RT Article
T1 Gamification of Terror: Bearing Witness to Disciplinary Power in Netflix's Unlocked: A Jail Experiment
JF The prison journal
VO 105
IS 4
SP 423
OP 445
A1 Kaczynski, Stephanie
A1 Foster, Megan N.
A2 Foster, Megan N.
LA English
YR 2025
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1933347899
AB This article critically examines Unlocked: A Jail Experiment, a Netflix reality series that documents an unregulated “experiment” at Pulaski County Regional Detention Facility. In the show, the sheriff unlocks cell doors, prompting incarcerated individuals to abruptly transition from 23-hour-per-day lockdown to self-governance. Drawing on Foucault's concept of disciplinary power and Bentham's panopticon, the study argues Unlocked extends carceral surveillance into entertainment, gamifying incarcerated people's lives. Through critical performance ethnography, the analysis highlights how the dangerous new “gamification of terror” genre implicates audiences in co-performative witnessing of carceral violence and raises urgent ethical concerns about media's role in commodifying human suffering.
K1 co-performative witnessing
K1 critical media studies
K1 carceral surveillance
K1 panopticon
K1 disciplinary power
DO 10.1177/00328855251355495