The Press Herald in Maine ran an article about ‘Solitary Nation’ where writer David Hench describes the documentary as ‘offering an unprecedented look behind the curtain to see how the worst of the worst behave in one of society’s most challenging environments….’ The inmates profiled in the film are said to be ‘at the center of an ongoing debate in prisons across the country about the effect of solitary confinement on prisoners’ mental health…. “It seemed to me there was very little hard evidence for that debate to feed off,” Dan Edge, the program’s director, said in an interview over the weekend. “The public was generally not aware of what it’s like in those isolation units.”’

An article in The Atlantic calls ‘Solitary Nation’ “a valuable addition to the growing body of work that slowly is pushing America away from this form of confinement.” It goes on to say, “It’s not just the immorality of the solitary confinement that shines through in this worthwhile film. It’s the futility of it. Frustration and despair hang over the characters the way that fetid, stagnant air hangs in the tiny, soulless cells that host the 80,000 or so men and women living and dying today in solitary confinement in America. Both captive and captor seem to understand, as they interact amid the blood and the shit and the anguish, that its use is not just inhumane but utterly self-defeating.”

The New York Times ran an article about ‘Solitary Nation’, calling it “about as hopeless an hour of television as you can imagine, which is exactly the reason to watch it.”

The Huffington Post ran an article on April 21st about Frontline’s upcoming documentary “Solitary Nation.”

“I think one of the misconceptions about solitary confinement is that it’s for the worst of the worst, that you’re going to walk into one of these units and just find psychopaths,” director Dan Edge is quoted to say in the article. “It’s really not like that at all. The unit we were filming on has an average of about 40 inmates, and on a given day, maybe one or two of them fit into the category I just mentioned. A lot of them are very young — 18, 19, 20 years old. They’re in prison for fairly minor stuff, they’re on short sentences, and they’re in solitary confinement because for one reason or another they’re not doing well in general population. They might be disruptive, they might need protection themselves from other inmates. It’s often the most vulnerable inmates, and it’s often inmates who are on the brink of mental illness.”

Congratulations to Poor Kids‘ director Jezza Neumann! This week he was nominated in the Photography category of the Royal Television Society Awards.  The ceremony is held each November in Central London — we wish Jezza good luck!

Jezza was also nominated this year for the Rory Peck Awards for his work on Kashmir’s Torture Trail, produced in 2012 for Channel 4 Dispatches in the UK.

Poor Kids just had a very big week…. and Jezza Neumann and Lauren Mucciolo were there to celebrate.

On September 26th it took home the 2013 RFK Award in the Domestic Television category.

On October 1st, a few days later, Jezza and Lauren made their way to the 2013 News & Documentary Awards to be honored with a nomination in the Continuing Coverage of a News Story category.

Hofstra University is hosting an exciting conference called Covering Suburban Poverty on September 26-27, 2013, designed to offer journalists an opportunity to exchange ideas on best practices and share resources and tools that will better equip them to produce journalism about poverty in suburban communities. Speakers include academic and government experts, and reporters who have covered groundbreaking stories about poverty. RGP’s Lauren Mucciolo has been invited to present a program on Children and Poverty with Melanie Hartzog of the Children’s Defense Fund on the 27th at 10:15am. It should be an interesting conversation about bringing stories about children and families living in poverty to the greater public!

Poor Kids is going to Texas!

The Capital Area Food Bank of Texas is hosting a screening and panel discussion of Poor Kids on September 18th at the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center in Austin, TX. The film presentation will be followed by a conversation between panelists Kathy Green, Capital Area Food Bank of Texas; Lauren Dimitry, Texans Care for Children; and moderator Monica Williams, Giving City Magazine. The program starts at 6:30pm and will take place in the Boyd Vance Theater. It is a free presentation and open to the public!

We are so excited to announce that Poor Kids received a nomination for the News & Documentary Emmy Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The Award Ceremony will be held on Tuesday, October 1st at Lincoln Center. ‘Poor Kids’ was nominated in the category Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story – Long Form with three other excellent films (two of which are from Frontline). The Frontline series was honored with 18 nominations in total, and PBS with 45.

Congratulations to Jezza Neumann, True Vision Productions and Frontline — but especially a big ups to Brittany, Roger, Johnny, Jasmine, Jaylan, Joshua, Tyler and Kaylie, and the rest of their families.