I really liked the Jeff Ross special last night on Comedy Central. If you missed it, Ross — who bills himself as the Roastmaster General — went to Brazos County Jail, a maximum security facility in Texas, and did three shows for the convicts, two for men and one for women. Most of it involved "roasting" (i.e., insulting) them though there was clearly enough understanding and even a bit of affection coming from the guy that the convicts, at least in the show as edited, seemed to really like him. Before that, he mingled with some of them, ate as they did and talked with a number of them. He wrote up some of his observations here.
This may have been the first time some viewers got a glimpse of men and women in prison…at least, viewers who don't have MSNBC, which goes through periods of airing more about bad people in prison than they do about bad people in the Republican Party. I'm personally waiting for the moment that some Congressman whose improprieties are discussed on The Rachel Maddow Show winds up in one of the channel's "behind bars" documentaries.
I suspect a lot of people look at most prisoners and do not think, "There are human lives who could be rehabilitated and perhaps are even being over-punished by the inhuman living conditions." I suspect a lot think, "Good! Keep that walking trash in there where it can't hurt anybody." A condition of attending Ross's show was that an inmate had to have spotless behavior for the month before. I wonder how many prisoners were therefore excluded and if they were seen anywhere during the program.
Like you probably, I don't know a lot about prison conditions. Given how many convicts have been sprung from Death Row thanks to DNA evidence, I wonder how many people who were convicted of crimes other than murder by the same judicial system are also innocent. There must be some but no one cares. I have seen people who don't care how many bodies are tossed in the slammer, or how awful they have it in there, as long as the bodies we're talking about are poor and/or not white. And if you told them those guys might be innocent, the rationale would be, "Even if they're technically innocent of what they got busted for, they're surely guilty of something."
I'm glad Jeff Ross went on this adventure. I've always liked the guy. He's a gutsy comic who does insults with style and wit, and who makes bad taste work by making it really, really funny. His special is not currently scheduled for rerunning in the next few weeks and I'm wondering if there's a longer, unbleeped DVD on the way. If so, I'll let you know so you can order it…after I do.