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Crime and Punishment in America is a four-part series, directed by Lynn Novick, that tells the story of criminal justice in America from the colonial era to today, and explores how for more than 250 years, Americans have wrestled with the problem of crime, the purpose of punishment and the meaning of justice. Executive produced by Ken Burns and Sam Pollard. Narrated by Keith David.
To address the problem of crime in their new nation, Americans developed a new system of punishment. Instead of being whipped, shamed, or executed in the public square, which was thought of as ineffective and cruel, people who broke the law would be locked away in prisons and penitentiaries, where they were expected to repent, and return to society reformed.
A sweeping look at the American criminal justice system, from the origins of prisons and policing to our continued fascination with crime, the film traces the contours of our imperfect system and how it influences nearly all parts of our society: the media, economics and politics. Through the voices and testimony of those who have committed crimes, experienced incarceration, enforced the law, or lost loved ones to violence, the series explores the cost of America’s choices and the enduring tension between crime and punishment, vengeance and mercy, justice and redemption.
Premieres Sunday, November 16 at 8/7c.
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Its a business. We lead the world with the most citizens incarcerated with a massive budget directed towards the criminal justice system.
Puritan values to this day in america. Now transformed into a capitalist business, that is private prisons.😮😮😮
When it comes to documentaries about the law in the United States they either tell the harsh truth or they're propoganda.
Ah, yes. Crime is subjective. Calling card of the left.
PBS = more 🤡💩if this nonsense moves so much do this , move a recent release person in with you and your loved ones put your money where your mouth is see how that works for you , oh wait you just want to make comments, it’s someone else problem and neighborhood , so disingenuous typical first world naivety
Always sympathy for the criminal, never the victim…
This has the wrong premier date listed – November 16 is a Monday…11/15?
Don’t we deserve a world where knocking on the wrong door,nor fetching a ball from a neighbors yard, doesn’t get you shot? No, we don’t need a world about mercy. Mercy is after-the-fact.
Capital punishment was designed for those without capital.
The more poor people there are, the more crime you have. So, if you want less crime have more redistribution of wealth.
Everyone thinks of themselves as egalitarians until it's time to readmit felons back into society.
As usual the typical framing of as crime as something poor people do thus poor people are the problem. Meanwhile we turn a blind eye to the crimes of the privileged – which we just call business.
The Puritans left us with that punishment factor, and it has carried down through our culture through the last 250+ years. We need to focus on rehabilitating people and eliminating poverty. It can and must be done.
🙏🤍🕊🙏♥️
This is going to become a documentary that everyone will be watching. : )
We deserve a country and a justice system not governed by greed …. for profit prisons are diabolical
And now we have a criminal in the White House who escapes punishment with wealth.
We have a revolving door system in New Mexico, repeat criminals rarely do time even for heinous acts!
When does this air??
It’s easy to talk about mass arrest and incarceration, but that framing hides a much bigger reality: the US rarely catches criminals to begin with.
For every 1,000 serious felonies committed in America, only around 20 to 30 people ever see the inside of a prison cell. Nearly half of all serious crimes are never reported to law enforcement. When they are, police clear only about 35–50% of violent crimes and a dismal 12–15% of property crimes. The vast majority of offenders don't "beat the system" in a courtroom—the system simply never identifies or catches them in the first place.
Punishment only functions as a deterrent if an individual actually expects it to happen. When 97% to 98% of serious felonies carry no punishment, the rational calculation flips: the payoff of the crime is immediate and tangible, while legal punishment remains an improbable gamble.
Yesssss.
Too much crime, not enough punishment.
MONEY. ITS ALL ABOUT MONEY. NOTHING ELSE. CORRUPT JUDGES, LAWYERS, PUBLIC DEFENDERS, COPS, CLERKS, THEY ARE ALL FOR SALE. NO MORAL FIBER. NO INTEGRITY.
The reason for a lot of crime in the 1980s, was the Reagan Administration, massive Tax Cuts for the ultra-wealthy and declaring War on the Poor/Austerity Policies, Margaret Thatcher copied his Policies in the UK and surprise, surprise the Crime Rate went up in both Country's because of POVERTY. Poverty throughout History has been the number one driver of Crime, thanks to racism and the fact that White Conservatives do not want Black and Brown Communities to thrive, they have for the larger part of the last 150 years been kept in poverty and oppressed by deliberate Policies, which have also impacted White Communities by default, and thanks to present Fascist regime, Crime Rates are going to increase as the American people sink deeper into poverty, sickness and despair. Some people are unaware that Leased Labour Laws are still on the books, Arizona Penitentiaries are using Leased Labour to harvest crops for Taylor Farms, the same Taylor Farms that are the source of the 💩 Lettuce, which has led to explosive diarrhea across multiple States, the FDA has been cut to the bone and the American people are going to get sick because of it.
On a side note, an entire Community in Pennsylvania was Bombed by Law Enforcement in 1984, check out the Vice TV Documentary on the event.
I hope they discuss the two tier system in depth
America's current legal system is just history repeating itself.