San Quentin, San Francisco; home to 3000 dangerous convicts, all holed-up in what looks like a giant, white sandcastle. Quite fitting, as one criminal insists the place is "like a playground", as he's about to start 50+ years in the notorious, yet amusingly-named, Badger Section.
Louis Theroux has 2 weeks to investigate San Quentin and its clientele, starting in "the hole" (a segregated area where prisoners are locked-up for 23 hours a day), where he meets "Playboy" Nolan – a white carjacker who's in the hole for "gassing" guards (throwing liquid at them – urine, usually).
For 2 hours, twice a week, everyone is let out into "the yard"; a place with more school connotations, where gangs cluster together in their uniform of orange jumpsuits. Louis meets the Aryan Brotherhood, and is surprised when a 19 year old kid doesn’t seem phased by the prospect of doing 38 years inside, and coming out in his late-50s.
Maybe it's because it's "too easy to do the time" as one convict says at the Receiving & Releasing area, where prisoners are processed in and out. But is it really a walk in the park, or is everyone Louis talks to simply putting on a brave face?
One of Louis prison officer "guides" confirms the best way to get through San Quentin is to stay strong and show no signs of weakness, lest you become a target for "gangbangers" (men who puppet-master convicts into doing their bidding.)
Breakfast time. The prison feeds 2000 inmates in 2 sittings, and Louis is there eating the gruel that passes for food. So far everyone seems very open to Louis, who always presents himself as a well-spoken, interested, non-judgemental ear for people. Even two members of the Barbarian Brotherhood seem happy to break bread with him, although they remind Louis that if he should dare take any of their food, it will be taken as a gross insult and he'll be beaten up later.
That sounds harsh. But Louis is quickly realizing that prison has its own rituals and rules, where the tiniest indiscretion isn't tolerated. However, one person who has been tolerated enough to find love in San Quentin is transsexual Bradley/Deborah, who shares her cell with partner Robert -- a slim, long-haired man. It's never made clear if Robert is bisexual or gay, which left me with the feeling Robert may just be so starved for sex, that anything approaching femininity is welcome.
So far, while San Quentin certainly won't be number 1 on anyone's holiday destination list, it's not quite the hellhole I'd been expecting. It's probably because Louis and his camera crew are continually escorted by guards, and treated as novelties by the inmates, but Louis' next step is to take us to Carson Section – to meet David Silva, one of the most brutal convicts serving time.
But again, David is far from a Hannibal Lecter figure. A notorious "home invader", who tortured victims for information (but never killed anyone – although some "hoped for death"), David was a stocky guy with a goatee and neck tattoo, but not unlike the resident meathead in most pubs across the country.
Next, it's off to Alpine Section, an area where prisoners are segregated for their own protection. Outside, in a large recreational area full of gang drop-outs and paedophiles (but mostly the former), Louis walks through with Officer Gladson.
It's full of the usual unsavoury-looking characters, but Gladson and Louis weave through the crowd with no problems, finally arriving at a huddled Bible study group and meeting a creepy man who insists he was "tormented by demons" once. Unlike everyone Louis has met so far, he's too ashamed to even say what his crime was, which makes him far more unnerving than those with misplaced pride in their crimes.
Rather bizarrely, the whole yard of men then drop to the floor, as if on cue. Gladson quickly leads Louis out of the pen, with the mood suddenly changing and prisoners shouting abuse and insults their way. Afterwards, Louis is told a prison guard fired shots in East Block, and the prisoners were all ordered to hit the ground as a precaution – marking the show's first real sense of danger.
Dinner time. Louis is eating with two more people already on the fringe of society: gay man Chris Mitz and transsexual Dedee. Interestingly, Chris has taken to wearing mascara inside, to enhance his femininity. It apparently helps prevent men beating him up, as they don’t perceive him as a threat, and would take no pride in hitting a "girl".
Chris is another man who has found love inside, with his partner Ronnie. In one of the show's most memorably crazy revelations, heavy-set Ronnie admits he was once a white supremacist Nazi, which makes his relationship with white, gay, Jewish Chris all the more eye-opening. But perhaps even stranger is the fact 38-year-old Ronnie is married with 2 kids!
With his fortnight drawing to a close, it was time for the customary Louis Theroux wrap-up. He met up again with Playboy Nolan, now a marked man and a target for gang reprisals, locked up in the special "Walkalone" cages outside. Any convicts in here are known as "rats" and considered the lowest of the low, although Nolan seems to be treating everything very light-heartedly.
At the Receiving & Releasing section, 27 prisoners are about to get their freedom. It should come as welcome relief for them, but instead Louis has realized that most of these men can't function in the real world and prefer the "playground" of prison. A guard on duty suspects that over half of them will be back inside within months.
Deborah is one of the lucky 27 getting her freedom, but David Silva will never know freedom again. He's so institutionalized, he stands as if handcuffed just out of habit. David says he feels remorse for his crimes, but will mentally adjust to life inside by lowering his horizons. He insists you can make a life for yourself behind bars, where you have a roof over your head and free meals. The only thing he'll miss is true freedom... and women.
We left the show with Louis walking through the grim prison, out into the beautiful California sunshine. A free man. It had been an interesting documentary, as you expect from Theroux, although it didn’t deliver any big revelations.
Prison subculture is a topic that's been tackled many times before, by various documentaries, and I'm not convinced you get a proper insight if you just wander around with visible cameramen. That's why books written by ex-cons are generally more interesting and compelling, if obviously narrow in their viewpoint.
But still, the self-feminising by gay men, some inmate/guard "friendships", unlikely romances, and the reasons why prisoners continue to offend, were elements of prison life Louis Theroux got over very well. As one prison officer neatly summarised near the end: "In the prison, you're somebody; outside on the street, you're nobody."
An interesting, amusing, unsettling, and entertaining documentary.
13 January 2008
BBC2, 9.00 pm
Louis Theroux has 2 weeks to investigate San Quentin and its clientele, starting in "the hole" (a segregated area where prisoners are locked-up for 23 hours a day), where he meets "Playboy" Nolan – a white carjacker who's in the hole for "gassing" guards (throwing liquid at them – urine, usually).
For 2 hours, twice a week, everyone is let out into "the yard"; a place with more school connotations, where gangs cluster together in their uniform of orange jumpsuits. Louis meets the Aryan Brotherhood, and is surprised when a 19 year old kid doesn’t seem phased by the prospect of doing 38 years inside, and coming out in his late-50s.
Maybe it's because it's "too easy to do the time" as one convict says at the Receiving & Releasing area, where prisoners are processed in and out. But is it really a walk in the park, or is everyone Louis talks to simply putting on a brave face?
One of Louis prison officer "guides" confirms the best way to get through San Quentin is to stay strong and show no signs of weakness, lest you become a target for "gangbangers" (men who puppet-master convicts into doing their bidding.)
Breakfast time. The prison feeds 2000 inmates in 2 sittings, and Louis is there eating the gruel that passes for food. So far everyone seems very open to Louis, who always presents himself as a well-spoken, interested, non-judgemental ear for people. Even two members of the Barbarian Brotherhood seem happy to break bread with him, although they remind Louis that if he should dare take any of their food, it will be taken as a gross insult and he'll be beaten up later.
That sounds harsh. But Louis is quickly realizing that prison has its own rituals and rules, where the tiniest indiscretion isn't tolerated. However, one person who has been tolerated enough to find love in San Quentin is transsexual Bradley/Deborah, who shares her cell with partner Robert -- a slim, long-haired man. It's never made clear if Robert is bisexual or gay, which left me with the feeling Robert may just be so starved for sex, that anything approaching femininity is welcome.
So far, while San Quentin certainly won't be number 1 on anyone's holiday destination list, it's not quite the hellhole I'd been expecting. It's probably because Louis and his camera crew are continually escorted by guards, and treated as novelties by the inmates, but Louis' next step is to take us to Carson Section – to meet David Silva, one of the most brutal convicts serving time.
But again, David is far from a Hannibal Lecter figure. A notorious "home invader", who tortured victims for information (but never killed anyone – although some "hoped for death"), David was a stocky guy with a goatee and neck tattoo, but not unlike the resident meathead in most pubs across the country.
Next, it's off to Alpine Section, an area where prisoners are segregated for their own protection. Outside, in a large recreational area full of gang drop-outs and paedophiles (but mostly the former), Louis walks through with Officer Gladson.
It's full of the usual unsavoury-looking characters, but Gladson and Louis weave through the crowd with no problems, finally arriving at a huddled Bible study group and meeting a creepy man who insists he was "tormented by demons" once. Unlike everyone Louis has met so far, he's too ashamed to even say what his crime was, which makes him far more unnerving than those with misplaced pride in their crimes.
Rather bizarrely, the whole yard of men then drop to the floor, as if on cue. Gladson quickly leads Louis out of the pen, with the mood suddenly changing and prisoners shouting abuse and insults their way. Afterwards, Louis is told a prison guard fired shots in East Block, and the prisoners were all ordered to hit the ground as a precaution – marking the show's first real sense of danger.
Dinner time. Louis is eating with two more people already on the fringe of society: gay man Chris Mitz and transsexual Dedee. Interestingly, Chris has taken to wearing mascara inside, to enhance his femininity. It apparently helps prevent men beating him up, as they don’t perceive him as a threat, and would take no pride in hitting a "girl".
Chris is another man who has found love inside, with his partner Ronnie. In one of the show's most memorably crazy revelations, heavy-set Ronnie admits he was once a white supremacist Nazi, which makes his relationship with white, gay, Jewish Chris all the more eye-opening. But perhaps even stranger is the fact 38-year-old Ronnie is married with 2 kids!
With his fortnight drawing to a close, it was time for the customary Louis Theroux wrap-up. He met up again with Playboy Nolan, now a marked man and a target for gang reprisals, locked up in the special "Walkalone" cages outside. Any convicts in here are known as "rats" and considered the lowest of the low, although Nolan seems to be treating everything very light-heartedly.
At the Receiving & Releasing section, 27 prisoners are about to get their freedom. It should come as welcome relief for them, but instead Louis has realized that most of these men can't function in the real world and prefer the "playground" of prison. A guard on duty suspects that over half of them will be back inside within months.
Deborah is one of the lucky 27 getting her freedom, but David Silva will never know freedom again. He's so institutionalized, he stands as if handcuffed just out of habit. David says he feels remorse for his crimes, but will mentally adjust to life inside by lowering his horizons. He insists you can make a life for yourself behind bars, where you have a roof over your head and free meals. The only thing he'll miss is true freedom... and women.
We left the show with Louis walking through the grim prison, out into the beautiful California sunshine. A free man. It had been an interesting documentary, as you expect from Theroux, although it didn’t deliver any big revelations.
Prison subculture is a topic that's been tackled many times before, by various documentaries, and I'm not convinced you get a proper insight if you just wander around with visible cameramen. That's why books written by ex-cons are generally more interesting and compelling, if obviously narrow in their viewpoint.
But still, the self-feminising by gay men, some inmate/guard "friendships", unlikely romances, and the reasons why prisoners continue to offend, were elements of prison life Louis Theroux got over very well. As one prison officer neatly summarised near the end: "In the prison, you're somebody; outside on the street, you're nobody."
An interesting, amusing, unsettling, and entertaining documentary.
13 January 2008
BBC2, 9.00 pm
