Synopses & Reviews
Independently-produced video, produced outside of mainstream commercial channels, provides a pool of shared imagery about the American past and the American people which is unique. The multiple voices, experiences, and perspectives represented in this diverse work are a rich resource for historical research and teaching. Many professors utilize video as supplementary material in the classroom, but despite the growing use of video in general, independently-produced works are among the least known and therefore least accessible resources.
Mediating History is designed to introduce historians to multicultural media as a resource in teaching, and provides and introduction to this work on three levels. First, each title entry includes an annotation and full filmographic information for over 125 selected video titles. Second, there are ten essays that provide background information on the themes and issues raised in the videos and suggestions for their introduction into history teaching. Finally, there is a guide to alternative media resources: journals, organizations, distributors, etc.
The multicultural approach of this project is intended to enrich the teaching of history by introducing new evidence, diverse voices, and multiple perspectives that more fully describe complex historical and social realities.
The contributors to this guide are: Patricia Aufderheide (American University), Deidre Boyle (The New School for Social Research), Caryl Chin (Independent Curator), Cheryl Chisholm (Filmmaker), Kimberly Everett (Independent Producer), Lilian Jimenez (National Latino Film and Video Festival), Chon Noriega (University of New Mexico), Louise Spain (LaGuardia Community College, CUNY), and Elizabeth Weatherford (National Museum of the American Indidan, Smithsonian Institution).
Review
“Something changed in me. The flame was going out. After about twenty years of doing time, I felt like I did when I first came to prison: afraid, mean, not caring about others. I don't know if I hated them more, or myself for letting them change me.”
-From Prison, Inc.,
Review
“A well written memoir and exposé of life inside a privately owned correctional facility. The author does an excellent job at depicting what it is really like inside and the dangerous and harrowing experience for individuals incarcerated in these types of environments.”
-Jeffrey Ian Ross, co-author of Convict Criminology,
Review
“This is the story of what happens when politicians 'out source' their state prisoners to corporations. Convicts become commodities incarcerated in overcrowded private facilities with few programs and staff. Like ‘boot camps, ‘three strikes, and so called ‘truth in sentencing, private prisons are another expensive failure. Meanwhile, the prisoners live day-to-day wondering what new nightmare they will have to endure.”
-Stephen C. Richards,co-author of Behind Bars: Surviving Prison
Review
“It helps fill in the eclipse of prison ethnography in the current age of mass incarceration . . . It should be in every library in the United States.”
-Criminal Justice Review,
Synopsis
Prison, Inc. provides a first-hand account of life behind bars in a controversial new type of prison facility: the private prison. These for-profit prisons are becoming increasingly popular as state budgets get tighter. Yet as privatization is seen as a necessary and cost-saving measure, not much is known about how these facilities are run and whether or not they can effectively watch over this difficult and dangerous population. For the first time, Prison, Inc. provides a look inside one of these private prisons as told through the eyes of an actual inmate, K.C. Carceral who has been in the prison system for over twenty years.
About the Author
K.C. Carceral entered prison shortly after graduating from high school. He continued his education in prison and now holds an Associates Degree as a Paralegal and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. He is also the author of
Behind a Convict's Eyes: Doing Time in a Modern Prison.
Thomas J. Bernard is professor of criminal justice and sociology at Pennsylvania State University and author of Theoretical Criminology and The Cycle of Juvenile Justice. He also co-edited Carceral's previous book, Behind a Convict's Eyes.