Sgt. Camel, who opens and closes a beautifully orchestrated medley of prison guard voices, has the demeanor of a stern, but concerned school principal. He describes the care he takes of his uniform because “90% of the job is looking the part.” The beginning of his 27-year career pre-dates the onset of prisons as one of America’s main growth industries. A newly hired 23-year old female guard, fresh from managing fast food joints, says, “It’s just like working in a factory.” An African American male guard describes the shock of looking up three stories, “and all that you see are young black faces. You realize that this is where the fathers are, and the sons are, and the brothers are…”

The details offered by these very expressive voices move smoothly over a sound bed of closing cell doors, bouncing basketballs, training film tape, guard and prisoner exchanges. The ambient sound is perfectly placed to support, but not compete, with the voices. We’re taken from day’s start to its end, and in between, given fragments of experience: a guard whose pepper spray fails her, a cell search, the disgust an officer feels at masturbating inmates, an officer’s paranoia in the real world, the shock of a guard recognizing a new inmate… her son. And the incarcerated feeling inmates own and guards visit. Excellent programming for urban or rural markets, as this growth industry often connects the two. You can’t beat this brand of non-narrated story telling for bringing you close to pure experience.