Prison Breakdown

Today Professors Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss short time, good time, a father and daughter prison dance, God behind bars, and another Louisiana prison escape. 

Professors Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss orgies at P Diddy’s prison, methods of execution including stoning, beheading, burning, hanging, the electric “old sparky” chair, the gas chamber, lethal injection, firing squad, the 8th amendment, and Wild Things Foursome (2010).

Today Professor Beck Strah and Producer Brit are joined by Dr. Andrew Baranauskas to discuss erroneous prison releases in the UK, ventriloquism in prison including the history of ventriloquism in prisons, Winston Pearson Jr., modern puppet shows, death row ventriloquism shows, Willie Brown, Walter “The Puppetmaster” Taylor, ventriloquism in WWII, a jail owned by a dummy, and Extreme Prejudice (1987) 

Professors Beck Strah and Eric Bronson talk about an update on Burl Cain and the Mississippi DOC, and Mike Tyson, including his early years, his rise in the world of boxing, his crimes, convictions, and prison time. We also discuss Prisoner’s Daughter (2022).

Today Producer Brit is taking the lead! With Professors Beck Strah and Eric Bronson, they discuss a final update on the NOLA prison escapees, and Oscar Pistorius, including his childhood, rise in running, murder of his girlfriend and subsequent trials, sentences, and current life. Also, Southern Comfort (1981).

Professors Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss updates on the P Diddy sentencing, and the first week of Jocktober! This week we’re following jock/felon Aaron Hernandez, including his background, his multiple crimes, his arrests, his imprisonment, his gang activity, his sexuality, and his eventual death, and also Materialists (2025).

Professor Beck Strah and Producer Brit discuss a Beekeeping Prison Program in Massachusetts, the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles, mental heath treatment at the prison, crisis response programs, a lawsuit settlement, a former sheriff’s indictment, notable inmates in the facility, and Sudden Death (1995).

Today Professor Beck Strah and Producer Brit are joined by Media Expert Spenser! Together, they discuss Joe Bonamassa, karate sex offenders, and Mean Guns (1997)

Professors Beck Strah and Eric Bronson talk more about Alligator Alcatraz, including Steven Miller, oversight of the facility, passing the accountability hot potato, ICE and their increased budget, the facility getting closed down by a judge and the backlash, Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Word (2016), and the final meal of Keith Zettlemoyer

Today Professors Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss a CO murder, an update to the NOLA prison escape, Alligator Alcatraz and its origins, funding, construction, maintenance, population, mission, and open corruption, and Unbelievable! (2020)

Today Professor Beck Strah and Producer Brit discuss a man escaping prison via luggage, Prison Break S01E03 “Cell Test”, and Not Another Not Another Movie (2011)

Professors Beck Strah and Eric Bronson discuss firework stands, the one remaining NOLA escapee, the P Diddy convictions, the final public executions, the supreme court and the death penalty, and other major court cases related to the death penalty, and Jaws 3D (1983)

Today Professors Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss an update on the NOLA prison escape, R Kelly’s medication overdose, and the death penalty, including the first death penalty, Europe and America’s historical execution practices, the spectacle of public execution, whitewashing the death penalty, jury nullification, hiding punishment for public image, the electric chair, and Woman of the Hour (2023)

Professors Beck Strah and Eric Bronson discuss updates on the NOLA jail break, chemical castrations in the UK, an 11-day siege at The Walls in Huntsville Texas, the major players, the conclusion, and Do the Right Thing (1989)

Professors Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss the recent New Orleans prison break, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Dog’s murder charge, Dog’s prison sentence, Dog’s racism allegations, Pimp C’s alleged crime, his prison sentence, Pimp C’s prison album, and The Traveling Executioner (1970)

Professors Beck Strah & Eric Bronson discuss optimal muffin russian nesting doll configurations, correctional hiring freezes, reopening Alcatraz, and to close out Movie Maynute: No Escape (1994) and Dinosaur Prison (2023)

Professors Beck Strah and Eric Bronson discuss safety measures on upper galleries of prisons, Stir Crazy (1980), and Escape From New York (1981)

Professors Beck Strah and Eric Bronson discuss Puddy & Peterman, an update on the New York officer strike, a Georgia bill on domestic abuse survivors in prison, “The Walls” Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville, and Jesus Shows you the Way to the Highway (2019)

Professor Beck Strah and Producer Brit discuss photo ops at foreign prisons, Tim Allen going to prison, and Take the Money and RUn (1969)

Professors Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss Bronson’s recent sick leave, an update to the New York Corrections Strike including a mass firing, hostage situations, including: a hostage situation in Arizona, the punitive nature of life sentences, a hostage situation in St. Louis, It Started With the Hats by Dr. Paul Joyce, and Nickel Boys (2024)

Professor Beck Strah and Producer Brit discuss post office politics, corrections strikes in New York, hostage situations in prison, the psychology of hostage takers, the duration of physical anger, hostage negotiators, negotiation tactics, and Megalopolis (2024)

Professor Beck Strah and Producer Brit discuss the Western Society of Criminology Conference, spraying the vice president’s book with drugs, Prison Break Season 1 Episode 2, Milk Chicken, and We Need to Talk about Kevin (2011).

Professors Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss inmate firefighters, cat prison programs, rodent control, cat emotions, spaying and neutering programs, screening for cat programs, and A Very Cool Christmas (2004)

Professor Beck Strah and Producer Brit discuss top pies, death row inmates attempting to deny their commutations, prison cat programs, cat program backlash, stray cats, cat placement programs, and Christmas Mail (2010)

Professors Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss extrajudicial beatings to death, Pelican Bay State Prison, cell sizes and amenities, cuff ports, yard time, the California prison boom of the 70s, inmates covering themselves in feces, prison design and the Panopticon, the SHU, In the Place of Justice by Wilbert Rideau, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

Today Professor Beck Strah and Producer Brit are joined by Grad Student Sam Trieber to talk about Syrian prisons, opening up the institutions, early forms of civil commitment, predictive crime, expert witness disparities, using previous crimes in commission of civil commitment, psychiatric inmate release, civil commitment for sex offenders, addressing the roots of crime and mental health care, and The Fall Guy (2024).

Today Professor Beck and Producer Brit are joined by criminal justice grad student Madison Rodriques to talk about corn dogs, slapping therapy in prison, anti-women laws, pathways to prison for women, higher rates of mental illness in women’s prison populations, The Bangkok Rules, imprisoning children, state sexual assault, the First Step Act, menstrual products, inducing labor against will, forced sterilization, protecting women prisoners from sexual violence, and Prison of the Psychotic Damned (2006).

Professor Bronson is out of the office! So Producer Brit steps in with Host Professor Beck Strah to talk about a $5.6 million dollar payout to the victim of an invasive search and the closure of a women’s prison, The Office, the Lucasville Prison Riot from 1993 including the incident that lead to a prolonged lockdown, Warden “King” Arthur Tate, harsh realities, outside protests, inmate unions, the prisoner’s demands, not killing COs, and the final settlement, and Ghostlight (2024).

Professors Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss weather control machines, presidential diet coke buttons, contraband drones, robots in prison, and CECOT Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador, including: the reasons for the prison, the prison population, the policies behind the prison, the successes of the prison, the failures of the prison, the architecture of the prison, the hooded guards, the food, and the future of the prison. Producer Brit watches Get the Gringo (2012) for Movie Minute.

We have guests! Professors Eric Bronson and Beck Strah interview students Caroline, Daniel, Emma, Pete about their visit to the Prison Rodeo at the Louisiana State Correctional Facility at Angola. They also discuss smuggling meth into prison, Beck spilling Gumbo on his pants, the ethics of the prison rodeo, Hurricanes, the rodeo fair, trustees, the violence of the rodeo, prison cats, and Condemned to Hell (1984).

Professors Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss their upcoming trip to the Prison Rodeo at Angola, 19 executions so far this year, bringing back the gas chamber, closure as a concept invented by media, leasing prisoners to private business, the Red Hat unit, inmates as guards, notable wardens, notable former inmates, record solitary confinement stays, Homelessness is a Housing Problem by Clayton Page Aldern and Gregg Colburn, new malls, Cain’s Redemption by Dennis Shere, and The Farm: Angola, USA (1998)

Professor Beck Strah and a healthy and returning Professor Eric Bronson discuss podcast tattoos, a stabbing incident at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, correctional staff assaults, Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola (also known as “The Farm”), “Natural Life”, the electric chair, Utah’s death sentence options, Georgia bringing back the guillotine, Angola’s structure and layout, prison labor at Angola, the Angola prison magazine, Angola’s religious services, Angola-made coffins, the Angola Prison Rodeo, Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh, God of the Rodeo by Daniel Bergner, and Death Row (2006).

Professor Beck Strah and Producer Brit talk about Beck’s various jobs, Derek Chauvin news, and then they review the first episode of Prison Break from 2005 in which they discuss prison stores, murdering the vice president’s brother, conjugal visits, Stacy Keach, trash fires, gifts made with prison labor, dated effects, and Alien: Romulus (2024)

Professor Beck Strah and Producer Brit ask is Eric the meat of our sandwich?, the fish sloppy joe challenge, the Stateville Correctional Center getting depopulated due to bad conditions, swimming the Alcatraz escape route, the big weird time out, the would-be escapees of the Battle of Alcatraz, The Battle of Alcatraz: the escape attempt, the officer resistance, and what went wrong. They also discuss the show Prison Break and Sharkansas Women’s Prison Massacre (2016) and doing your prison break in the most ethical way possible.

Professors Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss energy drinks, Warheads, cruel and unusual lack of air conditioning in Texas prisons, the Birdman of Alcatraz, Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, Charles Manson’s Music, Doc Barker, Creepy Karpis, felons in marketing, The Jail: Managing the Underclass in American Society by John Keith Irwin, and The Haunting of Alcatraz (2020).

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)

Profs Bronson and Strah discuss an Australian manhunt for a man released on error, Crocodile Dundee, IHOP pancake eating contests, international felon disenfranchisement, disenfranchisement and white privilege, recidivism and re-enfranchisement, million dollar blocks, permanent disenfranchisement, and How to Be a Serial Killer (2008).

Profs Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss Danny Masterson getting repeatedly beaten in prison, prison democracy, differing classes of vote restriction, racial and sex disparities in felon disenfranchisement, Florida being disappointing, felon disenfranchisement as an election tool, taxation without representation, labeling theory, non-voter databases, In with the Devil: a Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption by James Keene with Hillel Levin, and Rubber (2010).

Profs Beck Strah and Eric Bronson discuss circus people, an example sentencing for carceral fentanyl trafficking, conflict with incarcerated romantic partners, leaving enough space for Jesus, gender and relationship status in relation to emotional health, establishing meaningful relationships under incarceration, conjugal visits, same-sex relationships, and Caged Heat 3000 (1995).

Profs. Beck Strah and Eric Bronson discuss weather, the podcast not being explicit enough, a Rhode Island deputy shooting a sheriff, sally ports, Bronson taking a student group to Louisiana, Steven Seagal Lawman, Joe Arpaio, family visitation, the Angola Prison Rodeo, conjugal visits, prison phone calls, the social capital of community connections, the benefits of building familial relationships for the incarcerated, and Caged Heat 2: Stripped of Freedom (1994).

Profs. Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss Jackson, MS prisoner graves, gang tattoos, retribution tattoos, the symbology of prison ink, bitcoin, Canadian subsidised prison tatts, police and jury profiling of people with prison tattoos, and Caged Heat (1974)

Professors Beck Strah and Eric Bronson discuss Sing Sing Correctional Facility, its inmate services, famous guests, sports teams, and fun facts. Topics also covered include the death penalty, the release of the former Olympian known as Blade Runner, and Holiday in Handcuffs (2006).

Professors Beck Strah and Eric Bronson interview their students about their visit to RHDC John J. Moran Medium Security Facility and Anthony P. Travisono Intake Service Center, and also discuss Dick Durbin & Chuck Grassley's response to healthcare in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, prison tour hostage situations, Let's Go to Prison (2006), and if Die Hard is a Christmas movie.

Professors Beck Strah and Eric Bronson discuss: updates on the georgia prison break, the last prison barge closing, Derek Chauvin shivving, the RIDC Intake Service Center, the Gloria McDonald Women's Facility, the Donald Price Medium Security Facility, overtime in corrections, and Baywatch (2017)

Professors Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss the numerous facilities of RIDC

Professors Eric Bronson and Beck Strah continue discussing contraband in prisons

Professors Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss contraband in prisons

Professors (and former COs) Eric Bronson and Beck Strah discuss prison food, nutraloaf, and food justice.