Born No Good

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This Side Of Life

This Side Of Life is a country rock band formed by four inmates currently serving life sentences in a maximum security prison. They have been given special permission to record their music and distribute it via the internet. This is part of a unique pilot program to help rehabilitate some of the country's most dangerous criminals who up to now have been segregated from other prisoners and kept in continual solitary confinement.

Maximum security prisons are extremely controversial and there are claims that the living conditions in such facilities violate international law with their “cruel and unusual punishments” and “inhuman and degrading” conditions. Prison officials have been accused of chronic abuse and the neglect of prisoners, many of whom have serious mental health problems.

Born No Good

I was born no good

Knew it as a baby child

Left out in the cold, alone and hungry

I just ended up running wild

I grew up angry and I grew up mean

And I grew up feeling mad

Seemed my life was always empty

Trouble was all I had

Cos I was born no good

And maybe I’m going nowhere

And maybe my life’s not worth the trouble

And maybe I just don’t care

Cos I was born no good

And nobody’s who I am

And maybe I’ll never amount to nothing

And maybe I don’t give a damn

When you don’t know how to love

And you don’t know how to feel

You don’t give in to no one

And you take what you can steal

So finally they tried to teach me

Told me not to break the rules

Said, “You gotta work hard if you wanna be something”

But I told them, “You’re a bunch of fools”

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