“Civil Brand” vs. The Prison Industrial Complex
Throughout the United States for many years, conversations regarding the prison system such as police brutality, prison reform and racial inequality have been growing louder each time. From a variety of reports stating overcrowded facilities, forced labor work and abuse in prisons which is were signs of mass incarceration and a pipeline which some compare it to modern day slavery. As conversation grew and headlines made its way to the media exposing corruption, forced labor and the inhumane treatment of the inmates. In Neema Barnette’s 2002 film, Civil Brand, doesn’t feel like a story from the past but as a reflection of the current reality the country’s facing. The portrayal of Black women being exploited for profit by a broken and corrupt prison system.
In order to truly see change, sometimes that progress does lead to sacrifice. In the film Civil Brand (2002) directed by Neema Barnette, Black women imprisoned at Whitehead Correctional Institute face a brutal prison system that uses abuse of power and exploitation to control all their female prisoners. A group of women behind bars give up their freedom and their lives to expose the same corrupted system that profits from their struggles. The story follows Frances Shepard, a new inmate who forms a bond with other female prisoners such as Wet, Lil Momma and Nikki. The group wants to expose the exploitation and abuse that the prisoners are facing and reach out to part time guard Micheal for help, eventually taking the power into their own hands. The movie follows Black female prisoners as being victims of a broken prison system and facing systematic oppression then slowly showcasing the woman overcoming that same oppression by fighting back and challenging the system. Civil Brand represents Black women in prison as exploited workers in a modern day slavery system. This advances the progress of the Black community by exposing the prison industrial complex and their abuse; however, this could also hinder the progress by centering the film around Black trauma.
Barnette’s directional choice of centering the entire plot of the film of the female prisoners being exploited for profit and abused showcases her desire to expose the prison industrial complex system and prison labor. Barnette was able to use realism and commentary to show the audience how prisoners, specifically Black women, are treated and used for their bodies by their prison guards or wardens. The movie did receive a mixed amount of reactions with some positive comments stating the realistic elements of potential prison life with some people criticizing the movie for being another Black exploitation film with bad writing. An interesting thing Barnette did with this film would be her usage of metaphors and symbolism throughout the film's entirety. When Shepard first arrived at Whitehead Correctional Institute, one of the first things said to her was “Welcome to the plantation sister Frances.” Whitehead Correctional Institute is viewed as a plantation while the prisoners, which were made up of majority Black women, were looked at as slaves. The women would work on products in a room similar to a sweatshop and receive little to no pay while the prison sells those same products to outside customers to gain profit.
Barnette’s script supports the overall narrative by using character development and dialogue to showcase how each woman was shaped by the prison system. The main characters express their thoughts and feelings for wanting to expose the prison while acknowledging the consequences that may occur when standing up against the prison. The story showed regular women that were formed into revolutionaries due to their environment and conditions. The dialogue and dynamics between the characters are blunt, realistic, emotional and direct showing how surviving prison changed them in a variety of ways and how the prisoners rely on one another for support. Using this direction for the movie strengthens the development of the narrative because the women’s actions towards the end of the film with the final fight scene between the guards and main characters correlates with how they’re portrayed throughout the film.
The symbolism of comparing the modern day prison system to economic slavery and watching the character dynamics between the prisoners and guards share similar characteristics between a slave and their owner. The main antagonist who practiced using abuse against the prisoners was Captain Dease who the prisoners claimed ran the prison. Dease would use physical, mental and emotional abuse on the prisoners to maintain the power dynamic between prisoner and guard which alludes to the way white male slave owners used to treat their slaves. For example, Captain Dease would use sexual abuse on Aisha (another inmate) in order to get information about other prisoners. Hits her to keep her “in line” in order to maintain the power dynamic. He would also mentally abuse Frances and Nikki when putting them into the hole for trying to show the prisoners petitions for better working conditions and basic human rights to the important men visiting the prison.
The cinematography of the film also played a role in how the viewers view the dynamics at the prison. Barnette often used close up shots wanting to show the emotional strain the inmates were going through and slowly losing themselves at the hands of the prison and guards. Barnette usually had the camera looking up at Captain Dease forcing the audience to look up at him as well making him appear bigger and threatening to maintain the superiority complex and authority Dease had over the inmates. The coloring of the film is mostly dull, using browns and grays to wash out the scene to represent the bleakness and loss of individuality of the prison life. This strengthens the earlier comparisons the inmates made between Whitehead and a modern day plantation.
Civil Brand was produced in the early 2000s when prisons in the United States struggled with mass incarceration. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics about 30,000 more people were put into state prisons which had those facilities 1% - 17% over capacity. In comparison, federal prisons were worse with being 33% over capacity, the data was broken up into different categories such as offense, gender, race, and Hispanic origin. Black men and women were a part of the majority of almost each category. In a 2017 essay written by Janaé Bonsu, titled “A Strike Against the New Jim Crow,” complements Civil Brand’s critique regarding prison labor. Bonsu stated how prisoners were treated as exploited workers receiving little to no pay with working jobs such as cooking, janitorial/clerical, laundry and agriculture that keeps the prison up and running. Bonsu’s essay relates back to the women of Whitehead Correctional Institute being forced to participate in labor work in unsafe conditions with no pay. In both the film and the real, prisoners took a stand against their facilities in protest for better treatment and conditions with petitions signed by the prisoners and hunger strikes. In the publication Bonsu does claim that the modern day prison system does show similarities to slavery and the Jim Crow system based on their treatments of Black inmates. Her essay supports Barnette’s metaphors of prisons being plantations and exposing the foundation of economic slavery that’s still getting practiced in prisons in the United States.
The editing of the film highlighted both the brutality and dullness of the women’s daily routines. The labor scenes were repetitive with the scenes being cut sharply and nonstop to show representation of factory work and how the inmates were used as tools instead of humans. In contrast, there are scenes in the film that were edited very fast paced creating a sense of urgency and fear within that moment. The shifts between scenes and pacing helps the audience feel the emotional weight of the inmates of Whitehead Correctional. The editing connected each part of the story that reflected the continuous cycle of oppression and desperation which inevitability led to a rebellion.
The continuous symbolism was shown throughout the film with the literal civil branding for prisoners. When someone enters a prison they’re given a number and will only be viewed as that number. This refers back to the prisoners being dehumanized due to them committing crimes and officers not viewing the prisoners as humans. Captain Dease is a prime example of this as stated before with his tendencies of emotionally, physically and mentally abusing the inmates on a regular basis. The film exposed the harsh realities and conditions of prison environments, abusive guards and power hungry wardens that showcase how prison systems prioritize profit over justice.
Becky Pettit and Carmen Gutierrez did research in 2018 regarding mass incarceration and the connection to racial inequality. Based on the data from the research, it shows clear racial and economic inequality between Latino, Black and white men. The research shows in 2015, 9.1% of Black men and 3.9% of Latino men among the ages of 20-34 are more likely to be incarcerated on a given day in comparison to white men being only 1.6% of the population. Pettit and Gutierrez stated that the research showed a greater risk for Black men born in the late 1970s who didn’t receive a high school diploma faced at least one year of imprisonment by their 30s which increased by over 60%. These statistics do show the systematic biases and racial hierarchies prisons have towards all their inmates, more specifically the Black community.
This could potentially be a result from the “tough on crime” era that lasted from the 1970s up until the 1990s which led to more mass incarceration due to stricter government policies soon turned law that provided longer prison sentences for a specific demographic of people such as repeat offenders which intertwined with President Richard Nixon’s “war on drugs” speeches and policies.
With society having preconceptions of how Black Americans behave and presents themselves with centuries of racial discrimination from slavery to segregation, the representation of Black people in the media has been full of stereotypes, especially within Hollywood. Some of the common roles that Black people have been portrayed as are being criminals, gang members, “the angry Black women,” absent fathers, street smart and many more. Some of those convinced ideologies that a variety of demographics of Americans, specifically white Americans, have towards Black people continue as of this day. This mindset shows in a non-Black person in response when a Black person in the public eye has done anything mildly or remotely wrong. In Hollywood, casting directors would purposely limit roles for Black actors and portray their Black character in a TV show or movie as the Black best friend, comedic relief, “white washed,” athletic/musician (particularly rappers), thugs etc.
With all of the limitations Black actors, producers, screenwriters and filmmakers were facing at the hands of white Hollywood, Black people decided to create their own networks to have Black stories be portrayed accurately in TV shows, movies and short films to resonate well with Black audiences. According to the article “The History of Black Filmmakers who Changed Hollywood,” filmmakers such as Oscar Micheaux, Spike Lee, Sidney Poitier, Melvin Van Peebles and Julie Dash are named as Black filmmakers that paved the way for the majority of Black stories to be presented without mockery. These filmmakers and other Black filmmakers have challenged the racial discrimination and challenges Black workers had when trying to work in an industry that silences Black voices which can also be used as activism pieces. Movies such as Civil Brand have set up a foundation of Black movies exposing how American society has exploited Black Americans. Civil Brand was produced by Mandalay Entertainment and was first shown at the American Black Film Festival in 2002 before making its limited theater debut in 2003 by Lions Gate Films. Civil Brand purposely stayed away from the “angry Black women” stereotype trope and explained the reason for the women's anger as the story progressed instead of shadowing her pain or not acknowledging her story.
Civil Brand helped advance the Black community by showcasing awareness about the exploitation of Black inmates within the prison system. There have been many movements and campaigns that are in support of the inmates having human rights and addressed the exploitation of inmates and the prison industrial complex. However, there’s a possibility it did hinder the progress of the Black community due to the movie centering its plot around Black struggle along with heavy amounts of violence and government corruption. The main important part from the film is how it brought up the discrimination Black people face within the prison system. The movie challenges the viewers to see America’s systematic and racist capitalism.
Neema Barnette used her skills in screen writing and directing to show the struggles that Frances Shepard and the other female prisoners went through to transform their pain into unity to protect one another. One thing that the movie does well is the symbolism of historical knowledge and showing how America still profits off of the struggle of Black Americans, even though slavery was abolished 157 years ago and segregation ended 61 years ago that doesn’t change the consumer mindset the country and political leaders continue to have. At the end of the movie Frances, Wet, Lil Mama and Nikki all unfortunately lost their lives trying to expose the corruption Whitehead practices, they fought for what they believed in and it led to the loss of their lives. This is a reoccurring cycle that happens to advocates within the Black community when trying to fight for not only their personal human rights but also for the rights of their community who were also affected by discrimination.
Civil Brand was able to allude to past traumas the Black community has faced with slavery and connect it with the current day discrimination Black people face, the only difference is the place where the discrimination and exploitation is happening.
Sources:
Pettit, B., & Gutierrez, C. (2018). Mass Incarceration and Racial Inequality. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 77(3-4), 1153–1182. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12241
Prisoners in 2002. (n.d.). Bureau of Justice Statistics. https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/prisoners-2002
Harrison, P., Beck, A., & Bjs. (n.d.). https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/p02.pdf
A Strike Against the New Jim Crow. (n.d.). Dissent Magazine. https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/prison-strike-mass-incarceration-labor-reparations/
tshiral. (2022, October 12). Black Stereotypes and Representation in TV. Mediated Pop. https://mediatedpop.wordpress.com/2022/10/12/black-stereotypes-and-representation-in-tv/
The Los Angeles Film School. (2022, February 2). The History of Black Filmmakers Who Changed Hollywood. The Los Angeles Film School. https://www.lafilm.edu/blog/the-history-of-black-filmmakers-who-changed-hollywood/
Civil Brand | Reviews. (2022). Rotten Tomatoes. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/civil_brand/reviews
