In the past year Paley Library has added to its film collection a number of fine documentaries of interest to Criminal Justice, ranging in topic from careers, to prisoner reentry, to crime in the news. Refer below for a complete list; all film descriptions are taken from the Diamond catalog records. Documentaries should be requested at the Circulation Desk in Tuttleman and can be checked out for 7 days or put on reserve for a class.

Careers in criminal justice / a production of Meridian Education Corporation. Monmouth Junction, N.J.: Meridian Education Corp., [c2002]. Provides an overview of a career in the field of criminal justice, including officers, investigators and special agents.

Corrections / produced, directed and written by Ashley Hunt. New York : Third World Newsreel, [2001]. An examination of the efficacy and ethics of prison privatization in the United States and of the prison industries that profit from the burgeoning prison population. Features visits to the corporate headquarters of leading correctional corporations, prison trade shows, and testimony from leading experts and ordinary people, presenting diverse views of this new American “growth industry.”

Crime in the cities: public safety at risk. Princeton, NJ : Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 2005. Analyzes the question of why urban crime is on the rise in some wealthy countries and down in others. Uses data mapping to find tell-tale patterns in Japan and the United States to shed light on deteriorating conditions and peak times of criminal activity.

Cult of the suicide bomber / Many Rivers Films; produced and directed by David Batty, Kevin Toolis. New York, NY : Disinformation Company, 2006. Learn the secret history of the suicide bomber, from the child martyrs of the Iran-Iraq war, the truck bombers in southern Lebanon, to the young men and women who now strap explosives to their bodies, with former CIA agent Robert Baer.

Deadline / Big Mouth Productions presents a film by Katy Chevigny and Kirsten Johnson. [United States] : Home Vision Entertainment, c2004. What would you do if you discovered that 13 people slated for execution had been found innocent? That was exactly the question that Illinois Governor George Ryan faced in his final days in office. He alone was left to decide whether 167 death row inmates should live or die. In the riveting countdown to Ryan’s decision, Deadline details the gripping drama of the state’s clemency hearings. Documented as the events unfolded, Deadline is a compelling look inside America’s prisons, highlighting one man’s unlikely and historic actions against the system.

Doing time: life inside the big house / Video Verite presents ; a film by Alan and Susan Raymond. New York : New Video Group, 2006. Hard-edged look at life inside the walls of Lewisburg, a maximum security federal penitentiary where rehabilitation and parole have all but been abandoned. With access to the entire prison, the filmmaker captured the stories of corrections officers as well as the inmates, including drug lords, “lifers,” with no possibility of parole, and prisoners convicted of leading prison riots.

Gladiator days: anatomy of a prison murder / Home Box Office presents ; a Blowback Productions Film ; producers, Alan Levin, Marc Levin and Daphne Pinkerson ; director, Marc Levin. [United States] : HBO Video, [2003] Violent crime in prison is an everyday reality. Captured by Utah State Prison surveillance cameras, the documentary shows how white supremacist Troy Kell stabbed black inmate Lonnie Blackmon 67 times while his accomplice Eric Daniels helped hold down the victim. All the while, prison guards watched from the sidelines waiting for the SWAT team to arrive.

Glen Mills gang: arrested without locks and bars / a film by Peter Schran ; produced by MIGRA-Film ; developed with the support of the MEDIA-Programme of the European Union. Princeton, NJ : Films for the Humanities, c2002. “Filmed over the course of a year, this documentary goes inside Glen Mills Schools in Pennsylvania, a “boarding school” alternative to prison for about 1,000 young members of street gangs convicted of crimes.:–Container.

High risk offender / directed by Barry Greenwald ; producer Barry Greenwald ; NFB producer Gerry Flahive. New York : First Run/Icarus Films, c1998. Follows seven offenders at a parol unit in Toronto over a ten month period. Most are considered high risk to re-offend and are under intensive parole supervision.

Juvenile sex offenders: voices unheard / a presentation of Films for the Humanities & Sciences ; [presented by] B Productions ; a film by Beth B. ; producer/director, Beth B. ; produced in co-production with the Banff Centre for the Arts. Princeton, N.J. : Films of the Humanities & Sciences, c1998. This program goes to a lock-down and into the community to develop a profile of juvenile sex offenders and to study the work of organizations attempting to reintegrate offenders into society. Visits Starr Commonwealth, an open facility, Plainfield Juvenile Correctional Facility, Wood Youth Center and others as offenders talk about their backgrounds and their crimes. As viewers we sit in on group therapy and listen. Clips throughout the film acquaint us with offenders who have been abused themselves as children and many of whom use sex like a drug. And we listen as therapists discuss trying to teach offenders internal controls and empathy with their victims and a Prevention Plan to prevent recidivism.

Omar & Pete / a film by Tod Lending ; produced by Nomadic Pictures Ltd. ; producer and director, Tod Lending. [New York?] : Docurama : Distributed in the U.S. by New Video, c2005. Examines the struggles of William “Pete” Duncan and Leon “Omar” Mason, two men who have spent the majority of their years in and out prison, to go straight once and for all.

Paradise lost: the child murders at Robin Hood Hills / Creative Thinking International, Ltd., Gotham Entertainment Group ; Home Box Office presents a Hand-To-Mouth production ; a film by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky; directed, produced and edited by Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky. New York, NY : New Video Group, 2005. Examines the brutal slayings of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, and the investigation, arrest and trial of the three teenagers (the West Memphis Three) whose only crime seems to have been that they dressed in black, listened to heavy metal music, and were fascinated with the Wicca religion.

Shakespeare behind bars / produced by Philomath Films ; in association with the Independent Television Service and the BBC ; Hank Rogerson, director and writer ; Jilann Spitzmiller, producer. Los Angeles, CA : Shout! Factory, c2006. Convicted felons at Kentucky’s Luther Luckett Correctional Complex rehearse for the Shakespearean production, The Tempest, as part of the Shakespeare Behind Bars Program. The play’s underlying theme of forgiveness parallels themes of transformation and redemption in the lives of the prisoners.

Unequal justice: the case for Johnny Lee Wilson / produced by Maria T. Rodriguez and Lisa Sonneborn ; directed by Lisa Sonneborn. [Philadelphia, Pa.] : Institute on Disabilities/UAP at Temple University, College of Education, 1995, c1994. In 1986, a 19-year-old man with mental retardation named Johnny Lee Wilson was picked up for questioning about the murder of an elderly woman in his hometown of Aurora, Missouri. Wilson unknowingly waived the Miranda rights which entitled him to legal representation and, after six hours of interrogation, signed a confession that he could barely read. Under threat of the death penalty, Wilson was advised to waive his right to trial and accept life imprisonment. He did this and, despite the fact that no physical evidence existed to link him to the crime, Wilson was incarcerated for nine years, seven of them after an inmate in a Kansas prison admitted that he was the perpetrator. This documentary examines this controversial case from a disabilities perspective.

If you have questions about the above list, or would like to recommend a future purchase, please contact the subject specialist for Criminal Justice.

Gregory McKinney – 215-204-4581
Subject Specialist for Criminal Justice
Reference and Instructional Services
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