Security for Amos

John Amos, whom we all know via his work on “Good Times” and as Kunta Kinte in “Roots,” speaks unabashedly about his recent stretch in prison.

No, Amos hasn’t been misbehaving. It’s just that playing Meissner, the menacing captain of correctional officers in “Lock Up,” necessitated his being in New Jersey’s dreaded Rahway Prison for a portion of the shoot.

“They let us know from day one that ‘the fact that you’re shooting a movie here in no way abrogates our security program,’ ” says Amos, who with Sylvester Stallone and the rest of the movie company spent nearly six weeks at the maximum-security facility. “Each person had to be checked against their photo ID each day, body searched going in, and body searched on the way out.”

The ex-sociology major auditioned for one of the inmate roles but landed the part of Meissner after donning the captain’s uniform, thereby impressing the casting brass. And more surprises were in store for Amos and company when they descended into the prison interiors to roll film.

“They were very cool at first, I mean very cool,” says Amos of Rahway’s reluctant residents. “After about 10 days, we got to know them on a first-name basis.

“A lot of the guys I knew personally, having been born and raised in the Jersey area. I ran into quite a few old friends--guys I’d gone to grade school and high school with, gone to parties with . . . dated some of their sisters,” he says with a laugh.

There was one cat Amos bumped into at Rahway whom he didn’t party with.

“It’s almost like the old axiom ‘What goes around, comes around,’ ” says Amos, describing a close encounter of the satisfying kind. “ ‘Cause there was one guy in particular I knew who was real good at taking my lunch money and beating me or anybody else up. I guess he graduated to the maximum-security facility right after high school.”