someone who had committed a lesser crime and had never committed murder. Thus, news accounts of murders committed by persons who have previously served prison terms for other crimes, or by persons who were charged with first-degree murder but convicted of lesser offenses and later paroled, may contribute to the false impression that convicted first-degree murderers are back on the streets far sooner than they actually are. Of course, such selective ignorance makes these stories more consonant with myths of crime and punishment.
There is no question that the public is deeply concerned about crime; however, the average citizen actually knows very little about rates of incarceration, who is being incarcerated, and how much time they serve. This information is not part of the media coverage on crime; that coverage is episodic, not analytical. Nonetheless, Julian Roberts and Loretta Stalans have conducted a number of studies that seem to indicate that the majority of the public in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia share the view that sentences imposed on adults are too lenient.23 In 1996, polls conducted by the National Opinion Research Center reported that 67 percent of those surveyed thought that the nation spent too little on stemming the rising rate of crime,24 while 78 percent said that the courts in their area did not deal harshly enough with criminals.25 Elected officials have responded to public concern about crime with an easily explained, superficially appealing strategy that does not provide an effective response to that concern. Simplistic terms and limited sentencing discretion proffered by elected officials are not limited to violent crime (which the public is largely focused on) but tend to catch large numbers of property and drug offenders in their indiscriminate nets as well.
B. Entertainment Media
In thinking critically and analytically about policies and attitudes regarding offenders, ex-offenders, reentry, and race, it is helpful—if not necessary—to examine the entertainment media. Movies, in their two-hour format, provide an opportunity to transport the viewer to a world wholly divorced from his or her own daily experiences. This medium taps into emotions and transmits messages about the prison and postprison experiences. At its best, entertainment media can educate the public to a side of life that is normally concealed to the average person. At its worst, it can caricature, stereotype, and titillate with little concern about the accuracy of its portrayals. What follows is a closer look at a few examples.
1. The Shawshank Redemption
Although not initially a huge hit upon its release in 1994, The Shawshank Redemption became enormously successful through video rental and sales.26 In the Internet Movie Database list of the top 250 movies of all time, as voted by users, Shawshank rates as number two—trailing only the original Godfather, and easily eclipsing in popularity such iconic films as Star Wars and Casablanca.27 The Shawshank Redemption (Castle Rock Entertainment, 1994) is based on “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,” a novella that Stephen King published in a collection called Different Seasons.28
Shawshank combines two genres: escape fantasy and prison movie. Although stylistically and thematically, the film sets itself apart from other prison movies, it does employ classic prison movie devices, including corrupt prison authorities, unchecked inmate violence, and sexual assault. The lead character, Andy, played by Tim Robbins, must endure the repeated experience of homosexual rape at the hands of the “Sisters,” men who represent the perceived brutal side of prison life. The ultimate message is that the prison experience is so brutal and entrenched that no one can truly be rehabilitated.
The prison librarian, Brooks, has lived in an institutional setting for so long that not only has he adjusted to it, but he cannot survive outside its walls. Consequently, when he is released and reenters society without the support of people he knows and the familiarity of the structured environment in which he had lived for so long, he cannot cope and hangs himself.
Finally, the third key inmate character is the old-timer, Red (played by Morgan Freeman). He is African American and seamlessly manages to navigate the racial conflicts and the politics of the prison. Through his friendship with the White character, Andy, he moves beyond the loneliness and despair that he too experiences upon release. He violates parole to follow clues to hidden money Andy has put away, and he is magically transported to Mexico to live out his days with his buddy.29 It is only through the extraordinary intervention of Andy, culminating in an utterly mythologized ending where the two friends meet on some nameless, featureless beach in Mexico, that Red can actually be redeemed. This is not unlike other prison films that require the intervention of some metaphysical force for any type of lasting reintegration to take place.
The film never posits anything other than a broadly cast, allegorical reentry or redemption, rather than the specific example of an ex-offender successfully reintegrating into society.30 Consider the recurring parole hearing scenes, which serve as markers of Red’s slow progress into hardbitten wisdom. As film critic Roger Ebert characterized it in his review, “in his first appeal [Red] tries to convince the board he’s been rehabilitated. In the second, he just goes through the motions. In the third, he rejects the whole notion of rehabilitation, and somehow in doing so he sets his spirit free, and the board releases him.”31 Finally, at least one reviewer picked up on the trope of prison as a “school” for crime, as Janet Maslin takes note of Andy’s successful new career as the prison financial consultant offering shady advice to the warden and his guards.32
In the twentieth-century prison depicted in Shawshank, the concept of reformation had practically disappeared. For the most part, penitentiaries like Shawshank are seen as serving a purely custodial function—as a warehouse for the convicted. This warehousing prison philosophy reemerged in the 1980s and 1990s and has remained part of our prison landscape.
The ultimate messages of Shawshank are threefold. First, prison is brutal and numbing and most inmates cannot make it through the experience once they have been exposed to this illogical and meaningless place. Second, prison becomes so debilitating that its members lose their ability to function in the external world. As sentences become longer, we have old-timers like Abraham who cleaned Wakefield prison long after his sentence is completed, and Brooks, who is unable to function outside the prison. Finally, the only way to prevent the inevitable destruction of spirit is to escape the confines of society. Redemption is ultimately linked to escape, not reintegration.
Television provides an opportunity to reach more individuals than can be reached in movie theaters. Cable takes characters and storylines that were once deemed too intense, too explicit, and too violent for television and puts them in late-evening slots. Cable tends to take more chances and devotes more time to character development, while at the same time still seeking the dramatic content to move the story and the viewer.
2. Oz
The HBO hit series Oz, which ran for six seasons between 1997 and 2003, depicted daily prison life as brutal and chaotic. One reporter wrote, “mention Oz to those who have seen it and many will squirm at its soap-operatic tales of scheming, divided loyalties and unfortunate consequences, namely shankings, rapes and beatings.”33 The aim of the show, as expressed by the writer/producer Tom Fontana, was to create a realistic representation of prison life, and “not to entertain people.”34 His notion of what “real prison life” looked like suggested that “it lets you know there’s a part of society out there that you don’t want any contact with.”35 Unfortunately, it also led viewers to conclude that they didn’t want any contact with the people in prison—while they are inside or, presumably, once they are released.
Because the prison is perceived as a brutal, inhumane place and prisoners as its unflinchingly evil inhabitants, Oz only served to confirm viewers’ notions of prison life. As it turns out, viewers were both entertained by the program and convinced of the “deeper truths” mined by Oz. A sampling of viewer comments36 regarding the show reveals
