Lights.. Camera.. GUILTY!
I’m going to tell you all a secret: Reality TV makes me really angry.
Ever since the first season of The Real World in 1992, more and more television has been composed of reality programs because they are cheap to produce, draw in a good audience and.. well, let’s face it.. the old adage goes, real life is stranger than fiction. And it bores me. I don’t care about Jon and Kate or Survivor and frankly, as much as I love P.E., thinking about Flavor Flav getting down with any of the girls on Flavor of Love gives me nightmares.
But while going through some daily blogs, I saw a piece that stopped me in my tracks. Michael Santos, prisoner and author of the book Inside: Life Behind Bars in America presents an interesting question: Can Reality TV Advance Prison Reform?
Let’s get into it after the jump!
Much of Santos argument has to do with the fact that two out of three prisoners is reincarcerated within a few years. The facts that they lack resources to rejuvenate their lives or return to “communities that reject them” are absolutely dead on. Santos establishes that, “few find employment opportunities that will allow them to earn sufficient incomes for shelter, clothing, and the basic necessities of life. The prison system seems a perfect design to foster high recidivism rates, and taxpayers suffer the consequences.”
The high cost of prisons – both in financial and personal means – are drastic. Maybe exposing the brutal lifestyles inside prisons will make people more aware of the realities of the prison system, as Santos argues. However, it might create more of a divide between people who are locked up and people who watch people get locked up, dehumanizing them in a sense. It’s hard to say. What do you think?
