It would be interesting to compare the memoirs of Jim Crow prison wardens. Or the superintendent at Andersonville. Hollywood used to have a robust genre of prison movies, reflecting the high incarceration rates during the Depression. Russian historians deduced from census records that several million people disappeared during the Depression. Recent research does confirm that significant numbers of Blacks disappeared in the chain gang system. There is an apparent Hollywood blackout on prison realism although MSNBC draws audiences with its prison reality shows. One of Elvis's best movies, Jailhouse Rock, reminds that his father Vernon was locked up at Parchman Farm, apparently doing someone else's time. The eighth amendment is among the few remaining provisions of the Constitution, as the US quickly loses legitimacy when it causes loss of life like at Waco or the national death toll caused by local police.
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It would be interesting to compare the memoirs of Jim Crow prison wardens. Or the superintendent at Andersonville. Hollywood used to have a robust genre of prison movies, reflecting the high incarceration rates during the Depression. Russian historians deduced from census records that several million people disappeared during the Depression. Recent research does confirm that significant numbers of Blacks disappeared in the chain gang system. There is an apparent Hollywood blackout on prison realism although MSNBC draws audiences with its prison reality shows. One of Elvis's best movies, Jailhouse Rock, reminds that his father Vernon was locked up at Parchman Farm, apparently doing someone else's time. The eighth amendment is among the few remaining provisions of the Constitution, as the US quickly loses legitimacy when it causes loss of life like at Waco or the national death toll caused by local police.
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