California IN BRIEF : OAKLAND : Inmates Take Third in Choir Contest

The songbirds of San Quentin failed to win first place in a San Francisco Bay Area gospel choir competition, but the group of 17 singing inmates finished a respectable third in the contest. The San Quentin Choir members were not allowed out of prison to perform in the McDonald’s Gospel Fest ’90. So, dressed in regulation prison blues, they videotaped their performance of “Your Love Is Something” and “I Am Not the Same” in the prison chapel. The group finished behind the first-place Bay Area District Youth and Young Adult Choir of East Palo Alto and the second-place Bayview Opera House Community Choir of San Francisco. The inmates beat out six other choir-robe-clad finalists out of 21 groups that made the semi-finalists cut.