Exploring Society through "Public Secrets"
As an abolitionist project, Public Secrets engages the users with a personal connection and then expands it to create commentary and change within the prison industrial complex. To give the users a perspective, Daniels calls into question what the government and society are doing by locking away these people. Through the evident lack of correctional programs within the prison, Daniels compares the prison to a penal colony which is where the general population exiles people to a remote or isolated location in colonial times. This comparison is made because there is no evidence of working towards reintegrating the inmates into the community. Additionally, she pushes toward humanizing those incarcerated. Many of the audio recordings exemplify that people within the system are put away for petty theft and minor crimes which many males would never see a day in prison for. A majority if not all of the inmates feel dehumanized and painted as monsters to society by the government. Daniels seeks to dispel popular misconceptions about prisons and those within them (Vectors Journal Editorial Staff). Aside from the heart wrenching testimonials of mistreatment, some of the incarcerated women ask for the purpose of these types of penal colonies.
The lives that are ruined stretch far beyond the barbed wire fence. The work calls into question how much safer society and the world is with the overwhelming amounts of people detained each year as opposed to a society with correctional facilities that have a constant flow of reintegration into the community. At the conclusion of the piece, users are able to click a hyperlink to another part of the project where they are able to learn more information on how they can help further this movement through reading about tactics to get in touch with the local government and spread the word, reading mission statements, and clicking the provided links to other websites promoting the movement. This enrichment of knowledge allows users to see what their personal impact could be as well as what the world is able ot do if everybody works together. The work of electronic literature allows users to explore how the prison industrial complex influences more than those incarcerated, but that it affects themselves and society as a whole, too.
To return to the introduction of Public Secrets and continue reading The Exploration of Electronic Literature click here.
