Professors Beck Strah and Eric Bronson discuss an update to the story of Christopher Dunn, convicting the right person vs. convicting some person, the Alcatraz lighthouse, the discovery of Alcatraz, Millard [Mallard] Fillmore, the problems with making a wooden prison, Alcatraz’s relatively small capacity, the prison’s conditions and privileges, the economics of Alcatraz, the 1969 Indigenous Alcatraz Protests, Jack LaLanne’s handcuffed swim, and The Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)

Today Professors Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss a Missouri prison ignoring a court order to release a wrongly-convicted inmate, the story of the Mecklenburg Six; six death row inmates who escaped a Virginia prison, keeping snakes as pets, prison control rooms, eating your way to a better sentence, bombs as escape mechanisms, Life as a Jailer: Through the Officers Eyes by Capt. Joe DeFranco and K9 Officer Tom Duncan, and Deathrow Gameshow (1987).

Today Professors Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss a Wisconsin warden charged with the deaths of inmates, incarcerated former LEOs and COs, therapy through magic, interrupting division via magic, the limitations of magic in real life interventions, magic as an introduction to cognitive behavioral therapy, Magic the Gathering in prison, magician criminals, and Derek DelGuado’s In and Of Itself (2020).

Profs Beck Strah and Eric Bronson discuss Trump’s First Step Act, halfway houses and home confinement, prison magic in media, Harry Houdini and why there’s no movie about him, Criss Angel, David Blaine, magic as rehabilitation, the question magicians get most from inmates, OG (2018) and Madeline Sackler.

Profs Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss wrongful incarceration compensation, the Pennsylvania Model, solitary and recidivism, solitary and incapacitation, alternative options for solitary, solitary as a means of gang separation, individual inmate experiences in solitary, virtual reality in solitary, and Ricky Stanicky (2024).

Profs Eric Bronson and Beck Strah interview Lt. Joshua Kennedy of West Warwick Police Department and formerly of Rhode Island Department of Corrections. Also discussed are Prison Land: Mapping Carceral Power across Neoliberal America by Brett Story (2019) and Madea Goes to Jail (2009).

Profs Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss Abiding Citizen (2009) and Bronson (2008) with Producer Brit.

Profs Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss Cool Hand Luke (1967) and Life (1999) with Producer Brit.

Profs Beck Strah and Eric Bronson discuss harmful chemicals in prison water, foam parties, Charles Bronson, the cost of solitary confinement, access to services in solitary, international views on solitary, racial disparities in solitary, staffing for solitary, therapy for solitary individuals, euphemisms, mental health and solitary, and Ernest Goes to Jail (1990).

Profs Beck Strah and Eric Bronson discuss Groundhog Day, Law Abiding Citizen (2009), cruise reviews, the state incentives behind pay to stay jails, the two-tiered system of criminal justice, reward structures in prison, jail as rehabilitation vs jail as punishment, justification for pay to stay, pay to stay jail advertising, Mike Lindell, pivoting away from pay to stay, unemployment rates and incarceration, and Milli Vanilli (2023)