Prisons,
prisoners, and crime are attracting unprecedented levels of interest from both
predictable sources (tabloid media) to more unexpected (such as the prison
setting of Paddington 2).
Globally,
but especially in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, the real
life prison population is rising dramatically. The fictional presentations of
prison, which may be prurient and sexploitative, high minded or fantastical, is
matched by the barely factual and highly sensationalized prison of reality
television. Orange is the New Black is only the latest example of the
compulsion media of all types have to look inside the prison.
This
proposed book is for an edited collection of international contributors. Its
focus on the (real or imagined) spaces of the prison and prisoners and the
stories told about prisons and justice in media both fictional and
non-fictional media and perhaps more importantly in the uncertain space between
both. Reality television, tabloid media, crime and horror films, soap opera and
pornography are all possible areas of focus.
