- Playing
- Life on the Outside
- From
- Long Haul Productions
The documentary is a follow-up to "A Danger to Self or Others," which profiles the mental health division at Chicago's Cook County Jail. "Life on the Outside" tells the story of Colbert, beginning with his release from Chicago's Cook County Jail, and Richard, who's been arrested 137 times but who's managed to stay out of jail for more than one year.
Winner: Public Radio News Directors' Award; National Federation of Community Broadcasters' Golden Reel Award
First broadcast on All Things Considered in 2000.
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Piece Description
The documentary is a follow-up to "A Danger to Self or Others," which profiles the mental health division at Chicago's Cook County Jail. "Life on the Outside" tells the story of Colbert, beginning with his release from Chicago's Cook County Jail, and Richard, who's been arrested 137 times but who's managed to stay out of jail for more than one year. Winner: Public Radio News Directors' Award; National Federation of Community Broadcasters' Golden Reel Award First broadcast on All Things Considered in 2000.
Broadcast History
First broadcast on All Things Considered in 2000.
Transcript
HOST INTRO:
Jails and prisons are fast becoming America’s largest psychiatric hospitals. Chicago’s Cook Country Jail, for example, is Illinois’ biggest mental health facility treating a thousand men and women on an average day. Producer Dan Collison has the story of a man who has been in and out of the Jail and who is trying to break the cycle of crime and incarceration—To live life on the outside.
Tape
Colbert and Richard's story was produced by Dan Collison and edited by Gary Covino for Long Haul Productions in association with Chicago Public Radio.
Read the full transcript
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Marjorie Van Halteren
Posted on December 20, 2005 at 02:26 AM | Permalink
Review of Life on the Outside
Pristine, professional production - traditional "trac-and ac" NPR style news reporting at its best. The reporter captures lovely details, from the succinct expression of the homeless man's appreciation of life on the upside - "beautiful. Clean clothes, a place to sleep. Lately I've just been so glad to be alive," to the downside, "I don't know. I don't...know. Around" when asked where he's been. I am as fascinated by the careworkers on the job as I am by the subjects themselves - and being sinside their experience takes us - well (I'll speak for myself) - ME to a basic place where I bottom line place I feel profoundly called to over and over.