Going into watching this week's blog assignment, "War on Drugs: The Prison Industrial Complex", I already knew that I would have strong feelings on the subject. I feel that our prison system is completely corrupt and needs to really be figured out. What really stood out to me the most is the idea of how easily someone can be arrested for drug-related offenses, and for how long. Drug crime offenders can be put away for years upon years for crimes that don't cause direct and immediate harm to others, yet people will be put away for far less time or totally acquitted for very violent and dangerous crimes. There is a complete system in place for drug-related crimes, and it's really messed up to me that the police officers interviewed were acting as if that isn't an issue in and of itself.
As someone who has had family members with drug problems, and therefor also trouble with the law, I think it is such a problem that we so easily throw those with drug problems in prison - already extremely overcrowded prisons - rather than putting them in programs to get help and quit their addictions. It seems that in the United States, we want to choose the quickest and easiest solution, rather than what is probably the correct or most beneficial solution.
Something else that stood out to me in the documentary was the discussion about what the police will seize from people who they suspect of being involved with drugs. Someone interviewed was saying the police can seize large sums of money because there is a suspicion it has to do with drugs, but they don't need any solid proof or evidence that this is true. If anything, this just pushes the Hollywood stereotype of police officers being the bad guys and crooked cops, involved in shady business. That makes people not want to trust authority. I think that it's really all just a cycle. Also, I feel like we never hear about this at all, and it reminds me of how we are also not told all information on the news. We aren't given full stories about anything that would make those "above" us be portrayed in a negative light. Also, I feel that like media moguls that run the news corporations, the police officers are working for their own agenda. I feel like nothing is being done for the benefit of the people anymore.
I noticed something very interesting while watching clips of "Oz". On the side of the screen where it gives recommendations for other clips and videos you should watch, almost all of them had the title "Oz: death of ______". It's pretty concerning to me that so many of the clips were only of the deaths of the characters. I think that this says a lot. Not only is it saying that murder is a very prominent subject on the show, but it is also saying that the murders themselves are the most viewed clips and most popular moments on the show. If people sit around watching these clips, they are watching solely scenes depicting brutal murder. This is just saying so much not only about the show itself, but also the audience. The show is portraying the inmates as evil and murderous, and the audience is completely receptive of this. This is a completely misleading portrayal of the prison system. As we saw in the film "The Prison Industrial Complex", these kind of people are clearly not really the most prominent in jails. Rather, it is those there for non-violent crimes. This really is dangerous to viewers of the show. As we read in the Yousman article, people are going to get the wrong idea of those in jail and support the prison system to put these characters away, when they are really in the minority.
As I stated before, I really think that the prison and police systems need a reboot. Our money could be going toward finding actual dangerous criminals, rather than throwing in those who need help, not incarceration.
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