Hannah Runnels – Staff Writer
It’s a widely used cliché on American cop shows and courtroom dramas, not to mention among a lot of voters as well: “If you’re innocent, then you have nothing to worry about.”
Yet the United States — which comprises only five percent of the world’s population — houses more than 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. Prosecutors, sheriffs and legislators understand the positive correlation between how harsh they are on crime to the number of votes they receive. So it’s no wonder the issue of mass incarceration has been a growing epidemic since the 60s.
Is it time for Americans to redefine guilt? Or innocence?
Photographers featured in the photo exhibition “Prison Nation” — running through March 4 at the Southeast Museum of Photography — are creating works that redefine what it means to be imprisoned in the land of the free. Just how deeply it impacts those who become entrenched in this system is the unmistakable message of “Prison Nation” and Dr. Keri Watson, Director of the Florida Prison Education Project and a professor of Art History at the University of Central Florida. The FPEP is an initiative of UCF that offers high-quality undergraduate education to people incarcerated in Central Florida.
“Prison Nation” images span a half-century and come together to present a story about the mass imprisonment and misrepresentation of tens of thousands of U.S. citizens. The exhibition gives a voice and face to those who have been systematically and deliberately dehumanized. Artists in the show include the exhibition co-curator Nicole R. Fleetwood, along with Lucas Foglia, Bruce Jackson, Emily Kinni, Jesse Krimes, Jack Lueders-Booth, Deborah Luster, Chandra McCormick and Keith Calhoun, Zora Murff, Nigel Poor, Joseph Rodriguez, Jamel Shabazz, Sable Elyse Smith and Stephen Tourlentes.
On Valentine’s Day, Dr. Watson gave an informative and in depth lecture at the SMP on how deep the issue of mass incarceration goes.
“Historically photographs have been used to profile criminals and reinforce stereotypical notions of prisoners,” she told the audience, “but the contemporary artists in this exhibition are challenging this history and creating photographs that humanize their subjects and draw attention to the crisis of mass incarceration in contemporary American society”.
Deborah Luster, whose work hangs in the exhibition, uses posed portraits as a way to humanize the inmates she photographed. She is also known for her photographic essays on the nature of crime and punishment, as well as documenting “The Life of Jesus Christ,” a passion play performed for the public at the infamous Angola, also known as Louisiana State Penitentiary. Angola, the nation’s largest maximum security prison, was built on a former slave plantation and houses 6,000 men, 90 percent of whom are serving maximum sentences and will die there. Luster photographed prisoner performers in their handmade costumes against simple backdrops and used theatrical, luminous lighting, thus capturing the intense individuality of inmates. Bobby Wallace, the actor who played Christ in the prisoners’ adaptation, was the only inmate at the time not serving a life sentence. He is now free.
Watson clarified shocking truths about the history of Angola when she said, “When Angola was purchased by the state of Louisiana and converted into a prison in 1880, slave quarters became the cell units.
“It is no wonder then that Bruce Jackson’s photographs, taken at southern prisons in the 1960s and 70s, could easily be confused with images of actual slavery. He shows us men picking cotton and tobacco, planting and chopping down trees, and digging ditches under the watchful eyes of prison guards,” she noted.
Another photographer currently on display at the SMP is Jamal Shabazz, who is commonly known for capturing the distinct street style of New York. During his experience as a corrections officer at Rikers Island Shabazz recalls sharing his photographs with the prisoners as a form of visual medicine and remarks, “It’s important to show this work to help people see the human side of those incarcerated. We hear about prisons. But, what is the face of the inmate? What does the inmate look like?”
When asked who she believed was responsible in this overgrown issue, Dr. Watson pointed out, again, the trend of the prison system to function under the scope of capitalism. The privatization and monetization of prisons is a clear source of the crisis, she said. Watson pointed the finger at large corporations such as Starbucks, Walmart, Nintendo, J.C. Penny, Mary Kay and Microsoft Windows — all of which have contracts with state penitentiaries to utilize prison labor.
Watson added, “In Florida inmates provide unpaid labor to the department of transportation and the division of forestry.”
In January 2018 inmates in 12 Florida prisons organized Operation Push, a work strike to protest prison overcrowding, harsh living conditions and low wages. The Florida Department of Corrections denies that these conditions exist, but last Aug. 27 to Sept. 9, the United States incarcerated population held a nationwide prison strike demanding better wages and an end to what they call slave labor. The strike ended on the anniversary of the notorious Attica Prison Riot of 1971. Inmates used the strike to lobby the public to restore prisoners’ voting rights across America. In Florida, that amendment passed with flying colors in November and former felons are now able to get their voting rights restored, with some exceptions.
To resolving the issue, Watson stresses the importance of the work created by “Prison Nation” photographers. She said it plays a key role in informing and divulging the truth about true character of many mired in the U.S. penal institutions. She ended her talk by urging the audience to take action by confronting local legislators, to advocate for resources and education programs for prisoners, including the FPEP program that she directs.