Shawshank Redemption and Hope

Posted by Benjamin on: 08.31.2007 /

I rewatched Frank Darabont’s Shawshank Redemption this week. I found that I watched it a lot more cynically than I did the last time. The movie certainly managed to force me to ponder the opposing forces of hope and fear, life and death. Red, one of the main characters, talked a bit about how after 40 or 50 years in prison, one becomes institutionalized, and finds it hard to live on “the outside”. It seems to me that one can kind of become institutionalized in the world at large, and find it difficult to maintain hope, compassion, love. Previously, when I watched Shawshank, I focused on the astoundingly redemptive and hopeful story of Red and Andy, who both manage to avoid the grey horror of prison seeping into them too much, and who both have happy endings. This time, however, I found myself more focused on Warden Norton and Brooks, who both in their own ways get trapped by that same grey horror, and never do escape.

More than that, however, I found myself slightly amazed at the sheer number of guys shown in the yard during a few scenes. A rather large crowd of guys–all locked up inside walls, under control, living in a sense as caged animals. It seemed to me that there are already so many things in the world operating against a person, and then to have this extra layer of oppression and fear thrown in just seems untenable. Most of these guys aren’t going to end up like Andy and Red, nor like Norton and Brooks. Most of them are going to just kind of … mostly muddle their way through their time in prison, be it months or decades, gradually being squashed by the oppression and drabness inherent in the system into which they have been thrown.

I’ve only recently started to become aware of the whole profit making side of the incarceration system. The movie exposes this and one might suspect it exaggerates. Recently, however, I had the chance to speak with a couple representatives from Justice Works, a non profit here in Seattle which is trying to help people who are in prison, and they led me to believe that actually this is still a big problem.

Did you know that the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world–with 750 people per 100,000 incarcerated? Three others in the top 10 are Russia, Cuba, and Turkmenistan. The next western nation on the list is New Zealand, at number 64 with 183 per 100,000. The next western nation after that is England, at number 87 with 128 per 100,000. Why is this? It seems to me that it speaks at some level to a huge difference between the U.S. and most other western nations–a difference that can kind of be summed up in the difference between individualism vs community or “the commons”.

A study in the British medical journal the Lancet in 2006 found that recently released prisoners are at much higher risk of suicide than the general population, especially in the first weeks after their release. This just makes sense though, doesn’t it? One man I spoke to from justice works talked about how after years in prison he was released with almost nothing–just a set of clothes and forty dollars.

Have you known or been a released prisoner? How can we show compassion to these individuals? People are being released from prison right here in Seattle regularly, and lots more are still in prison. Did you know that prisoners work for US$.40 to US$1.70 per hour while they are inside–if they can get the work? And they have to buy their own toothbrushes, shampoo, etc. etc. Do you know or have you known someone “on the inside”–helped them–sent them money–been a friend? I’d love to hear any stories.