I recently watched an extremely engaging TED Talk presentation called “The secret US prisons you’ve never heard of before” by Will Potter. He presented the story of his investigation of CMU’s (Communication Management Units), which are secret areas within federal prisons that house what the government calls 2nd tier terrorists. Potter outlines the secretive nature of the units, and the mistreatment of the inmates that are housed there. He goes on to argue that the government goes to great lengths to keep these units in secret, and that many of the people imprisoned there are there because of race, religion, and freedom of speech.
The use of visuals in the presentation was scarce, but very effective. There were pictures of government documents that showed redaction and outlines that added to the mysterious and intriguing nature of the subject matter. Images of some of the prisoners were extremely moving, as were the images from inside the CMU’s. Potter’s visual description of being inside a CMU, however, may have been the most compelling image.
The delivery of the presentation was slow paced, and a perfect match to the somber story. There were one or two instances in which Potter injected bits of humor to break the tension, and they were very well timed. From the general overview of the CMU’s in the beginning, to the stories he told of specific inmates’ circumstances, the story was very well done. It was so moving that the question had to be asked, how can this possibly be happening?
