http://www.metafilter.com/tags/escapefromnewyork Posts tagged with 'escapefromnewyork' at MetaFilter. Thu, 07 Sep 2006 21:31:13 -0800 Thu, 07 Sep 2006 21:31:13 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://www.metafilter.com/54606/Escape%2Dfrom%2DLa%2DPaz In the 1981 film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082340/">Escape from New York</a>, the entire island of Manhattan had been converted to a self-sufficient, walled off open air prison, devoid of guards &amp; cells. The fiction of the film bears an alarming similarity to the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/06/americas_inside_a_bolivian_jail/html/1.stm">reality of life in San Pedro Prison</a>, a walled off, police-free convict slum in Bolivia's capital city, La Paz. This fascinating/horrifying experiment in criminal justice is the feature of a <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/stories/s963744.htm">2003 eponymous documentary</a>; some of the details include the story of a drug kingpin, unhappy with his cell, who had a second story constructed to allow more breathing room; or the prison soccer team, sponsored by coca-cola, or even the non-prisoner children of the imprisoned, <a href="http://www.fluxfactory.org/otr/gassawaysanpedro.htm">who roam the streets of San Pedro</a> ("At least this way the parents live with their kids, and the family stays together. Outside, they’d have nowhere to live"). tag:metafilter.com,2006:site.54606 Thu, 07 Sep 2006 21:31:13 -0800 bolivia criminaljustice escapefromnewyork lapaz sanpedroprison snakeplissken jonson