Survivors Guide To Prison

I never do reviews..but ..

After watching Wendy Williams interview with David Arquette.. And having experience working in the prison systemi thought I would check this out.... given the cast, many whom I like and respect ,I found this to be very good and honest for the most part. A large part of the American Criminal justice system , particularly corrections are employed by average people who are ethical and not corrupt and who are just trying to make an honest livings to support their families who really do put themselves on the line to protect the public. But it is a large money making enterprise.. But a lot of these officers come face to face with people that you would not ever want to meet .or have around your family .. They should be commended for that !! Most American inmates also live bette than many people living in third world countries .. ! Unfortunately no system is perfect and hence this documentary does touch the surface and shows some excellent examples this other unfortunate side, as well as provide good examples of cautionary tales of those newly incarcerated that have no clue about the system. The story of the wrongly convicted gentlemen were very heartbreaking..but it is a stone cold reality . I noticed that most of the interviews of the inmates were done with Caucasian inmates who were released because I'm quite sure it would be difficult for them to find any inmates who would be filmed in California unless their identity is hidden, as the unwritten rules of gang politics prohibit being filmed normally. Everyone that participated on camera seemed to have been very knowledgeable about what they were speaking about , but I'm sorry the lady at the desk who was over the educational system really seemed a bit clueless .?.and seemed a bit out of place for such an excellent documentary ..I I don't want to be offensive .. as I'm not quite sure what unicorn filled cup of sunshine she was drinking during this interview, but at the end of each murder , you still have a victim. To say that most murders are" situational " shows a very diminished understanding an insensitivity of the impact that murder has on its victims and those left behind, as well as a lack of basic fundamental knowledge of the type of brutality that occurs everyday among inmates while incarcerated. I would think as the head of the educational prison program, she should have had a more educated insight about what goes on.. clearly she has no clue and it might have been better to edit her part out. But then again perhaps they left her part in just for that very reason.

Except for that part ..great overall. Would have like to see perhaps a part II or III ..

It's very dreamy without being realistic. It's just as much a political propaganda film as it is a informative documentary

I took a lot out of this documentary in terms of seeing things from a different perspective. It's Heart breaking and horrifying and I do agree that there should be other, more civilized means of rehabilitating people, I also have to point out that there really are EVIL people out there. I'm not referring to the guys who killed someone in a moment of rage, I'm referring to serial rapists, serial murderers, serial child predators. These people cannot simply walk the streets and they certainly don't deserve any "sugar coated rehabilitation". These people are rotten and deserve as much pain and suffering as they inflicted upon their victims. I do not believe prisons should be done away with altogether but merely reserved for the true evil members of society. The difficulty comes in in drawing the distinction though. It's a complicated and very distorted mess.

I was blown away by this documentary and disgusted with our court system. Very well put together. I think this is something everyone in America needs to watch. Get me the hell outta here!

.. and yet you have quite a few similarities between them. Starting point is, that the prison system is ... well broken to say the least. Privatising certain "businesses" can be a good thing. And I reckon it may take something away from the goverment. Like a weight they don't have to lift themselves. But that also opens up a big can of problems.

And many of them get shined upon here. Now this casts a wider net that another documentary I watched, which was about injustice against black people. This puts the justice system overall on trial. So that's quite a big undertaking. It works quite nicely, especially with narrating by Susan Sarandon and many contributions by people like Ice-T, Danny Trejo and Police employes who try to do the right thing (and get somewhat blocked by a justice machinery that needs reform as soon as possible) ...