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Title: Doing time Rating: 2.7 out of 4 Reference: Director & producer, Lorna Boschman. Library of Congress subjects: Women prisoners Female offenders—Rehabilitation Poverty/class in North America--Social aspects. Sex discrimination against women Women--Crimes against Sociology subjects: Aboriginal issues (in part) Criminal justice issues Poverty/class in North America Women & violence Reviews and Numerical Ratings
1.5 Narratives presented without context, visually boring grey-tone sculptures are almost all we see. One narrative implies that poverty leads inevitably to crime. Problematic - not much on structural barriers. Lecture topics: women and criminal justice system. Kathy Bischoping & Kevin Gosine 3 By using the stories of the four women who have spent time in prison, the video did a fantastic job in presenting problematic social, psychological, & economical issues that women face when they are the victims of the Canadian Justice System. The disappointing fact about this video is that only former prison inmates’ stories were presented; the opinions of government officials & authorities were not presented. Given this disappointing fact, this documentary would still be educational, thought provoking, & enlightening to watch. The topics presented in this documentary will be a valuable tool for classroom discussions. The use of language in this documentary is basic, so the documentary is straightforward & can be easily be understood by students from all levels. Minh Hoang (undergraduate) 3 This video made an important link between women doing time and poverty. Touches upon many salient factors that lead and keep women in prison. It was interesting to see the rationale that encourages women to commit crimes that lead to incarceration. We usually ignore the fact that being a prostitute can sometimes be the preferred option to working jobsbelow the poverty line jobs (e.g., fast food work, sweatshop work, toilet-cleaning). However, this issue should have been framed more as an initial, survival strategy (possibly mothers with children) rather than as a way to negate undesired poverty. This video really highlights street reality well. Drug abuse to sedate the pain of being a prostitute, the treatment of prostitutes as human waste, and the feeling that street people are more likely to help you out than the welfare system, are some of the most tragic but important issues discussed. However, this video could have provided more detail on the prison experience: homosexuality between inmates was mentioned but not discussed; degrading, invasive body searches were mentioned but not discussed; the relationship between correctional officers and inmates was missing in action - completely; abuse - a significant pull factor - was also overlooked. But this is still an informative video on women and poverty, women and crime, and doing time. Suitable for students at any level. Belinda Godwin 3 Although I found this disturbing, I think it would
be a good video to show as an example of personal narratives, and to
explore the connections between Aboriginal women, racism, prison, violence
against women, drugs, prostitution, sexuality. Sarah Rogers
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