National Geographic 'Prison Nation' premieres Sunday, November 25

Smallscreen Features

By Stone Martindale Nov 25, 2007, 22:06 GMT

For the first time in history, more citizens are locked up than any other country on earth. A record-setting 2.2 Million American inmates equals violence, overcrowding, drugs, mental illness, predation, gang wars and riots. EPA/Ulises Rodriguez

EPA/Ulises RodriguezTo buy this DVD from Nat Geo: Click here: LINKWe have created virtually an entire nation of inmates. Inside the miles of razor wire fence, concrete walls and ultra-security steel doors, our Prison Nation is facing a crisis, besieged with violence, overcrowding, drugs, mental illness, predation, gang wars and bloody riots.National Geographic Channel's (NGC) Prison Nation — premieres on Sunday, November 25, at 8 p.m. ET/PT — and travels the country to take viewers inside the closed world of high and maximum-security prisons that are increasingly plagued with problems.

With special access granted to NGC crews, candid accounts are journaled from within the cell blocks including seasoned criminals running gambling and drug rackets, first timers learning the covert rules and women who prove they can be every bit as brutal as men. The documentary shows the struggle to maintain control amid virtually inevitable violence, and learn how prisoners work to beat the system through shrewd innovation, time and time again. Once on the outside, with no money, housing or job plan and new connections to other criminals, most prisoners end up committing crimes and returning right back behind bars. The show asks if prisons really making us safer, or if they are just churning out more turmoil."Of the 95 percent of individuals who will leave our prison system," says Jeanne Woodford, former director of the California Dept. of Corrections, "very few are prepared to return to society in a meaningful way ... so it's really a formula for disaster."Some of the facts and figures revealed in the special include the following:- America's population behind bars has increased 1,000 percent in the last 30 years.
- Half of state prisons are filled beyond capacity. California prisons are at 200 percent capacity.
- Assaults on inmates have risen 65 percent in the past decade. Reports list 35,000 inmate-on-inmate assaults in one year.
- Officials count at least 1,600 gangs in prisons across America; approximately 25 percent of inmates are in gangs.
- Drugs sell for up to ten times their street value behind bars. While a gram of heroin on the street might cost $100, in prison, it would cost nearly $1,000. This drug trade behind bars is worth an estimated $300 million.
- The number of female inmates is increasing almost twice as fast the number of males, tripling in the last decade.
- The largest population of the mentally ill in America isn't housed in a hospital ... it's in Los Angeles County Jail.
- Seventy thousand inmates are released from prison each year. More than two-thirds of them end up back behind bars within three years."Prison Nation" ventures into one overcrowded prison's gym that has been turned into a makeshift dorm: 120 inmates jammed on top of one another in bunk beds three high. Overcrowding has exacerbated ethnic divisions among latinos, whites and blacks into sometimes violent racial conflict. The show also illustrates the elaborate structures of gangs as a criminal enterprise, discusses rape as a fact of life and details how prisons have become de facto asylums for the mentally ill.Viewers will hear from a variety of experts, such as criminologist Dr. Joan Petersilia (University of California) and prison psychiatrist Dr. James Gilligan (New York University), as well as former and current rehabilitation and corrections staff who discuss the troubles abounding due to get-tough legislation and mandatory sentencing. But these experts also offer solutions for releasing offenders into society to lead a crime-free, productive life ... versus a life doomed to returning to Prison Nation.Featured prisons include the following: Salinas Valley State Prison (Soledad, Calif.), one of California's most dangerous prisons on one of the state's most violent yards; Ironwood State Prison (Blythe, Calif.); Pelican Bay State Prison (Crescent City, Calif.), a notorious prison holding some of the most violent and hard-to-handle gang members in California; Oak Park Heights Facility (Stillwater, Minn.), a fortress-like compound with more than 500 cameras; Lebanon Correctional Institute (Lebanon, Ohio); and Utah State Prison (Draper, Utah).

Your Talkback on this Story

Note posts made on our older Talkback system will still show below. However, new posts can only be made via the new system (above). We will export the old comments to the new shortly. You can still comment as a guest on the new system but it also allows you to login using various social network and other accounts.

Other features coming soon.

Talkback

page: 1

i am intrested in viewing prison nation and i am iDec 1st, 2007 - 20:18:44

Hello, I am interested in viewing the film prison nation and purchasing the film as well, please forword to my email address weekendj@hotmail.com information on how to view and purchase the prison nation film that was aired on national geographic nov. 25, 2007. thank you

Report this comment

GinnaJun 4th, 2008 - 05:31:30

hi I was just wondering where i could watch this and if i could buy a copy of it?

Report this comment

lizJul 4th, 2008 - 00:47:08

how do you get a copy of this video

Report this comment

The link to buy itJul 4th, 2008 - 04:01:32

On National Geographic's site
You searched for:
Prison Nation
1 products found
Sort by:

> Lockdown DVD
Go inside America's most fearsome prisons and hear astonishing inmate interviews.
$29.95

http: //shopsearch.nationalgeographic.com/?sp_sr=rank&q=Prison+Nation&Search.x=39 &Search.y=18

Report this comment

VarunApr 16th, 2009 - 07:25:12

Hello,I am interested in buying the DVD of Prison Nation of Nat Geo.Can I get to the procedure of buying it...my email ID is varun_rox56@yahoo.co.in,vg_air16@hotmail.com...plz do let me know..i realy want it...

Report this comment

yvonnJul 6th, 2009 - 20:41:11

i was able to watch a few of the specials i caught the one taped in soledad one of the men that were interviewed oscar cristelas..what ever happened to that man..he chose to live for him and do for himself..concerned viewer

Report this comment

page: 1

Smallscreen

National Geographic 'Prison Nation' premieres Sunday, November 25

Smallscreen Features

Your Talkback on this Story

Talkback

Similar articles

Latest Headlines in Smallscreen

From Sites We Like

Latest PopEater News

Latest Cinema Blend News

Latest Tech Herald News

In Monsters and Critics

Corporate

The Fine Print