Behind the razor wire: portrait of a contemporary American prison system

Canadian Brett Story's most recent film, The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (2016), explores the American prison system, as well as the traditional sense of “landscape,” in an unusual way: except for the film's final shot, a drive-by of Attica State Prison nestled in the countryside of west-central New York State, we see no prisoners and no prison buildings—and few spaces we could call landscapes. Story's panoramic film reveals the multitude of ways in which the prison system is hidden in plain sight throughout the United States. In Scott MacDonald's interview with Story, the filmmaker explains the film's unusual approach and structure—as well as the struggle involved in getting the film made. Story's modest budget is the ultimate irony of The Prison in Twelve Landscapes, given the fact that the American prison system is the world's most extensive, and no doubt most expensive, system of incarceration on the planet.

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Bentham and Tocqueville on Pauperism

The Tocqueville Review/La revue Tocqueville ◽

10.3138/ttr.28.2.129 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 28 (2) ◽

pp. 129-151

Author(s):

Anne Brunon-Ernst

Keyword(s):

Prison System ◽

Alexis De Tocqueville ◽

Jeremy Bentham ◽

The South ◽

French Writer ◽

American Prison

Alexis de Tocqueville and Jeremy Bentham belong to two different generations. When Tocqueville made his firt trip to the South of England in 1833 and, the following year, when the publication of De la Démocratie en Amérique launched his career as a successful political writer, Bentham had died a couple of years before. Bentham had certainly never heard about a young hopeful French writer called Tocqueville. At least there is no mention of his name in Bentham’s Works and Correspondence and why should there be? However Bentham’s theories were not unknown to Tocqueville, more particularly those related to prisons. Tocqueville became acquainted with Bentham’s Panopticon when he and Gustave de Beaumont were commissioned by the French Interior Ministry to write a report on the American prison system which was subsequently published under Du système pénitentianire aux États-Unis in 1831.

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An Exploratory Study of Prison Gangs in Contemporary Society

Advances in Psychology, Mental Health, and Behavioral Studies - Global Perspectives on Youth Gang Behavior, Violence, and Weapons Use ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-9938-0.ch011 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 215-237 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dev Rup Maitra

Keyword(s):

Exploratory Study ◽

Prison System ◽

Ethnographic Study ◽

Street Gangs ◽

Contemporary Society ◽

Gang Activity ◽

Prison Gangs ◽

Prison Environment ◽

Established Role ◽

American Prison

This chapter investigates the composition of prison gangs, their effects on the prison environment, and their relationships with street gangs. Through conducting an ethnographic study of an adult men's prison in England, the chapter attempts to articulate the experiences of prison gang members, as well as prisoners exposed to high levels of gang activity. The results illustrate the established role gangs play within English prisons, but also the relevance of other groups, collectives and “sets” within the penal environment. Through analysing the gathered data, I aim to show the important - but not defining - role gangs play within an English prison. Moreover, when compared to the American prison system, gangs are far less entrenched in English prisons; this can partly be attributed to the deeper historical roots of American prison gangs, as well as their highly racialized dimensions. The chapter begins with two case-studies, the subjects of which are prisoners from the research site.

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