Blog Entry 69
April 30, 2015
Thoughts on CNBC’s “White Collar Convicts—Life on the Inside”
55 days left
Perhaps some of you caught the CNBC special last night, “White Collar Convicts—Life on the Inside” about white collar convicts and the prisons that house them. If you missed it, it’s worth looking out for it to replay.
It is a sneak peak into federal prison camps like the one I’m currently housed in. Until now most people had o idea what a prison camp actually looked like unless your ideas were based purely on the television show, “Orange Is the New Black”.
There were some things I liked about the show and other things not so much. So, I thought I would share my thoughts with you as someone currently in the same situation.
The main problem I had with the show is it seemed to be somewhat dramatized. I guess that is inevitable with any “reality” show. The other problem I found is that some of the people interviewed who had done time in a camp appeared almost to still be in denial about their guilt. It seemed as if they were still trying to justify their crime.
Granted that could just have been my interpretation, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It is also possible my thoughts are skewed because I interact with some of these white collar criminals who insist they are innocent.
The parts I did like about the show are that hopefully it gives people a sense of what life is actually like in here for the most part. For example, they mentioned “shake downs”. Well, about 2 AM one night last week, they decided to turn the lights on and “shake down” 8 different people. The point…anything can and will happen at anytime. The other point, although small, that was made is the fact the system is not helping any of these people better themselves. They make jokes about the so-called programming offered like quilting, and painting, only those are no joke. Now I suppose quilting could be useful if you decide to someday make yourself a blanket, but the reality is there needs to be something in place to help people develop sills they can use in the real world. This show merely scraped the surface on some of the things wrong with our justice department. I only hope this can someday lead to more exposure of the current flaws within the system.
Again this was only my interpretation of the show, so I encourage anyone reading this to watch it and develop their own.
Warren Schultz
