He means that the child's father would be ashamed od\f himself if he couldn't feed,clothe or be able to provide for his family. Possibly,the father in the song either does not make enough money or has no job at all. So he might have done something like armed robbery to get money and got caught. If I'm right,three years is not very long to serve for that kind of thing,but then again,this was 30 years ago. Hope that helps. It's been me and I'll catch ya on the flipside of Sundown!
