Keep reading about the best American prison life documentaries. For many it’s a very interesting topic so Insider Monkey has recently published an article about this issue. There are 2.3 million people incarcerated in the United States in 102 federal prisons and 1,719 state prisons including correctional facilities and other jails. This high number of prisoners could be attributed to 440,000 persons in local jails that are yet to be convicted.
Nevertheless, the country has the most prisoners in the whole world and also the highest per 100,000 prison rate of 724. For comparison, China has 1.54 million prisoners and rate of 118 while Russia has 0.87 million and rate of 615. The state prisons in the United States are home to 1.3 million persons, most of them serving time for violent, property and drug related crimes. Federal prisons have 197,000 prisoners who mostly serve time for public order and drug related crimes. After seeing these numbers, one could argue that the United States should think about criminal justice reforms and strongly rethink their War on Drugs policy. Conditions in American prisons are far from satisfying. Some would think that the prisoners don’t deserve more, but still no matter the crime, some standards should be respected. I think the lack of freedom is penalty harsh enough. The prisons are overcrowded, most of them lack basic medical care and there are often physical confrontations between inmates.
Now without a further ado let’s see what Insider Monkey has investigated for us. We have picked two items from their list. The first one is Solitary: Inside Red Onion State Prison. Red Onion State Prison is one of the harshest prisons in the United States, where most of the prisoners spend 23 hours a day in tiny cells that get fractions of sunlight. This documentary is one of the rare opportunities for you to see the rough life of inmates in this prison. It depicts their everyday life while also featuring interviews with people who work in the prison. The second one is The Dhamma Brothers. This is one rather unusual documentary. The Dhamma Brothers follows four inmates convicted of murder, who participate in prison meditation program in Donaldson Correctional Facility, Alabama. The documentary includes interviews with the inmates as well as the guards and prison officials.
For any further interesting information read Insider Monkey’s article about 8 best American prison life documentaries.
