Prison Reality TV: When You Can't Avert Your Eyes

by Matt Kelley · 2010-03-03 07:58:00 UTC
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I've long felt conflicted about the spate of popular reality TV shows featuring prisons -- they're exploitative, they celebrate violence and they often thrive on chaos without offering solutions. But do some shows actually dig deeper and get us thinking about the waste and abuse of our sprawling prison state?

For starters, it's important to recognize that these shows offer much of the American public the only glimpse they'll ever get inside these buildings. And, after all, viewers have the ability to make their own decisions. For an inquisitive audience, prison-themed TV shows can spark debate and even bring change. Some viewers will look at MSNBC's Lockup and wonder: "Why do we lock someone up for 10 years for stealing a car?" or "Is a violent jail really the best place for non-violent people to wait for their trials?" Those questions help advance the conservation about criminal justice reform in America.

In "Prison Porn," a new article at the Atlantic, James Parker captures this tension of prison television beautifully. He writes: "Sensational? Sort of exploitative? Intermittently debasing? Check, check, and check again. But Lockup keeps going, into unexpected zones of sympathy and catharsis." I have to agree.

While I feel that CSI and Law & Order hurt criminal justice reform more than they can help -- by senationalizing crime and showing a completely unrealistic picture of law enforcement and prosecution -- shows like Lockup at least have the potential to open a window on an important reality. Of course, there are reality shows that cause harm as well, like the purely exploitative granddaddy COPS and its progeny (I was recently aghast at the celebration of unnecessary police force in SWAT, which of course didn't question why it might be necessary for 30 guys to raid a house with one crack addict inside.)

Of course, not all reality shows are created equal -- and I've come to believe that some prison reality may have a place on TV. I wrote a while back about San Quentin Film School, a six-part documentary series on a filmmaking class behind the walls of California's notorious maximum security facility (Watch the whole series on YouTube). Shows like Film School, and sometimes a poignant episode of Lockup, can actually help take us through the walls, rather than building them up.

Take a peek at Lockup below, and let us know what you think.

Photo Credit: Steve Punter

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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