The Palgrave Handbook of Incarceration in Popular Culture

The Palgrave Handbook of Incarceration in Popular Culture Edited by Marcus Harmes · Meredith Harmes Barbara Harmes The Palgrave Handbook of Incarceration in Popular Culture “This fascinating and wide-ranging collection provides new insights into representations of, and our understanding of, carcerality. The chapters here force us to address cultural beliefs about the purposes and morality of different modes of incarceration, as well as illuminating the ways in which fantasies of imprisonment fuel innumerable depictions in flm and TV. Impressive in both its breadth and depth it is an important contribution to the scholarly debate in this feld.” —Dr. Mark Readman, Principal Academic in Media Education, Bournemouth University Marcus Harmes · Meredith Harmes · Barbara Harmes Editors The Palgrave Handbook of Incarceration in Popular Culture Editors Marcus Harmes Meredith Harmes Open Access College Open Access College University of Southern Queensland University of Southern Queensland Toowoomba, QLD, Australia Toowoomba, QLD, Australia Barbara Harmes Open Access College University of Southern Queensland Toowoomba, QLD, Australia ISBN 978-3-030-36058-0 ISBN 978-3-030-36059-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36059-7 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifcally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microflms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifc statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affliations. Cover image: Pentonville Prison, London. Photofusion Picture Library/Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland FOREWORD: MEDIATING THE PRISON GAZE To see, clarify, and understand what is going on behind bars, we must inter- pret the carceral enterprise through a variety of lens. Short of personal experience and the testimonials of others, one of the most dominant current venues is the mass media (Mason 2005). This collection of communication vehicles ranges from the written word to the visual. These mechanisms and the information they produce should not to be interpreted at face value, but close observers must take into consideration the variety of emotions these means of information exchange cull up in their users, viewers and the general audience, and the biases that are inherent in their messages. To quote Marshall McLuhan (1964), “the medium is the message.” But what did he mean by using this phrase? I believe it refers to the fact that the media convey a general sense of authority and that consumers of the messages produced by these communication vehicles are subtly affected by them. Indeed, some media, pervasive in a modern society like our own, are better than others in their attempts to educate, inform, and infuence their users and consumers. Also necessary is the possibility that our interpretation, based on exposure to the media, changes over time. For example, over the past three decades, since the invention of social media, the public has been presented with the reality that not all of the channels are as impactful as the other. This is when issues of authority and authenticity are deeply intertwined (see Harmes, Harmes, and Harmes, this volume). When considering the notion of the mediated view of prison, we must take into consideration the complementary notions of spectacle, both as a general concept and that applied to the carceral setting or environment (Brown 2009). We should also place this experience in terms of people and other audiences’ voyeuristic tendencies to experience jails, prisons, and other correctional institutions (Ross 2015). Whether we are talking about the review and analysis of a movie or tele- vision series (Ford, Schott, Wachter, this volume), or the analysis of comics v vi FOREWORD: MEDIATING THE PRISON GAZE (Zeller-Jacques, this volume), each medium frames the content and context of the information presented in order to portray prisons, its inhabitants, and the people who work there in a unique way. Prisons and other carceral facilities are microcosms of the real world, and no two correctional facilities are the same. This statement also extends to the prison population, and people who work in these environments. In other words, there is a considerable amount of diversity and casual viewers must take note. Numerous constituencies are interested in correctional facilities, and the people who live and work there. As consumers of mediated images, the general public fnds the prison a foreign place with its own unique set of norms, practices, rules, regulations, and laws which govern the people who are housed there. The notion of “before the grace of god goes I” often passes through our minds. We often think that we too could have our liberties tem- porarily deprived through a stint behind bars. As instructors, we are acutely aware that this information may be of inter- est and practical use to our students, some of whom currently work in correctional facilities, aspire to, and/or with individuals who may be sent to prison or recently released and have entered society. In fact, we are sometimes voyeuristic (Ross 2015) when it comes to the prison experience. Unless we are formerly incarcerated people, or have these individuals being part of our lives, we may fnd the images of tattoo laden and brawny men disquieting, but at the same time intriguing. This reminds me of the concept of Schadenfreude, a German term that refers to the process whereby we derive pleasure from witnessing someone else’s pain, and explains why in many instances like passing a car wreck on the highway, we can’t stop looking at what is going on. We are inconvenienced but we too do the rub- bernecking like everyone else (Sontag 2003). The contributors to this book also venture into the realm of understanding the complexity of representation. Not all aspects of the carceral environment are interesting and the creators of these works need to be selective in which elements they wish to include and exclude. Because what counts is the audience. Not only its composition, but in general the bigger the better. In trying to understand carceral institutions, we bring to this phenomenon our biological limitations, our experiences, and our collective psychology. It is diffcult to put aside our personal biases and let scholarly and empirical evi- dence speak for itself. In addition to my practitioner experience, I have published a considerable amount on the feld of corrections. Some of this latter work has examined popular cultural representations of carceral settings, including the people who are incarcerated or work there. Although some of these representations may on the surface be entertaining, they also contain numerous myths and mis- conceptions (Ross 2012a) that frequently distort what occurs inside thereby minimizing our ability to pass important legislation derived from carefully conducted empirical research, and implement well-thought-out policies and practices. FOREWORD: MEDIATING THE PRISON GAZE vii Some of this scholarship has examined the role of our cultural industries (Ross 2003), including prison museums and tourism (Ross 2012b, 2017), while other research has examined how commercials have represented pris- oners, correctional workers, and prisons in general (Ross and Sneed 2018). Recent work has analyzed memoirs written by correctional workers (Ross, Tewksbury, Samuelson, and Caneff, under review). In order to rectify these challenges, I have also conducted research on reporters who focus on the corrections beat (Ross 2011) and more I have also examined the more general practice of prison voyeurism (Ross 2015). More germane to The Palgrave Handbook of Incarceration in Popular Culture, I met Marcus Harmes virtually, because he reached out to me and I was impressed by his vision and work and was excited to contribute to the framing of this important handbook. The chapters are thoughtful pieces that contextualize what the relationship between prisons and media is. Some of the chapters go beyond the traditional confnes of the prison and venture into discussions of punishment. The contributors provide thoughtful analyses of case studies of selective aspects of the relationship between corrections and media. In sum, A. Numerous constituencies are interested in corrections; B. Each is interested in different aspects of the correctional feld; C. Much of what we know about prisons is mediated by mass media; D. This information is often faulty, and the audience often cannot distin- guish between fact and fction; and E. What are the consequences? It means that we cannot develop good policies and practices and implement them in this policy feld. The handbook is truly interdisciplinary in the approach that the editors took in selecting the contributors and again in how the chapter writers approached the questions they posed and answered in their individual pieces.

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