Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed this class thus far. I must say however, that the blog format is not my favorite medium of conversation. I really enjoy the discussion board, I have found that on occasion I have had some really good conversations. Without a doubt though my favorite part of the class is the class itself. I feel that is the best medium for me to succeed in a class and I find that we have some really intriguing conversations. Even in weeks where I don't find readings entirely compelling I find the discussions in class quite riveting. As well I feel most people do participate which only adds to the rich conversation. All too frequently I find in class that most of the class stays quiet, but here we have succeeded in creating a good atmosphere where everyone can safely build off each others ideas. That is really what I'm looking for in a class, a place to shape my own ideas by listening to my peers relay their thoughts, relaying my own, and generally bouncing ideas back and forth.
Speaking to the content of this class I have found myself very intrigued. In fact I discovered a whole new genre of film that I now enjoy (clearly horror). The readings are interesting for the most part, which makes it easy to actively engage with them in class and in the discussion.

The Myth of Oz

What are we really seeing when we ingest what the media is feeding us? For this week I watched quite a few clips from the HBO series Oz, trying my best to get a good range of characters. What I saw confirmed what I had already believed to be true, that Oz is in fact a very unrealistic look into the American penal system. The show reinforces and exaggerates preconceived stereotypes that people already have about what goes on in the prison system (on a side note maybe that could be one explanation to why critics call it so realistic).

From all the character profiles that I came across a shocking few were in Oz for drug charges. The reason this is shocking, as many of you know, is that the vast majority of people are in jail not due to violent crimes but for drug charges. Nearly all the criminals in the show that the audience gets acquainted with are hardened killers many of which are sociopaths that take no reservation to murder and rape. However, according to the film The War on Drugs: The Prison Industrial Complex and the Glassner reading, this portrayal is not an accurate view. As the documentary pointed out there are a ton of incentives, funding being the primary, to put away drug users. As well, the sentencings for these people are unnecessarily harsh. People are put away for 10 years for mere association with actual drug dealers. One example in the film was of a college student who mailed a Fedex package for a friend was unknowingly trafficking crack and was sentenced for around 15 years. In fact, another example given showed that a second offense drug charge wound up to more years in prison than that of a convicted rapist.

The point that I am getting to here is that despite exorbitant amount of people in the prison system due to drug charges of some sort, they are seriously underrepresented in the shows portrayal of prisoners. In all of clips that I watched I witnessed that drugs were only mildly addressed and used as means of addressing a power system once people were in jail but that was not the reason they were in there in the first place. I found one story where a cop was going in undercover to infiltrate one of the prison gangs got hooked on what I believe is cocaine. Other than that I didn’t find too many story lines that addressed people being incarcerated for possession. Which leads me back to my original question; what are we really seeing when we ingest what the media is feeding us?

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