The summer issue of Daedalus is titled “On Mass Incarceration“. Loic Wacquant offers me answers, so of course I gravitated to his contribution, “Class, Race and Hyperincarceration in Revanchist America”. His essay concludes:
Revanchism as public policy toward the disposessed has thrust the country into a historical cul-de-sac, as the double coupling of hyperghettoization and hyperincarceration, on the one hand, and workfare and prisonfare, on the other damages both society and the state…
…policies aimed at shrinking the carceral state must effectively reverse revanchism. they must go well beyond criminal justice reform to encompass the gamut of government programs.
It was with this in mind that I picked up a movie called Revanche.
Revanche is about an ex-offender trying to get a hold of life. He works in a brothel in Vienna and dates a co-worker. They want to get out. There is a gun, a suburban housewife, a lot of wood chopping and self loathing.
Reversing revanchism can start with massively funding prisoner re-entry programs so that ex-offenders don’t get stuck working in brothels. We need to make it acceptable for a baby crazy suburban 30 something to care about a ex-con from the inner city.
Revanche is not just a political statement. It also tells the story of a man letting go of his destructive habits and growing up. This movie is sublime.
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