Summary: The Relevance Of Felon

Sierra McGraw

CRJS 253

Bowman

Extra Credit Assignment

30 November 2015

The Relevance of Felon (the 2008 Film) on the Class Theme Prisons Felon is a film that was released in 2008 about a man named Wade Porter who is sent to prison after he hits a man who was burglarizing his house, with a baseball bat, and unintentionally kills him. Wade then ends up with a sentence of three years in state prison for involuntary manslaughter. While on the bus to Corcoran State Prison, the leader of the Aryan brotherhood in the movie stabs and murders a man, and the proceeds to hand the knife to a younger member of the Aryan Brotherhood named Snowman, and Snowman places the knife under Wade’s seat. When Wade is asked who hid the knife under his seat, he won’t

In the Deprivation Theory, inmate subcultures develop in response to the deprivations of prison life. Then there is the Importation Theory where inmate subcultures are brought into prisons from the outside world. These theories are very true and visible in the movie because the prison is split up by race, which is very common for male inmates in prisons. There are basically gangs formed based on race. John Smith, who shares a cell with Wade Porter, says, “It’s not about gangs, it’s about race.” That statement is true to how prisons are in real life. In the movie, there is the Aryan Brotherhood, who basically runs the show. Most of the white men are in this gang, except for some who are in smaller gangs below them. Wade Porter finds himself joining the Aryan Brotherhood due to the need for protection. Next are the Hispanics who are split into two gangs, the northerners and the southerners who have a huge rivalry. Then there is the blacks who are joined by the Asians and the pacific islanders. This movie is a great representation of how prisons are split up by race. The gangs in the movie are also show how there is social control in prison because the gangs are split up into

Inmates will rat each other out as soon as the guards offer them something in return. After Snowball ended up getting slashed across the face in a fight where the Aryan Brotherhood did not have his back, he told on Wade and the Aryan Brotherhood leader for the murder on the bus, as soon as he was released from the infirmary. If inmates they don’t always have each other’s backs normally, they typically do when it comes to rioting against prison staff. When they feel as though they are not being treated fairly, they will gang up against staff. Sometimes riots are nonviolent where inmates will go on strike, however, there are also riots that can be particularly violent. In the scene of the movie where Jackson is expecting Wade to kill the inmate who jumped him toward the beginning of the movie, Wade refuses to do it. Then Jackson decides to point his gun at Wade to shoot him, but as he is pointing his gun at Wade, the other inmates begin to stand in front of Wade to protect him. The inmates were tired of Jackson controlling them and egging on the fights. Jackson then comes down from the upper level of the courtyard and is attacked by John Smith, who kills him by slashing his