Shawshank

In class this past week we watched the movie Shawshank Redemption. In my opinion it was an outstanding movie and somewhat realistic as to my knowledge. The movie covers the story of a man who may or may not have committed the murder of his ex wife and her lover. It is not clear whether or not he committed the murders because there is an inmate who says that he knows a man who says he committed the crime. Nevertheless, the main character ends up on a bus on his way to prison. When he arrives he goes through the basic procedure of washing and getting acquainted with the prison life. While he is stuck in prison he meets a man named Red. Red is a man who “knows how to get things” as he puts it. Red gets Andy, the main character, a small rock hammer that he uses to craft chess pieces and other rock figurines. Some 20 years later Andy disappears from his cell in the middle of the night. It turns out that he used the rock hammer to escape. The entire length of the movie Andy had been digging his way out of prison with a 3 inch tool. There are two ideas that caught my attention in this movie. The first is wrongful conviction and the second is people escaping from prison. I don’t believe that it is easy to escape from prison, but I know that it has happened before. For example, a few men escaped from Alcatraz, the highest security prison for the most dangerous criminals in the country at one time. Nobody knows what happened to the men after the escaped the prison. Some say they died in the waters surrounding the island that housed the prison, but others say that they made it ashore and went into hiding for the rest of their lives. Needless to say, people escaping from prison is not the biggest issue on our plate, it is most likely not even on the menu for most people. A much larger issue in the world is wrongful conviction. Just recently a few people have been released from being in prison for decades for crimes they did not commit. I feel the justice system is seriously lacking currently. I have heard of too many innocent people being released from prison and too many questionable cases where the defendant is sent to prison. I thought that our country was supposed to have such a good justice system where people are innocent until proven guilty. How can this be true if the innocent are actually being proven guilty? I think that Shawshank Redemption highlights the issue that this country is too eager to have someone guilty of a crime rather than find the actual culprit. If there was a law that said that if there is any doubt of a person being guilty, then the trial is suspended until they can find more evidence to prove the defendant guilty, we would not have so many wrongful convictions. I don’t think that it is that hard to make sure that you catch the right guy.