No Stars Behind Bars By David Anthony Faustino Analysis

Imagine someone close that’s lived the straight and narrow to get where they are at. They are not perfect, maybe they could have put a little more time into their assignment at work or held their temper towards the grandpa driving too slow in front of them, but they’re just human living life the best way they know how. When a not-so-freak accident occurs and they find themselves behind bars imprisoned for the rest of their life. Sounds like the plot to “Shawshank Redemption” right? At this very instance, this story is being told of ordinary citizens behind the curtains of the New York Court System in rapidly increasing numbers. What may seem like an isolated incident is part of an ever-growing

At the beginning of the 1970s, two men, by the names of Martin Scorcese and Robert De Niro, met and started an extremely successful and world renowned string of movie director/actor collaborations. Over the course of 22 years,spawning from 1973, with their first film Mean Streets, to 1995, with their most recent work Casino, the duo paired up for 8 movies, most of which are considered some of the greatest films of all time. The most notable, however, would have to be their 1990 movie Goodfellas, a classic film which was nominated for 6 oscars, winning one, and named the greatest film of all time by British film magazine Total Film, an organized crime movie which is one of my favorite movies.

In “Before The Law”, an article written by Jennifer Gonnerman published in The New Yorker, the dispiriting true story of a teen from the Bronx is used as a precedent to highlight the glaring problems with New York City’s criminal justice system. In May of 2010, sixteen year-old Kalief Browder and his friends were arrested on robbery charges after returning home from a party in the Bronx. The ensuing events led him in and out of holding cells, granted him a bail of three thousand dollars (which his family was unable to afford), and eventually led to him being transferred to the infamous Rikers Island; Where, despite never being convicted of any crime (let alone receiving a fair trial), he was imprisoned for nearly four years. Gonnerman

Imagine being 37 years old and spending 25 years of your life locked up, behind bars. “In the Belly of the Beast” is a collection of letters, told by Jack Henry Abbott, which expose the harsh realities of the Americas penal system. In translating Abbott’s experiences, he unveils that the current system has failed to keep dangerous criminals off the streets and that it has proved to be unsuccessful in creating a deterrent for committing crimes. According to the United States Bureau of Justice Statistics, “State courts in 32 counties across 17 States sentenced 79,000 felons to probation in 1986. Within 3 years of sentencing, while still on probation, 43% of these felons were rearrested for a felony. Half of the

“Things always look greener on the other side.” Individuals arrested for petty theft and small crimes are always placed in an ultimatum, spend two or more years in jail or snitch on drug dealers and other criminals. This harsh decision whether to spend time in isolation away from family and friends or put themselves in direction pathways to danger is the main way that society connects with the information presented in these articles. The decision of the individual can have unique effects on the citizens of the area. If an individual elects to serve their time for the crime, they will spend more than twenty-four months in prison, isolation from the outside that takes in taxpayers’ money to supply low quality food to overcrowded prisons. If the individuals with this ultimatum

In Peter Moskos essay “In Lieu of Prison, Bring Back the Lash”, he argues that whipping is preferable to prison. Moskos demonstrates the problems with prison. There are to many prisoners in the system. This is leading to prisoners going to different places and costing the states more money to build more prison’s. Another problem that Moskos explains is, whipping was the punishment back in the early American history, but it was believed to be too cruel. The original purpose for prisons was designed to rehabilitate criminals, but this idea is not reality. Then Moskos explains how incarceration can have unintended consequences. People going into prisons can break up families, make it difficult for offenders to get jobs once released, which increases

Without help these men are usually driven to commit illegal acts. A stream of mug shots (seen above) visually illustrates one man’s many arrests. As the narrator lists through his many wrongdoings, his accumulation of mug shots flicks by on the screen. The mug shots provide backing for the claims of how many times he has been arrested along with a certain shock value. The average person barely has even one mug shot, yet this man has managed to accrue over ten.

Since so much of jail life happens far from the public’s view, changes in implications and policy of long assumed truisms are infrequently observed by those that are not openly affected by penal system.

According to the article Celebrity Justice, there are two criminal justice systems in the United States. One is for people with wealth and fame, the other justice system is for everybody else. Jails in Southern California have been renting upscale cells known as nice-jail-cells. In these jail cells you can pay $45-$175 per day to have everyday amenities available. The nice-jail-cell, according to the article, highlights the inequities of a two-track system of justice is the United States in which the wealthy enjoy privileges and perks in jail while the poor are resigned to less comfortable and more dangerous conditions of confinement. Celebrities have it easier in jail because they have tons of money they can waste each day so they can pay

On Peter John Smiths way to prison in the back of the pig pen being transported to the bus with other convicts he was looking out taking in all his surroundings and realising this could either be his last time seeing the outside world or his last time for quite a while. The two police officers transporting him were chatting amongst themselves, peter john wanted to join in, have a civilised chat with them to try and get it good with the officers he will soon be meeting within the prison and try to get good behaviour as he knew that there was every possibility that he wouldn’t make it out alive.

In films, the cultural representation of the prison is adjusted to satisfy the desires of the audience, which often includes an innocent individual who is trapped inside the prison system and eventually must escape to a better place, such as a beach in Shawshank Redemption. By exhibiting that these criminals are humans who are either undeserving of their punishment or are capable of rehabilitation, classical prison films tap into the emotions of the audience and allow them to identify with the inmates. While these seem to give a voice to those incarcerated through the media representation of their lives, these films actually contribute to the problem of social distance. This creates a wide disconnect between the popular ideas about how prisons function and reality. In a sense, the true realities of punishment in the United States are invisible because prison films and the mass media effectively alter the popular frameworks that shape crime control policy to gain popularity and money.

The media, in television, newspaper, radio and internet, have a huge role in what society believes about the criminal justice system, especially corrections as the general public does not typically see what goes on behind the locked doors. The problem is that while most “of us cheer on the media’s pursuit of truth and righteousness, the sad truth is that the more sensational aspects of prison life are the pieces of business that attract attention” (Carlson, 2015, slide 4-5). “Most stories center on the misconduct of staff members, plight of the convict, harsh conditions, and the violence that occurs and they often fail to mention the many positive things that transpire in institutions” (Carlson, 2015, slide 5). Even though some in the media think they should have unlimited access to correctional facilities, most courts have ruled that the media has no more rights to access than an ordinary citizen

  thoroughly enjoyed your discussion post as it detailed many aspects that coincide with this class. I worked in a jail for three months before getting assigned to a different unit and my short-term experience was beneficial within the new unit. The world behind bars is definitely an eye opener as it is a complete diverse world. I appreciate how you noted that people can arrive at a jail in any condition as they do, but they must meet the criteria before they are extradited to a state or federal prison. Good

What do Mark Wahlberg, Robert Downey Jr., OJ Simpson, Martha Stewart, and Tim Allen all have in common? They have all been to prison. Whether it was for attempted murder and assault, or armed robbery and kidnapping, they all have been in prison for different reasons. Through the first forms of prisons in the US, to the rise in the number of prisoners, today’s prisons are so much different than what they used to be.

In this passage, Raskolnikov is reflecting on the murder he had committed earlier in the novel, the murder of the pawnbroker and her innocent sister. This passage from Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, begins with Raskolnikov wondering “who [was] that man who sprang out of the earth,” who knew he was a murderer (Dostoevsky 274). He wonders if he has left “[a] clue” behind, which would explain how the man knew the truth (274). The accusation by the man torments him emotionally, and he wonders how he could have ever “t[oo] up an axe and shed blood” (274). This emotional torture leads to him doubting that he is a superman, something he completely believed in. When Dostoevsky refers to the “real [m]aster,” he is referring to Napoleon