As Social Comentary

When I told some friends of mine I was starting a blog about prison dramas, and asked them to help me to come up with a snappy and groan inducing title, my friend Michael expressed some concern. He told me, "It's hard for me to think of witty titles when all I'm thinking about is how prison dramas kind of lead people to be more tolerant of the prison industrial system." There is a lot of reason to be concerned about anything that may promote the current prison complex. The current American prison system finds its roots in the early 19th century surrounding rhetoric of criminal reformation (Malsin). The same arguments have been rolled out consistently since this time in order to justify the constant increase of incarceration rates. It is proven to ineffective at prisoner reformation, prison populations are always growing, and incarceration rates firmly prove that minorities (especially black men) are disproportionately targeted for incarceration (Wills).

The effect that television drama has on public perception of the American prison complex is especially marked in Oz. Some hold the drama found in Oz to be an illumination of the hopelessness to be found in the prison system (Hoskin). In season 3 of Oz, Oswald State Penitentiary is renamed .. Agustus Hill, in his first monologue of the season:

The name on the street for the Oswald Maximum Security Penitentiary.
Only, big news: They've changed the name.
It's now called the Oswald State Correctional Facility, Level Four.
I don't know what the difference is.
Leo Glynn is still warden.
Sister Peter Marie is still in psych.
Tim McManus is still unit manager of Emerald City.
And I know for damn sure none of us have changed.
Beecher is still in the hospital after Schillinger and Keller broke his bones.
Alvarez is still in solitary after blinding a CO.
Adebisi, still in the loony ward, after changing hats.
Maybe it's truth in advertising.
Maybe by getting rid of the word "penitentiary" the state is finally admitting that nobody's penitent. Nobody's sorry. Nobody.

Emerald City was established to be a reformatory cell block, as opposed to pure punishment. In this monologue, Hill is acknowledging that it is still a punishment system, and a rigid institution. The characters change in response to their environment, but almost always for the worse (Hoskin). Even when an inmate begins a redemptive arc, they are dragged back down by the other inmates or COs, and to a lesser extent this is also true in OitNB. 

This effect is fundamental to real world prison systems, just as it is in fictional one. There is a fairly common conception that inmate-inmate violence is a necessary part of criminal reformation, and this is one of the cornerstones of the American criminal justice systems (Wills). While this method is effective at removing this behavior from the public eye, it is more effective are creating a "'hierarchy of crime' [...] by structures created around racial and religious stratification (Wills)." Hoskin argues that Oz reifies this viscous system by showing intelligent characters that are forced to conform to brutal simplicity of the prison.

However, there are many critics that are in the same camp as my friend Michael. Oz and to a lesser extent OitNB are fundamentally a shows which make spectacle out of the violence of prison. The idea of creating a public show out of the violent punishment of criminals is nothing new. In 1975 Michel Foucault published an word for word account of the public torture and execution of a man who committed regicide (Garner and Black Hawk). The account references regular citizens cheering for the grotesque spectacle. The open nature of the event served to increase public approval of such punishment. There are critics who argue that Oz is the modern equivalent of the event which Foucault describes (Yousman; Enck & Morrissey). Oz may well have served the purpose of perpetuating the notion that prisons built on redemptive violence are necessary, and the fact that HBO advertised the show based on its violence only increases this reading of the show. However, the show runner states his purpose is to show how awful that violence is in the same promo.

Identities in Prison

As I discussed in my last post, the maintaining identity in a prison is a difficult prospect with COs and other prison staff controlling most aspects of life. Inmates act out in order to maintain some semblance of their person-hood. In the prison drama this is often manifest in the form of grouping together with others the inmates perceive as being like them. They latch onto some aspect of their personal identity and gather around. Sometimes this is a religious identity, sexual orientation, or often a racial identity.

Season 1 of Oz ends with after racial and sexual tensions rise and the prisoners riot. The man who runs Em City believes the cause of the riot was unequal representations -- both in terms of numbers and treatment -- of different inmate factions. A new policy is instituted that identifies 10 groups within Emerald City and the numbers of each group will be maintained at 4 people, and a council will be formed with a representative from each group. One of the representatives is Vern Schillinger (J.K. Simmons), a white supremacist who has been a constant tormentor of Beecher. Another is Simon Adebisi (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), an African man and leader of the African American Homeboys. This event, and the members of the council serve as catalysts for the physical, psychological, and sexual violence based on racism and homophobia for which the show is so well known. There are some who admonish the show for it's depiction of "race and class-based discrimination in incarceration (Yousman)"

Muslim leader Kareem Said (Eamonn Walker)

threatening another inmate

There is a slightly different take on identity in Orange is the New Black. While inmates certainly do group together based on race, it is not as at the forefront of the tension's as it is in Oz. When Chapman is first given a cell at Litchfield another inmate tells her, "we take care of our own," but insists, "it's tribal, not racist." There are characters like Tiffany 'Pennsatucky' Doggett (Taryn Manning) who form their identity, that is not the norm for OitNB. Oz has garnered a lot criticism for it ostensibly being a show about people from many walks of life, but having a lead who is white and middle class (Enck & Morrissey). Orange is the New Black, while it still has a primary focus on a white middle-class character in the beginning, quickly branches out to integrate nonwhite characters into the main cast. Where Oz offers a color blind approach, where all inmates are functionally the same, but all of these underclass inmates will revert to their savagery.

Likewise, sex, and occasionally sexual violence, are often depicted, but it is most often a consensual act. The performance of sex and gender in OitNB is handled in a way that vastly differs from Oz, and most other mainstream media (Trier-Bieniek). Piper Chapman identified as bisexual before going to prison, in contrast with Tobias Beecher who begins a same gender relationship after spending months in prison. For Chapman, her orientation is simply part of her identity. Beecher changes only as a reaction to feelings of loneliness. In Oz, of the factions is "The Gays", and they are often only seen on the fringe. Most of them are portrayed as makeup wearing prostitutes, and seen only as a freak-show. One of the few male characters of OitNB warns Chapman to watch out for lesbians, because they are dangerous. In Oz, a similar warning would come off as a warning against rape because that is the general nature of homosexual relations in Oz, but here we can laugh at the warning because we already know that Chapman herself is bisexual. OitNB paints a picture where pushing against compulsory heterosexually not only acceptable, but heroic (Trier-Bieniek). An all female prison allows the show to explore a feminist perspective that is inclusive of non-noremative sexual and gender performance. It dedicates entire story arcs to same sex couples, and has a supporting character who is transgender, and her story shows a struggle. They are all in the same place, and struggle to deal with their different identities. OitNB is praised for the way it has portrayed gender and sexuality by many orginizations who have given it awards like "'the 2014 Television Critics Association Award for 'Outstanding New Program,' the 2014 Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association (GALECA)’s Dorian Award for both 'TV Drama of the Year' and 'LGBT TV Show of the Year,' and the 2014 AFI Award for 'TV Program of the Year (Trier-Bieniek).'" It has done a wonderful job of breaking mainstream conventions in creating an inclusive show about women in prison.

Piper and Sophia bond over their homemade shower shoes,

one used sanitary pads, the other used duct tape.

Dramatic Inmates

Episodes of Oz start with an introduction to the theme of the episode in a prologue by a wheelchair ridden bound inmate named Augustus Hill (Harold Perrineau) in a clear cell within Oswald State Penitentiary. Hill serves a role similar to the chorus of a Greek Tragedy. Themes of Greek tradgedy also echo throughout the show by borrowing common elements such as the violent blinding of one of the characters (Enck & Morrissey). Hill addresses the audience directly, before taking his place with the rest of cast. Augustus Hill's dramatic openings sets the standard for the way people act in prison dramas.

Augustus Hill (Harold Perrineau) delivering an introdution

Litchfield Penetentiary, the women's prison of Orange is the New Black OitNB), is a fictional place, with very real consequences for it's inhabitants. In a scene in the first episode the fiance (Jason Biggs) of the shows central character is reprimanded for possession of a cellphone inside the prison. He then goes to put the phone in his car, and upon returning finds his fiance Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) has been processed. The two never even get to say goodbye because of the strictures of the prison. Piper is stripped of her personal effects and assumes a new identity as Inmate 1278-1945.

Oswald State Penitentiary, or Oz as it is commonly known, is the eponymous setting for Oz. The is a special portion of the prison called Emerald City where a few select prisoners are held. Em City is set up as a Panopticon, with a guard station at its center and glass cells around the perimeter. With this layout the Corrections Officers (COs) can closely monitor the prisoners. "Oz is hard times doing hard time," we are told by Hill in the prelude to the first episode. The COs present new residents of Em City that there are even more rules for the exclusive unit than there are for the general population; no sex, no drugs, workout routines, mandatory counseling, sleeping and monitored bathroom time. Em City and Litchfield are in every sense an institutions of total control (Garner & Black Hawk).

Total institutions case people psychological distress leading to behavior they might not otherwise participate in (Hill et. all). Self-blame, self-imposed isolation, drug use, hustling, and violence become much more common in prison than they are on the outside. In Oz the point of view character of season 1 is Tobias Beecher (Lee Tersen) kicks the substance abuse that landed him in prison only to later return to it after a series of tragic events which leads him to belive he desrves his punishment. Beecher is sucked into a cycle of self harm and drug use which comes to head in episode 6 where he dresses in drag and sings at a prison talent show while high. In OitNB, Piper turns to hustling and exploitation by selling the worn underwear of her fellow inmates. These actions are attempts to regain some of their personal identification. Beecher and Chapman are trying to act in the ways they feel they should, and not the ways the institution says they should.

Beecher sings "I've Got it Bad"

Chapman's panties speech

Folk Heros and Fiends

Entertainment media set in prison such as Cool Hand Luke, Folsom Prison Blues  and Oz have interested me for decades. The prison drama examines the lives people living in what the sociologists refer to as total institution (Garner & Black Hawk, 2014). Prisoners live under constant surveillance and have most of their actions dictated to them by corrections officers and wardens.

Oz and Orange is the New Black (OITNB) examine the lives of these prisoners in ways that are not able to exist in shorter narratives. Johnny Cash tells the story of man as a snapshot while listening to train ramble down the tracks in Folsom Prison Blues; a man pausing to reflect on his crimes as a train representing his freedom passes by. It is a short reflection on the prisoners plight. Cool Hand Luke delivers a series of tall tales about a prison folk hero; no man can eat 50 hard boiled eggs... unless that man is Luke.

Dragline: Why you got to go and say fifty eggs for? Why not thirty-five or thirty-nine?
Luke: I thought it was a nice round number.
Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Cool Hand Luke is one of my all time favorite films (Roger Ebert has already covered what makes it so great), but its racially segregated chain-gang does not fit a modern narrative. Every character is straight, white, and male (with the exception of a woman who is objectified by the prisoners) while modern prisoners can face a great deal racial tension, and we expect violence from a prison drama. All of the prisoners essentially get along, and everybody loves Paul Newman's Luke. It is a romance or fantasy. This stands as a stark contrast to modern prison dramas which rely on conflict between inmates and guards, or inmates and other inmates.

The modern prison drama feature drug fiends, racism, and sexual violence. Additionally, Oz' and OitNB's long form serial format allows the narrative to explore the lives of a dozen or more characters. We can see how the oppression of a total institution, such as a prison, can influence the psyche of the characters: both convicts and the staff.

Oz was one of the shows that helped kick off the modern prison drama. Incidentally, it also helped spark HBO's serial drama renaissance in the late 90s, with its first episode airing a year before Sex in the City, and two years before The Sopranos. Likewise, with a 93% Rotten Tomatoes approval rating, Orange is the New Black is helping pioneer the current streaming serial format (Enck & Morrissey). That is two major shows about prison airing times where the landscape of television is changing.

I think this is a good time to draw distinctions between texts that center on a protagonist who escapes the confines of a prison and texts that focus on life in prison. The former tend to be about the triumph of an oppressed person (or people) over the oppressive regime they live under, while the latter frames how people function within an inescapable reality. The prison break tends to be triumphant, regardless of the crimes of the inmate. The prison drama is about eking out an existence within the rigid confines of an institution of total control.

Both shows explore how life may be within a prison to varying degrees of success. Oz may offer insights into the harsh treatment of convicts, or maybe the show's spectacle promotes the idea that we need these institutions (Hoskin; Yousman). OitNB receives praise from some critics for its non-normative representations of gender and sexuality (Trier-Bieniek; Enck & Morrissey). Prison dramas on television are full of flawed characters and help frame public perception of the criminal justice system.