How the Public see Prisons: Ross Kemp, Stacey Dooley and Newspapers
How the public see prisons: Ross Kemp and stacey dooley
We watched Ross Kemp Behind Bars – Inside Barlinne, a documentary style TV show in which Ross Kemp goes into Barlinnie Prison.
I think that it was useful to watch as it’s important to think about how prisons (specifically Scottish Prisons) are portrayed in the media.
One thing that became clear in this “documentary” quite early on is that the focus would not be on creating important and thought provoking conversations on the role of prisons in scotland but rather, a focus on sensationalism and cliqued prison narratives in the interest of creating a peice of TV that continued to build this image of Ross Kemp as the “hard man”.
I have linked to an article written by the Scottish Prisoner Advocacy and Research Collective which goes into more detail about the way that Kemp’s depiction of barlinnie misses the mark.
I want to highlight on part in particular
“The limited view of Barlinnie presented by Kemp reflects this process of infantilization, but here it is not the prisoners who are not afforded full trust or maturity, rather it is the audience themselves.”
I think it’s important to note that these incorrect, misguided or purposely dramatized versions can have serious consequences on those that live and are affected by the criminal justice system. By creating false or misleading narratives it gives the general population an incorrect view of this system. This can lead to further stigmatisation of prisoners as people associate them with the cliques of violence that Kemp portrays in this documentary.
We also looked at another “documentarian exploring the inside of prison” through Stacy Dooleys – Girls Behind Bars. While Dooley featured a more person centered approach than Kemp, this was still very much not moving in the right direction.
Dooley’s tone, while attempting to move more towards a place of care, often comes across as patronising and feeds in more towards this idea of infantilizing people in prison.
She also fails to really interrogate some of the practices of the prison that felt as though the care of the prisoners were not being prioritised, like when one prisoner was subjected to a “truth exercise” where they were subjected to all of the other prisoners being given public platform to explain why they didn’t like her until she was pushed to break down emotionally.
There was also a moment where Dooley was confronted by a prisoner who refused to conduct an interview. The prisoner (I believe correctly) was questioning what Dooleys intentions were in the portrait of her life and explained that this interview wouldn’t be able to express her lived experience and they had a short argument before the prisoner left.
Dooley then made a comment to a guard bringing into question whether this prisoner would be ready for re-entering society. This was a moment that really exposed Dooley as it was clear she was not interested in listening to what the people within this system were saying and more to that, she saw a challenge to what her role was within this system as a case for this woman to not be released from prison.
We also looked at different newspaper organisations and their attitude towards prisons.
We researched different publications and looked at some of their headlines and articles surrounding criminal justice.
It was interesting to see the difference in each of the news outlets in terms of the narratives of criminal justice.
For example this is an article from the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/may/17/england-and-wales-prisoners-taking-fewer-rehabilitation-courses
This is an article from The Sun:
https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/scottish-news/6937670/scottish-prisons-castle-huntly-crazy-golf/
It is important to note the difference that these newspapers have in their approach to criminal justice as it creates a difference in public understanding and attitude towards prisons. While the Guardian article interrogates the difficulties that prisoners are facing in regards to the completion of courses that aid in their release. The Sun criticises prisons for being too easy for prisoners by providing them with activities.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x68jlp1
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00z83kh/stacey-dooley-in-the-usa-series-1-1-girls-behind-bars
Hiya Jack,
Thanks for this blog post!
I have really had my eyes opened in these classes to the injustice of how prisons are represented in the media and through our culture. I thought you would be interested in the article “Inside Information: prisons and the media” by Joe Levenson. This article breaks down the mainstream media’s role in the general public’s view on the prions system.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09627250108552957
I hope this helps!