Outcasts: Surviving the Culture of Rejection

While most prisoners long to be free, many will face daunting challenges upon release. A dispiriting statistic here notes that 40-60 percent of ex-convicts return within three years. Director Stephen Newton presents a range of perspectives from academics, social workers, law enforcement officers, and state legislators in this Tennessee-based documentary. Dr. John Whitehead of East Tennessee State University explains that American prisons in the 19th century focused on reform, which eventually gave way to rehabilitation, but recidivism still increased in the 20th century, due in part to the tougher crime laws that started to proliferate in the 1970s. With the rise of privatization of prisons, incarceration has become a profitable business, making prison reform more difficult than ever. Prisoners provide skilled labor to major corporations such as Boeing and Microsoft, but in the outside world they are far less likely to secure jobs at those companies. Friends and relatives also help contribute to the corporate prison's bottom line by way of added charges for calls, letters, and packages to convicts. As Dr. Nicole Prior (Dr. Whitehead's criminology colleague) points out, the emphasis on longer sentences means that prisoners are less likely to have a support system upon release, a major factor in the cycle of recidivism. The documentary ends by looking at regional programs designed to help addicts to get clean and to assist youthful offenders in obtaining an education. While the use of black-and-white video for the interviews works well, the film suffers somewhat from a distracting and pervasive score. But overall this is a solid title that will be especially welcome in regional collections, although the subject matter makes it also of wider interest and the budget price is very affordable. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)