" is produced by Arnold Shapiro ("Big Brother"), who also produced the landmark prison documentary "Scared Straight" in the late 1970s. Shapiro has said the show is an honest effort to highlight music's role in the rehabilitation of inmates, but that did little to placate the protesters.
"Instead of singing and dancing, perhaps they should spend more time thinking about what they've done," Joan Grider, the mother of one of Bissey's victims, tells the AP.
About 70 people, many of whom were relatives or friends of murder victims held a vigil Friday night in Allentown, Pa., to protest the show. Gov. Mark Schweiker joined the group.
"Prison should be about punishment," the governor says. "It shouldn't be for inmates to enjoy the limelight."
Pennsylvania's House of Representatives passed a resolution this week urging VH1 to donate proceeds from Friday's episode to the state victim advocate's office. Schweiker says the Department of Corrections will also begin notifying victims' families when inmates are to appear on television.
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