There's real quality in them thar blogs

Someone with incredible taste in blogs tipped me off to Seraphic Secret, a personal blog written by a Hollywood screenwriter who is also an Orthodox Jew and conservative. He's written a multipart series about time he spent in a women's prison researching this movie. (The most recent story is at the top of the blog. You have to scroll down for the earier ones.) As is to be expected, the writing is incredibly good quality, and the stories he tells about the prisoners are amazing. Hollywood has a love affair with the idea of the poor shlub who makes a mistake, or of the person who is scared straight, or of the redeemed killer. Avrech reminds us, however, that many of the women are simply lost lives. That is, whatever they might have been is irrelevant, because what they are (whether because of nature or nuture) is profoundly damaged and dangerous. Talking to Technorati: Prisons, Prisoners, Women prisoners