Captured by the Media
Prison Discourse in Popular Culture

Explores the issue of media and discourse on prisons and punishment, and its relationship to public attitudes and government penal policy. This book engages with what might be termed the 'cultural turn' of criminology and discusses the relationship between prison, public and government. It is useful for students of media studies and criminology.

Alongside contributions concerning the construction of popular images of prison and the death penalty in television and film, "Captured by the Media" offers contributions from prison reform groups and prison practitioners, which discuss forms of media intervention in penal debate. These inter-disciplinary and dynamic essays offer an important intervention in the field for students and practitioners and of prisons, criminal justice, criminology and media culture. At the same time this book engages with what might be termed the 'cultural turn' of criminology and offers an original contribution to discussion of the relationship between prison, public and government. It will be essential reading for students of both media studies and criminology.

1 Introduction, Paul Mason, Cardiff University
Part A: Prisons, news and the public
2 The function of fiction for a punitive
public, Anna King and Shadd Maruna, Cambridge University
3 Press Representations of Capital Punishment in the US, Chris Greer, Northumbria University
4 Crime Sound Bites: a view from both sides of the microphone, Enver Solomon, Prison Reform Trust
5 What Works in Changing Public Attitudes: Findings from Rethinking Crime and Punishment, Rob Allen, Rethinking Crime and Punishment
6 Popular Media Constructions of Prison, Yvonne Jewkes, The Open University
Part B Penal representation in media culture
7 The Films of Rex Bloomstein, Jamie Bennett, Deputy Governor - HMP, Gartree
8 Oz, Prison and TV Fiction, Brian Jarvis, Loughborough University
9 Joan Henry, Penal Policy and Cinema, Steve Chibnall, De Montfort University
10 Representations of Prison in Victorian England, Helen Johnston, Hull University
11 Stars and Bars: Hollywood\'s Prison Gaze, Paul Mason, Cardiff University
12 Penal Futures on Film, Mike Nellis, University of Birmingham
Index.