Expert: Dick Rogers - 6/8/2009

Question
Hi,

What is the meaning of "hard time" (as in "he was sentenced to twenty years of hard time.")

True crime TV shows don't show anyone doing anything that could be described as "hard time." Most prisoners are just standing around or in their cells. Some have jobs--which probably make time go by much faster--but no one seems to be working all that hard.

Perhaps the term dates from chain gangs and "making little ones out of big ones," but nothing today seems like "hard time."

Is there a difference between just being in prison and doing "hard time"?

Many thanks,

Steve

Answer
Steve, you have hit on a little discussed by significant anomaly in our system.  Hard time does indeed refer to some of the old prisons, i.e., Sing Sing, Folsom, San Quentin, etc.  Serving time in these institutions was indeed hard.  Today, I suppose that serving time in any maximum security prison would be referred to as "hard time" but it is hard to imagine this being the case when they (the inmates) have access to exercise yards, television, libraries, even college education. I think the term rests in the dusty chambers of names such as "gumshoe".