Club fed? White-collar incarceration in the american imagination

Abstract

This chapter investigates popular media representations of the prison experience for white-collar offenders in the United States. Through content analysis of narratives presented in mainstream news outlets, television programs, and movies, this chapter shows how broader, systemic class and racial inequalities are contested and illuminated through the tropes of prison life for incarcerated white-collar offenders. In particular, the “Club Fed” image of cushy treatment and light punishment for crimes of the elites is probed. The author separates fact from fiction about these institutions and questions the political implications of demands for harsher treatment of white-collar offenders.