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There are secrets that are kept from the public and then there are "public secrets" - secrets that the public chooses to keep safe from itself, like "don't ask, don't tell." The injustices of the war on drugs, the criminal justice system, and the Prison Industrial Complex are "public secrets." The trick to the public secret is in knowing what not to know. This is the most powerful form of social knowledge. When faced with massive social problems such as racism, poverty, addiction, abuse, it is easy to slip into denial. This Is the Ideological work that the prison creates. It allows us to avoid the ethical by relying on the juridical.
17 years ago, on a visiting day, I walked through a metal detector and Into the Central California Womens' Facility, the largest women's prison In the United States. It changed my life. The stories I heard Inside challenged my most basic perceptions - of justice, of freedom and of responsibility. So I returned, again and again. I entered the prison as a "legal advocate" with a non-profit, human rights organization, called Justice Now.
The visits required adherence to Kafkaesque regulations and acceptance of Invasive search and surveillance procedures. I was registered for each visit In advance and searched on entry. But this was a relatively small Inconvenience - After meeting with me, the women I Interviewed were subject to strip search and visual body cavity searches.
Most of the women I Interviewed over a period of 7 years were, highly politicized, peer organizers who were seriously committed to speaking out against Injustice. For these women our conversations were acts of ethical and political testimony. Afterwards, It was my responsibility to create a context In which this testimony could be heard.
100 square miles - and the interface sets the viewer down within the boundaries of this territory - allowing her to find her own way - to navigate a difficult terrain, to become immersed in it, and, thus, to...