A skillfully-done feature about a retiring juvenile justice official--himself a one-time "delinquent." Rebecca Sheir has put evident energy into making the most of a simple assignment: profile Gary Caddell using just sit-down interviews with him and with a former client from his time as a probation officer. The piece is assembled with quick pacing and back-and-forthing between the narrator and the interviewees. It's marred a bit by occasionally cliche'd writing. The former delinquent girl had "fallen in with a bad crowd" that committed assault and other "extracurriculars." The piece opens with the inevitable slam of the prison door, but in what I suspect is a sly acknowledgment of that sonic cliche, Sheir lets us hear her asking Caddell to "do that again." And he does.
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John Biewen
Posted on April 01, 2007 at 10:21 AM | Permalink
Review of Behind the Slamming Door
A skillfully-done feature about a retiring juvenile justice official--himself a one-time "delinquent." Rebecca Sheir has put evident energy into making the most of a simple assignment: profile Gary Caddell using just sit-down interviews with him and with a former client from his time as a probation officer. The piece is assembled with quick pacing and back-and-forthing between the narrator and the interviewees. It's marred a bit by occasionally cliche'd writing. The former delinquent girl had "fallen in with a bad crowd" that committed assault and other "extracurriculars." The piece opens with the inevitable slam of the prison door, but in what I suspect is a sly acknowledgment of that sonic cliche, Sheir lets us hear her asking Caddell to "do that again." And he does.