Prison state

Streaming video - 2014

With this intimate, graphic film, award-winning director Dan Edge follows four residents of a housing project in Louisville, Ky., as they cycle in and out of the state's jails and prisons. More than two years in the making, the program uses deep access to the Louisville jail to offer raw firsthand accounts from prisoners, prison staff, and people whose lives are forever altered by this troubled system, and focuses on the efforts of Mark Bolton, the city's director of corrections, as he tries to move inmates back into the community. Under a reform act, Kentucky has allowed a number of nonviolent prisoners early release in order to save tax dollars. However, the prison system experiences a large number of inmates who are released on...ly to be rearrested for violating terms of their parole. Mental illness and substance abuse are often the cause. According to some experts, the conditions for release, which require monthly payments, regular meetings with a parole officer, employment, and more, are very difficult to satisfy. There are roughly 2.3 million people behind bars in the U.S., with a disproportionate number coming from a few city neighborhoods. More than two years in the making, PRISON STATE takes an intimate look at the cycle of incarceration in America, and one state's effort to reverse the trend. more