Recently, one of the Dude’s colleagues here at the Commission conveyed a quote from Oscar Aviles, the warden for the Hudson County, NJ jail. Warden Aviles used to believe that his job was limited to keeping the jail safe; regarding rehabilitation and re-entry programs for inmates, he said: “That’s not my problem. This is somebody else’s problem.” He no longer thinks this way. In other institutions, the end of this line of thinking is long overdue. The Dude thinks libraries have the potential to play a large and important role in that (and are often underutilized by administrators).
Those of you who know the Dude are aware that he used to work in a correctional facility library. During the time there, the Dude had an inmate who worked with him for almost the entire 9 years. This particular guy told the Dude about an original series show on Sundance TV (owned by AMC Networks) called
Rectify. Now, don’t get this confused with
Justify. The sound alike, but are two entirely different animals.
Justify is a show on FX starring Timothy Olyphant (who also played Sheriff Seth Bullock in the fantastic HBO series
Deadwood). In
Justify, Olyphant plays Raylan Givens, a no-nonsense U.S. Marshall who returns to his hometown in Kentucky. It’s a sound series, but today’s column is about
Rectify. Anyway, this particular inmate told the Dude that by far
Rectify absolutely nails the feeling that a person has when they are released from prison. The story of
Rectify begins with the main character, Daniel Holden (played by Aden Young) being released from Georgia’s death row after 19 years. He went to death row at the age of 18 for the rape and murder of his 16 year old girlfriend. He confessed to the crime, but there is a lot of doubt about whether or not the confession was coerced. DNA evidence frees him from death row, but it doesn’t necessarily exonerate him. Many in the local community still believe he is guilty, and as the viewer, we really don’t know (at least after two seasons). The first six episodes cover the first six days after his release from prison. Flashbacks tell part of the story of the days during his incarceration. The main thing about
Rectify, the thing that the inmate who worked with me in the library wanted to convey, is that it appropriately captures some of the experiences and struggles of prison life, and also the huge challenges of transition back into society (especially after being locked up for 19 years). The subplot (although as the series develops it becomes more and more relevant) is finding out what actually happened on the night of the murder, and the depth of the involvement of the main character, Daniel Holden. But that really is a subplot, at least in the first two seasons.
You might look at the summary of
Rectify and believe it’s just another ho-hum cliché of whodunnit, but it is really much more than that. Both season 1 and season 2 are available on DVD. Season 3 is scheduled to begin on July 9, 2015. Since the Dude has no cable, he will need to wait for the DVD or the Netflix streams to get caught up with season 3. According to Firstsearch, no Nebraska libraries (that’s zero, nada) have
Rectify on DVD. A number of libraries in neighboring states have it, however, and 289 libraries worldwide. Shaka.
Recently, one of the Dude’s colleagues here at the Commission conveyed a quote from Oscar Aviles, the warden for the Hudson County, NJ jail. Warden Aviles used to believe that his job was limited to keeping the jail safe; regarding rehabilitation and re-entry programs for inmates, he said: “That’s not my problem. This is somebody else’s problem.” He no longer thinks this way. In other institutions, the end of this line of thinking is long overdue. The Dude thinks libraries have the potential to play a large and important role in that (and are often underutilized by administrators).
Those of you who know the Dude are aware that he used to work in a correctional facility library. During the time there, the Dude had an inmate who worked with him for almost the entire 9 years. This particular guy told the Dude about an original series show on Sundance TV (owned by AMC Networks) called Rectify. Now, don’t get this confused with Justify. The sound alike, but are two entirely different animals. Justify is a show on FX starring Timothy Olyphant (who also played Sheriff Seth Bullock in the fantastic HBO series Deadwood). In Justify, Olyphant plays Raylan Givens, a no-nonsense U.S. Marshall who returns to his hometown in Kentucky. It’s a sound series, but today’s column is about Rectify. Anyway, this particular inmate told the Dude that by far Rectify absolutely nails the feeling that a person has when they are released from prison. The story of Rectify begins with the main character, Daniel Holden (played by Aden Young) being released from Georgia’s death row after 19 years. He went to death row at the age of 18 for the rape and murder of his 16 year old girlfriend. He confessed to the crime, but there is a lot of doubt about whether or not the confession was coerced. DNA evidence frees him from death row, but it doesn’t necessarily exonerate him. Many in the local community still believe he is guilty, and as the viewer, we really don’t know (at least after two seasons). The first six episodes cover the first six days after his release from prison. Flashbacks tell part of the story of the days during his incarceration. The main thing about Rectify, the thing that the inmate who worked with me in the library wanted to convey, is that it appropriately captures some of the experiences and struggles of prison life, and also the huge challenges of transition back into society (especially after being locked up for 19 years). The subplot (although as the series develops it becomes more and more relevant) is finding out what actually happened on the night of the murder, and the depth of the involvement of the main character, Daniel Holden. But that really is a subplot, at least in the first two seasons.
You might look at the summary of Rectify and believe it’s just another ho-hum cliché of whodunnit, but it is really much more than that. Both season 1 and season 2 are available on DVD. Season 3 is scheduled to begin on July 9, 2015. Since the Dude has no cable, he will need to wait for the DVD or the Netflix streams to get caught up with season 3. According to Firstsearch, no Nebraska libraries (that’s zero, nada) have Rectify on DVD. A number of libraries in neighboring states have it, however, and 289 libraries worldwide. Shaka. 
