Educational Media Reviews Online

Both of these programs examine various aspects of the United States prison and incarceration system. Life Behind Bars is a general look at prisons, focusing primarily on adult offenders while the second program, Kids Behind Bars, focuses on juvenile offenders. They are part of the University of Notre Dame Today's Life Choices series (http://tlc.goldendome.com/) which is shown on some PBS channels and the Odyssey Channel (http://www.odysseychannel.com/)

The programs are well balanced and clear. Life Behind Bars draws a nice contrast between the 'punishment' and 'rehabilitation' ethics while the Kids Behind Bars segment notes both the parental and societal responsibilities that are sometimes ignored in dealing with young offenders. Although the issues of incarceration and rehabilitation are very complex, both programs, within the limited context of the video, do a good job of exploring the issues and the implications for the broader society. Kids Behind Bars uses some footage from the Columbine High School incident so it is very timely. While they share a small amount of the same visuals, each can be viewed and used independently. The technical quality of both programs is very good.

While neither program would be a sole resource, both programs could be used to provide a good overview of the issues at both the secondary and college levels and, of course, would be especially useful in libraries and information centers serving criminal justice programs. Although the content is very timely, this reviewer's sense is that they will not be outdated very soon; the issues considered will probably be with us for a good number of years and even if incarceration trends should change the videos could be used for historical purposes.

One shortcoming of Life Behind Bars is the two incarceration programs (Maricopa County, Arizona and a South Dakota building trades project for inmates) used as examples are really very atypical. While this draws a nice contrast between the rehabilitative and punishment approaches, neither situation is particularly typical of most prison programs and the inmates in both settings are not necessarily hardened criminals.