louis theroux:behind bars - tonight at 9 on beeb2

[Front101]

I kept thinking that he must have commited murder, many times... I guess it's just not the done thing for them to admit to it, but I find it hard to believe that wasn't the case. But yes, he seemed to be a sensible guy, like he said, he had a lot of time to thing about things.

But also the way in which they made him take his shirt off and handcuffed him (he was handcuffed earlier too, which wasn't the case with the other prisoners) suggests that he was still very dangerous, no?

I thought he'd killed too - the teardrop tat under his left eye, doesn't it mean he's killed a cop or someone inside or something? I reckon making him take the shirt off at the end was just for the cameras, we got to see the Norte gang tats

Loved the show, tho agree it'd be better to see a bit more closure on some of the characters

 

[zoooo]

I was almost expecting a caption at the end along the lines of: 'unfortunately, "----" was killed days after we completed filming.'

I hate when that happens at the end of a good documentary.

 

[Cloud]

Where can I watch this on stream?

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

BBC iPlayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b008qjh0.shtml?filter=txdate%3A13-01&filter=txslot%3Aevening&start=2&scope=iplayerlast7days&version_pid=b008qjd8

Think they take it down after a few days though.

 

[Nixon]

I was almost expecting a caption at the end along the lines of: 'unfortunately, "----" was killed days after we completed filming.'.

innit

 

[Cloud]

Cheers

 

[QueenOfGoths]

I just think that the obvious restrictions he had to operate under strangled his style. The racial tensions must have limited who would speak to him - I bet that was why he only spoke to white inmates apart from the new guy and that gay man - who were unaffiliated with any gang at that point.

I found it quite hard hitting as far as his exploration of the environment went but the lack of engagement with the subjects was frustrating. Then again, what do you expect? He was not going to get to buddy up with any of them was he?

I wanted much, much more closure on the people he featured though. The transexual and Playboy and that black kid that had just arrived - I really wanted more of their stories...

I too wanted to hear more about a lot of the inmates and would have been interested to hear in particular from people in the bible study group as i have always wondered at the desicions, background etc.. behind whether religious conversions - of whatever faith - in prison and how much is genuine, how much is them accepting responsiblity for their actions, hoe much is simply a way of coping with their situation etc..

However i also felt that Louis' quiet non-confrontational style possibly allowed the prisoners and guards to be a little more relaxed then they may have been with a more 'hard-hitting' style of documentary making.

Still I thought it was an interesting, informative programme despite certain flaws and it did linger in the memory - especially the young black guy talking about how 'quiet' prison life was compared to his experiences outside.

 

[Bajie]

In Ross Kemps series 'Gangs', there was an episode on gangs in El Salvador and Cape Town, which covered the gangs on the outside and inside of prison. The benefit to that approach was the viewer could see the living conditions of the gang members before they got to prison.

The South African number gangs where truely terrifying, the sort of people I just never want to be in a confined space with, ever. But they all shared similar attributes to the American gang members, they all came from poor backgrounds and they where all institutionalized, not just in terms of prison, but their whole world view was limited.

Though the Theroux programme was entertaining enough it did not really cover the glaring question, just why has America got 2.5 Millon people in Prison, which is a millon more than China, a authoratian country with 4 times the population but the China prison population is just 1.5millon

 

[Onket]

Definately a shame he didn't talk to any non-white gang members.

Also he didn't talk to anyone old. There must have been someone that'd been there for 30-40 years or something? Maybe longer.

No-one on death row.

Didn't talk about the tattoos (apart from 'skinhead' in Germanic runes).

Didn't mention the 'shots fired' incident again- what happened there?

Apart from that it was ok.

 

[brianx]

I was concerned about the man who was being released and had been in solitary confinement for years and hadn't spoken to anybody but his time was up and out he was going. That's madness. The man hasn't got a chance and what about the first person that crosses words with him. It's as though they want him to do something bad to prove that they should keep them locked up.
I did like Playboy though.