No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
“RECONSTRUCTION HAS STOPPED THE NONSENSE”
Documentary Making in the Community Capacity Building of Returning Citizens
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2021
Abstract
Increasing research attention is being given to former felons, or returning citizens, after their release from prison. This paper contributes to that dialogue by exploring the documentary-making process of a grassroots organization founded by and for returning citizens and their families, and the contributions it made when it was completed in 1996, and continues to make today. Little is known about how community organizations can use the making of an organizational documentary to build the capacities of the organization, its affiliates, a neighborhood, and social change. By exploring the collaborations and challenges that took place during the local reintegration process back into family and community, the start and completion of the documentary in the mid-1990s was quite innovative. This article analyzes reciprocal tensions of service (Simmel 1908) reflected in the documentary when it was completed in 1996, and its continuing relevance to the growth of returning citizenship today.
Keywords
- Type
- State of the Art
- Information
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Hutchins Center for African and African American Research
References
REFERENCES
Albertson, Elaine Michelle, Scannell, Christopher, Ashtari, Neda, and Barnert, Elizabeth (2020). Eliminating Gaps in Medicaid Coverage During Reentry After Incarceration. American Journal of Public Health, 110(3): 317–321.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Albrecht, Gary L. (1985). Videotape Safaris: Entering the Field with a Camera. Qualitative Sociology, 8(4): 325–344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alston, Macky, and Miller, Andrea (2007). Hard Road Home (Documentary). Westport, CT: Hartley Film Foundation.Google Scholar
Bazemore, Gordon, and Maruna, Shadd (2009). Restorative Justice in the Reentry Context: Building New Theory and Expanding the Evidence. Victims & Offenders, 4(4): 375–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Howard S. (1974). Art As Collective Action. American Sociological Review, 39(6): 767–776.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellah, Robert N., Madsen, Richard, Sullivan, William M., Swidler, Ann, and Tipton, Steven M. (1985). Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Beres, Linda S., and Griffith, Thomas D. (1998). Do Three Strikes Laws Make Sense?: Habitual Offender Statutes and Criminal Incapacitation. Georgetown Law Journal, 87: 103–138.Google Scholar
Berg, Bruce L. (2007). Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences (6th Edition). Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.Google Scholar
Boyette, Michael, and Boyette, Randi (2013). Let It Burn: MOVE, the Philadelphia Police Department, and the Confrontation that Changed a City. Easton, PA: Quadrant Books.Google Scholar
Brown, Michelle (2014). Visual Criminology and Carceral Studies: Counter-Images in the Carceral Age. Theoretical Criminology, 18(2): 176–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burger, Warren E. (1982). More Warehouses, or Factories with Fences. New England Journal on Prison Law, 8: 111–120.Google Scholar
Burns, Victoria, Kwan, Crystal, and Walsh, Christine A. (2020). Co-producing Knowledge Through Documentary Film: A Community-Based Participatory Study With Older Adults With Homeless Histories. Journal of Social Work Education, 56(Supp 1): S119–S130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canella, Gino (2017). Social Movement Documentary Practices: Digital Storytelling, Social Media and Organizing. Digital Creativity, 28(1): 24–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chamberlain, Alyssa W., and Wallace, Danielle (2016). Mass Reentry, Neighborhood Context, and Recidivism: Examining How the Distribution of Parolees Within and Across Neighborhoods Impacts Recidivism. Justice Quarterly, 33(5): 912–941.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaskin, Robert J. (2001). Building Community Capacity: A Definitional Framework and Case Studies from a Comprehensive Community Initiative. Urban Affairs Review, 36(3): 292–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chattoo, Caty Borum (2020). Story Movements: How Documentaries Empower People and Inspire Social Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, Jessica, and Abrash, Barbara (2011). Social Justice Documentary: Designing for Impact. Washington, DC: American University, Center for Social Media.Google Scholar
Cohan, Deborah J. (2017). Rage and Activism. In Weissinger, Sandra E., Mack, Dwayne A., and Watson, Elwood (Eds.), Violence Against Black Bodies: An Intersectional Analysis of How Black Lives Continue to Matter, pp. 38–52. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cossyleon, Jennifer E., and Flores, Edward O. (2020). “I Really Belong Here”: Civic Capacity-Building among Returning Citizens. Sociological Forum, 35(3): 721–743.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Angela (1998). Masked Racism: Reflections on the Prison Industrial Complex. Color Lines. <http://colorlines.com/archives/1998/09/masked_racism_reflections_on_the_prison_industrial_complex.html> (accessed December 7, 2020).+(accessed+December+7,+2020).>Google Scholar
Diesner, Jana, Kim, Jinseok, and Pak, Susie (2014). Computational Impact Assessment of Social Justice Documentaries. The Journal of Electronic Publishing, 17(3):1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dietrich, Dawn (2019). “For America to Rise It’s a Matter of Black Lives / And We Gonna Free Them, So We Can Free Us”: 13th and Social Justice Documentaries in the Age of ‘Fake News’. Pacific Coast Philology, 54(2): 220–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doleac, Jennifer L., Temple, Chelsea, Pritchard, David, and Roberts, Adam (2020). Which Prisoner Reentry Programs Work?: Replicating and Extending Analyses of Three RCTs. International Review of Law and Economics, 62: 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drucker, Ernest (Ed.) (2018). Decarcerating America: From Mass Punishment to Public Health. New York: The New Press.Google Scholar
Drucker, Ernest (2011). A Plague of Prisons: The Epidemiology of Mass Incarceration in America. New York: The New Press.Google Scholar
Du Bois, W. E. B. ([1899]1967). The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study. New York: Schocken.Google Scholar
Eliasoph, Nina (2011). Making Volunteers: Civic Life after Welfare’s End. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Eraso, Laura Catalán (2006). Reflecting Upon Interculturality in Ethnographic Filmmaking. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 7(3): 1–11.Google Scholar
Ganter, Granville (2007). Red Jacket and the Decolonization of Republican Virtue. The American Indian Quarterly 31(4): 559–581.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goffman, Erving (1974). Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.Google Scholar
Goodman, Robert M., Speers, Marjorie A., McLeroy, Kenneth, Fawcett, Stephen, Kegler, Michelle, Parker, Edith, Smith, Steven Rathgeb, Sterling, Terrie D., and Wallerstein, Nina (1998). Identifying and Defining the Dimensional of Community Capacity to Provide a Basis for Measurement. Health, Education and Behavior, 25(3): 258–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gottschalk, Marie (2015). Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gouldner, Alvin W. (1960). The Norm of Reciprocity: A Preliminary Statement. American Sociological Review, 25(2): 161–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenberg, Max A. (2017). Empowerment in a Controlling Place: Youth Program Facilitators and Resistance to School Discipline. Sociological Perspectives, 61(4): 610–625.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guyer, Jocelyn, Serafi, Kinda, Bachrach, Deborah, and Gould, Alixandra (2019). State Strategies for Establishing Connections to Health Care for Justice-Involved Populations: The Central Role of Medicaid. Issue Brief, The Commonwealth Fund.Google Scholar
Harris, Alexes (2016). A Pound of Flesh: Monetary Sanctions as Punishment for the Poor. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
hooks, bell (1990). Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics. Boston, MA: South End Press.Google Scholar
Hunter, Bronwyn A., Lanza, Stephen, Lawlor, Mike, Dyson, William, and Gordon, Derrick M. (2016). A Strengths-Based Approach to Prisoner Reentry: The Fresh Start Prisoner Reentry Program. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 60(11): 1298–1314.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kahan, Dan M. (2002). Reciprocity, Collective Action, and Community Policing. California Law Review, 90: 1513–1539.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitts, Thomas M. (2009). Documenting, Creating, and Interpreting Moments of Definition: Monterey Pop, Woodstock, and Gimme Shelter. The Journal of Popular Culture, 42(4): 715–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kretzmann, John P., and McKnight, John L. (1993). Building Communities From the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets. Chicago, IL: ACTA Publications.Google Scholar
LeBel, Thomas P., Richie, Matt, and Maruna, Shadd (2015). Helping Others as a Response to Reconcile a Criminal Past: The Role of the Wounded Healer in Prisoner Reentry Programs. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 42(1): 108–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lego, Suzanne (1995). Book Review of Mumia Abu-Jamal (1995), Live From Death Row. New York: Addison-Wesley. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, 1(5): 171–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levenson, Laurie L. (2001). Police Corruption and New Models for Reform. Suffolk University Law Review, 35(1): 1–46.Google Scholar
Lofland, John, and Lofland, Lyn (1995). Analyzing Social Settings: A Guide to Qualitative Observation and Analysis. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.Google Scholar
Mannay, Dawn, Creaghan, Jordon, Gallagher, Dunla, Marzella, Ruby, Mason, Sherelle, Morgan, Melanie, and Grant, Aimee (2018). Negotiating Closed Doors and Constraining Deadlines: The Potential of Visual Ethnography to Effectually Explore Private and Public Spaces of Motherhood and Parenting. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 47(6): 758–781.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Massoglia, Michael, and Pridemore, William Alex (2015). Incarceration and Health. Annual Review of Sociology, 41: 291–310.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maton, Kenneth I. (2000). Empowering Community Settings: Agents of Individual Development, Community Betterment, and Positive Social Change. American Journal of Community Psychology, 41(1-2): 4–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, Esther, Bowman, Rachel, Whitbread, Gabe, and Johnson, Robert (2020). D.C. Central Kitchen: Peer Mentoring, Structure and Self-empowerment Play a Critical Role in Desistance. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 59(1): 22–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLane, Betsy A. (2012). A New History of Documentary Film. New York: Continuum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mijs, Jonathan J.B. (2016). The Missing Organizational Dimension of Prisoner Reentry: An Ethnography of the Road to Reentry at a Nonprofit Service Provider. Sociological Forum, 31(3): 291–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Reuben Jonathan (2014). Evolving the Carceral State: Race, Prisoner Reentry, and the Micro-political of Urban Poverty Management. Punishment & Society, 16(3): 305–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morenoff, Jeffrey D., and Harding, David J. (2014). Incarceration, Prisoner Reentry, and Communities. Annual Review of Sociology, 40: 411– 429.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Owens, Keith C. (1995). California’s ‘Three Strikes’ Debacle: A Volatile Mixture of Fear, Vengeance, and Demagoguery Will Unravel the Criminal Justice System and Bring California to Its Knees. Southwestern University Law Review, 25(1): 129–171.Google Scholar
Owens, Michael Leo (2014). Ex-Felons’ Organization-Based Political Work for Carceral Reforms. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 651: 256–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pager, Devah (2007). Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petersilia, Joan (2003). When Prisoners Come Home: Parole and Prisoner Reentry. New York: Oxford.Google Scholar
Peterson, Richard A., and Anand, N. (2004). The Production of Culture Perspective. Annual Review of Sociology, 30: 311–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pink, Sarah, Hubbard, Phil, O’Neill, Maggie, and Radley, Alan (2010). Walking Across Disciplines: From Ethnography to Arts Practice. Visual Studies, 25(1): 1–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pratzner, Wesley F. (1947). What Has Happened to the Documentary Film? Public Opinion Quarterly, 11(3): 394–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price-Spratlen, Townsand, and Goldsby, William (2012). Reconstructing Rage: Transformative Reentry in the Era of Mass Incarceration. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Prior, Frances B. (2020). Security Culture: Surveillance and Responsibilization in a Prisoner Reentry Organization. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 49(3): 390–413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eric, Reinhart, and Chen, Daniel (2020). Incarceration and its Disseminations: COVID-19 Pandemic Lessons from Chicago’s Cook County Jail. Health Affairs, 39(8): 1–5.Google Scholar
Riggs, Robert (2020). Men’s Social Integration after Incarceration: The Role of Organizationally Embedded Prison-Forged Networks. Social Problems, <https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spaa026> (accessed December 7, 2020).CrossRef+(accessed+December+7,+2020).>Google Scholar
Salem, Arab, Reid, Edna and Chen, Hsinchun (2008). Multimedia Content Coding and Analysis: Unraveling the Content of Jihadi Extremist Groups’ Videos. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 31(7): 605–626.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schept, Judah (2014). (Un)seeing Like a Prison: Counter-visual Ethnography of the Carceral State. Theoretical Criminology, 18(2):198–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scribe Video website. <http://scribe.org/> (accessed December 7, 2020).+(accessed+December+7,+2020).>Google Scholar
Silbey, Jessica (2007). Criminal Performances: Film, Autobiography, and Confession. New Mexico Law Review, 37(1): 189–243.Google Scholar
Simmel, Georg (1950). The Sociology of Georg Simmel. Translated, edited and with an Introduction by Wolff, Kurt. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Simmel, Georg (1908 [1971]). The Stranger. In Levine, Donald J. (Ed.) On Individuality and Social Forms: Selected Writings, pp. 143–149. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Some, Malidoma Patrice (1993). Ritual: Power, Healing and Community . New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Stanley, Kathryn V. (2016). Behold, She Stands at the Door: Reentry, Black Women, and the Black Church. Journal of Prison Education and Reentry, 3(1): 56–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Starks, Brian Chad, and van Gundy, Alana (2014). Race and the Three Strikes Law. In Bowman, Scott (Ed.), Color Behind Bars: Racism in the U.S. Prison System, pp. 413–434. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.Google Scholar
Stevens, Rebecca Harrison, Harding, Meagan Taylor, Gonzalez, Joaquin, and Eby, Emily (2019). Handcuffing the Vote: Diluting Minority Voting Power through Prison Gerrymandering and Felon Disenfranchisement. St. Mary’s Law Review on Race and Social Justice, 21(2): 195–230.Google Scholar
Stover, John A. (2013). Framing Social Movements Through Documentary Films. Contexts, 12(4): 56–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toshima, Goro (2004). A Hard Straight (film). Arlington, VA: Public Broadcasting System, Independent Lens.Google Scholar
Tuma, René (2011). Examining Interaction Using Video. Symbolic Interaction, 34(3): 415–420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vannini, Phillip (2015). Non-Representational Ethnography: New Ways of Animating Lifeworlds. Cultural Geographies, 22(2): 317–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Visher, Christy A., Lattimore, Pamela K., Barrick, Kelle, and Tueller, Stephen (2017). Evaluating the Long-Term Effects of Prisoner Reentry Services on Recidivism: What Types of Services Matter? Justice Quarterly, 34(1): 136–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, Lorenn, and Kobayashi, Leslie (2014). Rituals. Restorative and Therapeutic Reentry Rituals. In Martine Herzog-Evans (Ed.) Offender Release and Supervision: The Role of Courts and the Use of Discretion, pp. 351–372. The Netherlands: Wolf Legal Publishers.Google Scholar
Wallace, Roderick (1988). A Synergism of Plagues: ‘Planned Shrinkage,’ Contagious Housing Destruction, and AIDS in the Bronx. Environmental Research, 47:1–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waters, Richard D., and Jones, Paul M. (2011). Using Video to Build an Organization’s Identity and Brand: A Content Analysis of Nonprofit Organizations’ YouTube Videos. Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, 23(3): 248–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Western, Bruce (2018). Homeward: Life in the Year After Prison. New York: Russell Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimmerman, Marc A., Stewart, Sarah E., Morrel-Samuels, Susan, Franzen, Susan, and Reischl, Thomas M. (2011). Youth Empowerment Solutions for Peaceful Communities: Combining Theory and Practice in a Community-Level Violence Prevention Curriculum. Health Promotion Practice, 12(3): 425–439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar