INSIDE RAHWAY PRISON
YOU would imagine that if an imprisoned boxer became a leading contender by having organised fights with top contenders behind the walls of a maximum-security jail you might have the plotline of a new Netflix series, and a scarcely believable one at that.
But back in the 1970s, when light-heavyweight prospect James Scott landed a lifetime in jail, his career didn’t only carry on in prison, it thrived and escalated.
Scott, who spent much of his youth in New Jersey correctional facilities, eventually moved to Florida for a fresh start and turned pro. He was being managed by Hank Kaplan and promoted by Chris Dundee in 1974, and early victories over contenders Baby Boy Rolle, Jesse Burnett and Ray Anderson moved him to 10-0 and marked him as one to watch. But a fateful trip home to his old New Jersey stomping grounds saw everything change.
There was a bungled drug robbery in a Newark ghetto. It was 1975, someone got killed, James was taken in and he wouldn’t breathe free air for 30 years.
Bob Hatrak was the warden at Rahway State Penitentiary. His modus operandi was equipping convicts for life on the outside no matter what they wanted to do. He wasn’t just going to have them taught to become electricians, mechanics and plumbers. If they wanted to sing, he wanted them to have musical options. If they wanted to paint, he’d give them an art department and if they wanted to fight, he was going to start a boxing programme.
James Scott, the fringe light-heavyweight contender wanted to box. Hatrak and Scott went way back through the East Coast judiciary system,
