As far as prison television shows go, Oz is certainly one of the most dramatic and dark. It features sexual assault, violence, corruption, abuse of power and intensely dramatic scenes of insanity and random killings.
Shows like these can paint prison life in a much darker light than it exists in reality. It seems as though almost every episode of Oz featured a new death of a character, often in a brutal way, huge outbursts of violence, and horrid instances of sexual assault.
On Correctional Medical Care’s website, we’ve written about the prevalence of violence in prison. In short, prisons across the United States do indeed have issues with spouts of seemingly random violent attacks. There are stabbings, coordinated group attacks and gang violence, all occurring almost universally in maximum security prisons across the nation.
But shows like Oz do, still, take liberties with the truth when it comes to depicting prison on television. The levels of violence are not nearly at the level that Oz portrayed during its run. As I stated above, Oz featured regular stabbings, beatings, sexual assaults and corruption. In reality, none of these are regular occurrences.
According to a member of PrisonTalk.com who spent time in a maximum security facility, the actions seen in Oz are, for the most part, overblown.
“Oz is glamorized. It is also over the top. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of the things happen in prison. Not as often as in the show. It is a lot more ‘boring’ than the show actually.”
Most of the realism from shows like Oz actually come from the positive aspects of prison–the programming and therapeutic classes that are offered to many prisoners including pet therapy, GED classes (and sometimes higher education) and even theatre groups. All of these exist inside of prisons to help inmates cope with their stay in prison.
While incarceration will more than likely not be an enjoyable experience for an inmate, watching TV shows like Oz can paint an inaccurate–and terrifying–picture of what prison life is really like. Real prisons do have violence, do have planned assaults, and do have their own problems; prison life isn’t designed to be easygoing and carefree, but depicting life as an inmate as plagued with constant random beatings and sexual assaults is a far cry from reality.