Merle Haggard Has Been Locked-Up Numerous Times…
But this has not helped Haggard at all. His father’s, the absence of his mother, and his loneliness have overwhelmed him, making him a rebellious child. In connection, he was put to juvenile detention by his mother to change his attitude, but it worsened. Merle Haggard has been in and out of juvenile detention center in his teenage life.
Haggard committed some offenses, such as thefts and writing bad checks. In 1950, he was sent back to a juvenile detention center for shoplifting. At the age of 14, he ran away from home to Texas with his friend. He rode freight trains and hitchhiked throughout the United States.
When Haggard and his friend returned, they were arrested for robbery. They were released when law enforcement officers had found out the real robbers. Then again, they had put to a juvenile detention center, and they escaped. In 1951, he was arrested for truancy and petty theft.
Still, with all of the bad things happening to Haggard, he tried to work as a potato truck driver, being a short order cook, a hay pitcher, and an oil well shooter. Then he got married.
Plagued by financial issues, he was arrested in 1957 shortly after he tried to rob a Bakersfield roadhouse. He was sent to Bakersfield Jail and after an escape attempt was transferred to San Quentin Prison on February 21, 1958.