Doing Time & Doing Time: Ten Years Later

• In Event: Filmmaking Criminology: Breaking the Mold

Abstract

Doing Time was the first prison documentary made in America, perhaps the world. It shed light on the realities of prison for a largely ignorant public who knew little--and cared less--about the problems inside the walls. The penitentiary of New Mexico, where the film was produced exploded in the bloodiest prison riot in American history just weeks after the program was first broadcast.

Doing Time: Ten Years Later offered a ten-year reprise of the first program, focusing on what happened to the ill-fated PNM and those featured in Doing Time. PNM saw a new prison, new staff, and new rules. But little changed in terms of the underlying realities of prison.

Author

• Paul Sutton, San Diego State University