ATS2457 Chapter Notes -American History X, New Prison, Prison Reform
21 Oct 2013
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Document Summary
Crime, media and popular culture ii: prison films. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that media coverage of prisons, both in. Britain and elsewhere, has contributed to public misinformation about prison: law films can be more creative (different images) prison films more constrained. Tend to follow the same story: the way the media represents issues around imprisonment and prisoners contributes to a more punitive attitude by the public. Narrow and hard for us to form a different opinion. Contributes to an idea that crime is random and that we re all at risk and have to be fearful (overrepresentation). However, many prison films are not about prison all but can be read allegorically as a metaphor for disempowerment, injustice and isolation (the genre sky rocketed during the 1930s). Prison films purport to reveal the brutalities of incarceration while actually offering viewers escape from the miseries of daily life through adventure and heroism.
