Day 24 - Shawshank Redemption

I'm actually really upset that I didn't see this movie sooner. It was SO good. I honestly thought it was a bloody guy movie with backstabbing and crazy prison drama, so I had never wanted to see it before. It was not at all what I had expected it to be. Instead, it was AWESOME!

***** SPOILER ALERT *****

I really don't know what to say about this movie. It was just so good, and I loved it. I loved some of the foreshadowing that I didn't get until the end, like the mention of the book Count de Montecristo. I saw that movie a while ago and remembered clearly the men burrowing through the tunnels to escape prison, but didn't realize they were foreshadowing anything until the end, which was cool. I kind of have a thing for foreshadowing.

What it really brought up in my mind was how corrupt the system is. I know it's fictional, but the truth is that a lot of what was happening there really did happen, and still happens to this day, in some form or another. There is a lot of corruption in the prison systems and a lot of the prisoners are mistreated and a lot of prisoners need help but simply don't get it. And, there are rarely opportunities for recently released inmates to get any help readjusting to life outside, which is why they usually go back to their old lives.

I think people tend to forget that people in prison are people too. They struggle with many of the same things as other people. The problem is that they have tried to resolve those struggles in ways that are harmful to others and contrary to the law. Numerous studies have shown that with proper therapy during and after prison stays, inmates are significantly less likely to commit crimes again.

I really think that there needs to be a stronger focus on getting these people the help that they need to avoid them committing more violent crimes. The benefits to allotting time and money to this are substantial. Not only would this limit the number of people in the prisons which would in turn help lower the prison budgets, but it would also help protect the general public by avoiding the release of men and women that are at a high risk of recidivism.

Those are my two cents on prisons and the current prison system....

Anyway, here's the Amazon link for this movie:




Random thought after watching this movie: Numerous studies have shown that solitary confinement is extremely bad for people's psyches, and that many people begin to go crazy after just a few days of being deprived of all human interaction. Honestly, I'm not sure what that says about me because I've been in a sort of solitary state for days at a time more than once and I guess I'm fine. Usually I've had interactions via Facebook or the internet during those times, but once I definitely had 3 days of no internet, no phone, and no other humans to interact with. I felt a little out of it, but not bad, leaving me to think that as long as I have something to entertain myself (which, trust me, doesn't take much), I would be fine to be by myself for long periods of time.