Angela’s Augenzeuge: East German Solidarity with Angela Davis Shown Through State-Sponsored Documentaries

The purpose of this article to investigate the peculiarities of the representation of historical transformations in fiction and documentary cinematography, to reveal the artistic potential of cinema in the coverage of historical issues. The methodology. The main methods of cognition were used: socio-communicative, axiological, culturological approaches, figurative-stylistic analysis and structural-functional method, art history approach combined with morphological analysis, hermeneutic approach. The specified methods contributed to the in-depth study of fiction and documentary films aimed at the coverage of historical or current events. The results. In the course of the study, it was found that the line between documentary and fiction films is extremely thin, especially when the films claim to cover historical events or real figures. Despite the fact that fiction cinema is realized thanks to the play of actors, and documentary cinema is realized thanks to the shooting of real participants in the events, the means of expression of both types of cinematography are similar. One of the results of the analysis was the conclusion that documentary cinema uses a greater number of expressive means than fiction films. This is due to the fact that the directors of fiction films strive to document the aesthetics of the film, and the directors of the documentary, on the contrary, to strengthen the artistic component. Historical themes combine documentary and fiction films, while the aesthetics of documentary films is more diverse. The scientific novelty of the research. In this research for the first time, we investigated the historical transformations in fiction and documentary cinematography from the point of view of cultural meanings and aesthetic foundations of both types of cinema, and also analyzed the potential of cinematography to reveal hot and controversial topics on the example of contemporary cinema works. The practical significance of the article. The presented research can be used by filmmakers in both the field of fiction and documentary cinema in order to create an objective, unbiased and artistically valuable screen product. In addition, the conducted analysis can be useful in teaching professional courses in the specialty 021 “Audiovisual art and production”.

More than 2.3 million individuals are currently incarcerated in the United States. Nearly half of incarcerated individuals are parents of minor children. Results from research on drug use among children of incarcerated individuals are conflicting. The purpose of this literature review is to identify and summarize the evidence base on the associations between parental incarceration (PI) and subsequent drug use in the United States. We performed a literature search of studies that examined associations between exposure to parental incarceration and subsequent drug use. We searched PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Scopus, and SocIndex to identify studies that reported illicit drug use outcomes among individuals with a parent or primary guardian who had been incarcerated in the United States. Sixteen studies were included in our analysis. There was substantial evidence that parental incarceration contributes to increased drug use and problematic drug‐related behaviours in adolescence and adulthood, with positive associations reported in three‐fourths of the studies (75%). The relationship was significant across a range of drug classes, including marijuana, cocaine, prescription pain medication, injection drugs and other illicit drugs. While more diverse research methodologies and studies that examine the larger family context and dynamics are needed to comprehensively assess the pathways to drug use among PI‐exposed individuals, the current evidence base suggests that drug use prevention programs are needed to mitigate the increased likelihood of drug use. Early education drug use prevention programs and comprehensive assessments that identify potential triggers for drug use should be prioritized for this population.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) testing and treatment uptake in prisons remains low. We aimed to estimate clinical outcomes, cost-effectiveness (CE), and budgetary impact (BI) of HCV testing and treatment in United States (US) prisons or linkage to care at release. We used individual-based simulation modeling with healthcare and Department of Corrections (DOC) perspectives for CE and BI analyses, respectively. We simulated a US prison cohort at entry using published data and Washington State DOC individual-level data. We considered permutations of testing (risk factor based, routine at entry or at release, no testing), treatment (if liver fibrosis stage ≥F3, for all HCV infected or no treatment), and linkage to care (at release or no linkage). Outcomes included quality-adjusted life-years (QALY); cases identified, treated, and cured; cirrhosis cases avoided; incremental cost-effectiveness ratios; DOC costs (2016 US dollars); and BI (healthcare cost/prison entrant) to generalize to other states. Compared to "no testing, no treatment, and no linkage to care," the "test all, treat all, and linkage to care at release" model increased the lifetime sustained virologic response by 23%, reduced cirrhosis cases by 54% at a DOC annual additional cost of $1440 per prison entrant, and would be cost-effective. At current drug prices, targeted testing and liver fibrosis-based treatment provided worse outcomes at higher cost or worse outcomes at higher cost per QALY gained. In sensitivity analysis, fibrosis-based treatment restrictions were cost-effective at previous higher drug costs. Although costly, widespread testing and treatment in prisons is considered to be of good value at current drug prices.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between discrimination during childbirth hospitalization and postpartum care utilization among Black birthing people in California, United States. This was a secondary analysis of data from the Listening to Mothers in California survey, a population-based survey of individuals with a singleton hospital-based birth in California in 2016. The primary outcome was number of postpartum care visits. The primary exposures were racial, language, and insurance discrimination. A multiple linear regression model was used to estimate associations between discrimination and postpartum care use, adjusting for sociodemographic covariates. Black birthing people in the sample had an average of two postpartum visits. Almost 15% of the sample reported one or more forms of discrimination during hospital-based childbirth. In adjusted models, racial discrimination (β = 0.09, 95% CI = 0.04-0.14, p < 0.01) and language discrimination (β = 1.03, 95% CI = 0.98-1.07, p < 0.01) were associated with increased postpartum visits, while insurance discrimination was linked to decreased postpartum visits (β = -0.96, 95% CI = -1.04 to -0.89, p < 0.01). Among Black birthing people in California, the drivers of postpartum care utilization after childbirth are complex. There are multiple negative drivers (e.g., experiencing racial and language discrimination and unmet needs), barriers (e.g., insurance discrimination), and positive drivers (e.g., clinician type and education) that affect postpartum care utilization among Black birthing people.

THE INJUSTICE OF UNDER-POLICING IN AMERICA

In this article, we first describe the incidence and prevalence of incarceration and CPS involvement in the United States. Second, we outline the reasons that the same individuals and families may be at risk for involvement in both systems and review the limited existing research examining links between incarceration and CPS involvement. Third, we use unique longitudinal data from Wisconsin, spanning from 2004 to 2012, to describe intergenerational and intragenerational overlap in the two systems. Specifically, we calculate (1) the proportion of all CPS-involved children who have an incarcerated parent; (2) the proportion of incarcerated adults who have a CPS-involved child; (3) the proportion of incarcerated young men and women who were involved in the CPS system as adolescents; and (4) the proportion of CPS-involved adolescents who subsequently became incarcerated. We conclude with a discussion of potential directions for future research as well as implications for practice and policy.

A rapidly growing literature has documented the adverse social, economic and, recently, health impacts of experiencing incarceration in the United States. Despite the insights that this work has provided in consistently documenting the deleterious effects of incarceration, little is known about the specific timing of criminal justice contact and early health consequences during the transition from adolescence to adulthood-a critical period in the life course, particularly for the development of poor health. Previous literature on the role of incarceration has also been hampered by the difficulties of parsing out the influence that incarceration exerts on health from the social and economic confounding forces that are linked to both criminal justice contact and health. This paper addresses these two gaps in the literature by examining the association between incarceration and health in the United States during the transition to adulthood, and by using an analytic approach that better isolates the association of incarceration with health from the multitude of confounders which could be alternatively driving this association. In this endeavor, we make use of variable-rich data from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (n = 10,785) and a non-parametric Bayesian machine learning technique- Bayesian Additive Regression Trees. Our results suggest that the experience of incarceration at this stage of the life course increases the probability of depression, adversely affects the perception of general health status, but has no effect on the probability of developing hypertension in early adulthood. These findings signal that incarceration in emerging adulthood is an important stressor that can have immediate implications for mental and general health in early adulthood, and may help to explain long lasting implications incarceration has for health across the life course.

This essay reviews five books as they relate to the causes and political consequences of mass imprisonment in the United States and the comparative politics of penal policy: Ruth Wilson Gilmore'sGolden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California(2007); Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggen'sLocked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy(2006); Jonathan Simon'sGoverning Through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear(2007); Michael Tonry, ed.,Crime, Punishment, and Politics in a Comparative Perspective(2007); and Bruce Western'sPunishment and Inequality in America(2006).The essay first examines the enormous and growing political repercussions of having a vast penal system embedded in a democratic polity, including the political and electoral consequences of felon disenfranchisement; increasing political, social, and economic inequality for people marked by the penal system; and the phenomenon of “governing through crime.” It also analyzes emerging strategies of resistance to US penal policies and mass incarceration, why some countries are more vulnerable to hard‐line penal policies than others, and what it will take to reverse the US prison boom.

Made in America: Race, Trade, and Prison Labor

Agnes Czajka’s article, “Inclusive Exclusion: Citizenship and the American Prisoner and Prison,” considers the proliferation of prisons in the United States, particularly the increasing number of supermaximum security or “camp” prisons, as an example of “the normalization of a state of exception.” In her analysis, Czajka applies Giorgio Agamben’s concept of the camp as “a physical space that is opened when a state of exception becomes the rule.” While the incarcerated and the non-incarcerated form two distinct societies, they are nevertheless intricately entwined. In the case of the supermax prison, however, the degree of exclusion is higher than in standard prisons. Prisoners are isolated from society and each other, reduced to “bare life” in solitary confinement, and their treatment is beyond the scrutiny of social and judicial review. The use of surveillance technology allows for an extraordinary degree of exclusion from human contact: prisoners exist “outside the rubric of citizenship.”

A Not So Friendly Fascism? Political Prisons and Prisoners in the United States

Offering perspectives from a range of experts, both academic and nonacademic, this reference book examines the development of prisons in the United States and addresses the principal contemporary issues and controversies of our prisons and prison systems. Prisons were initially created as a means of reforming offenders, but over time, the objective of rehabilitation gave way to a strategy of mass imprisonment—a system that has resulted in correctional facilities dealing with serious problems such as overcrowding, prison gangs, pervasive violence, and a significant incidence of mental illness among inmates. Prisons in the United States: A Reference Handbook examines the history of corrections in America, detailing how well-intentioned policies intended to "get tough on crime" sanctioned the dismantling of parole systems and resulted in laws that imposed mandatory minimum sentences. These changes contributed to the United States now having the biggest incarcerated population worldwide and the highest rate of incarceration. The book offers an accessible history of the development of the prison system in the United States and analyzes the various problems and controversies associated with prisons in the present day. The coverage includes key related issues, including those of race and gender, and enables readers to understand how past developments continue to affect public and official perceptions of the prison experience—for example, how the practice of keeping inmates in solitary confinement for lengthy periods has been reinvented and represents a return to a historically discredited practice. Accounts of former inmates and of correctional officers are integrated into the text, adding context and offering rarely heard perspectives on difficult issues affecting prisons.

Documentary and Ethnographic Film

Documentary and Ethnographic Film

Incarcerated people have been among the nation’s most vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic: By late April 2020, 8 of the 10 largest COVID-19 hotspots in the United States were prisons or jails. Rather than enact the level of mass releases required to mitigate coronavirus spread or employ basic infectious disease prevention strategies, government officials predominantly used ineffective and inhumane containment strategies while maintaining high jail and prison populations. By December 2021, one in every five people incarcerated in a prison in the United States had had COVID-19. This chapter focuses on COVID-19 and mass incarceration, including jail and prison responses to the threat of COVID-19, with a focus on broader social inequalities including by race/ethnicity. The intersection of the coronavirus pandemic with mass criminalization and incarceration makes it harder to ignore what has always been true: we are only as safe and healthy as the most vulnerable and oppressed person in the most abhorrent jail or prison conditions.