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Shubh Patel

Dr. Bonner

English 1101

23 March 2022

The Second Chance

In today’s society of revolutionary media and culture, the film industry has created a

massive impact on our own outlook of life and how we tend to perceive the reality that affects us.

Over the past few years, the film industry has created new ideas and further discovering our

general society and how certain aspects of people are involved, specifically through people in the

criminal prison system. Furthermore, over the past few decades, mass incarceration has

consequentially increased. As more people start to research and seek change in this situation,

many will learn through various audio and visual viewpoints to further understand how those

incarcerated live and its impact on our society and future generations.

In Jennifer Redfearn’s documentary, Apart, this unique film depicts the lives of women

who have been incarcerated and portrays their perspective of living in a prison system while

having children and other families necessities that are needed to be taken care of. Films and

media tend to sway in multiple biases, which can make a difference in one’s belief in an idea or

specific policy they might support. This is because “the creator” wants to convey or pursue a

particular message to an audience that might share information with others and lead to further

discussions. The reason why I chose to study this film was because I had the unique opportunity

to partake in an event called Justice Day. This event was created to give people an understanding
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of the criminal justice system and how aspects of the media affect the prison system.

Additionally, I learned how solutions passed by the state of Georgia for women in prisons and

provide support for their needs. Vannesa Garrett, who is the program manager at Motherhood on

Bars, had been very infuenctial towards helping pass the legislation in Congress and had stated, “

how women are being are treated unfairly and everyone should be treated equally without race or

ethnicity”. In the prison system, women tend to be less talked about when compared to men

being incarcerated, however, the film had strongly showed how women lived in prison and their

unique stories of being imprisoned which inspired me to learn more about this issue.

Throughout the documentary, we had experienced the lives of three women who had been

incarcerated for drug-related charges. A unique aspect about the film that was very interesting

was how there was no major editing or special camera effects that were needed to enhance the

film but rather just show regular shots of the women’s point of view as well. I believe Readfearn

had made this style of the film so that the audience can be able to feel the endurance as if they

were in the same situation. At the beginning of the film, it was depicted as these women doing

terrible actions towards society, leading to them being in prison. Importantly, the documentary

had also mentioned that women in U.S. prisons have increased by over 800% since the “war on

drugs” had initially begun. A common theme that was seen throughout the film was the

challenging sadness emotion between the women and their children, which had made the

audience feel sad and showed empathy for them. Amanda Freed was a mother with a young child

who had an addiction to drugs and was caught stealing at a pharmacy which led to her being in

prison for more than five years. Therefore, this had created a negative division between Amanda

and her son, who was starting elementary school at the time. However, as the film progressed, it
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was evidently shown that Amanda was beginning to become a better person and was trying to

make a positive step toward her community which allowed her to have an appeal to be released

early. Though she could not get the appeal approved, she continued to work hard and strived to

be the better person she was before. The film was trying to convey a purpose of the impacts that

women face in the prison system and what people should do, and how they regained their trust in

society. I believe that the film had a neutral stance on the police system because it focused more

on the criminal justice system but tried to make people aware of the prison system and its impact

on families in the United States.

In Derecka Purnell’s book, Becoming Abolitionists, she provides excellent insight into

how the prison system has transpired over the past few decades and its impact on society. In her

book, she mentions the various issues of the prison & police system and how it negatively

impacts minority communities as well. Furthermore, she explains her personal experiences at

Harvard University Law school, describing her emotions and how they shaped her life towards

the fight for police reform. Purnell presents situations in which police brutality had happened and

how people responded to change and made activists stand up for change. An interesting fact that

Purnell mentions in the book is the influence that many activists have on “internationalism” and

the drastic impact they can have. Internationalism is a global political allegiance that seeks to

help people worldwide who feel suppressed and help create social justice for all. Moreover, they

try to help find solutions towards “supporting oppressed people in other parts of the world:

resisting police violence in the US”(Purnell 150). Purnell also believed that being an abolitionist

means one who supports the idea to “get rid” of policing for society to make everything in life

perfect or be idealistic. Though Purnell had suggested ideas that would affect law enforcement,
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she had also provided solutions for decriminalization. Purnell states that to start having

decriminalization, “we must lower penalties for handgun and drug possession with the goal of

complete decriminalization while lifting current restrictions on housing, employment, voting,

and financial aid for people who have criminal records to ensure their stability upon being

released from prison”(Purnell 230). If this type of ideology was nurtured into society, this reform

could help reduce the mass incarceration rates or lower sentencing tenures. Due to the

circumstances which the women were faced, if the penalties were less severe, this would help

reduce the incarceration rate, and many women can be able to support their families and being

able to work.

In Angela Davis’s book, Are Prisons Obsolete?, she further elaborates on the setbacks

which the prison and policing system have in society. In her book, she mentions the ideology of

an “image environment”, which means the ways we interpret our humanity. Davis notes how

there should be a subversive “movement” to abolish the system and find other solutions that

would be more effective than the standard system of prison. Undoubtly, Davis believes that the

use of prisons has slowly become more abusive and states that “this has caused us to take the

existence of prisons for granted”(Davis 18). In our society we feel as if the prison system has

become a place where if one had done bad actions they should be sent with long-term

consequences, however, there should different means for solving situations. Each situation

should be taken as its own case instead of having one “main solution” which solves our

problems. I respectfully agree with Davis’s claim that the prison system has been taken for

granted, however, I strongly believe that their other “remedies” that help provide assistance such

as more comunicational outreach to those that commit bad actions and allow them to seek to new
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opportunities that can inspire others. When watching the documentary, we had seen that the

women had gone through countless sessions of therapy which had allowed them to go beyond

their comfort zone and pushed them to find new opportunities for success and create personal

solutions to learn from the past which was very beneficial.

As we continue to find new solutions towards the issues of the prison system, I feel very

optomistic of which the future lies ahead. I believe that more people will start to seek for change

and will listen to those who have formerly been incarcerated and will continue to strive for

inspiring others as well. As we saw from the film that the women had made poor choices on

themselves, they still had the confidence to stand up and create a uplifting change for society.

Women should feel confident in themselves and further connect with those that have the power

for change and allow their voices to be heard. Though we make mistakes in our society, we

should learn from those mishaps and encourage new generations to not make those same

mistakes. In the words of my Guru, “In the joy of others lies our own”, we should continue with

the quote and spark a new revelation!

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Works Cited

Redfearn, Jennifer. “Apart.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 14 Mar. 2022,

https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/apart/.

Purnell, Derecka. Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom First

edition., Astra House, 2021.

“Justice Day.” Justice Reform Partnership, 2018,

https://justicereformpartnership.org/justiceday/.

Davis, Angela Yvonne. Are Prisons Obsolete? Edited by Greg Ruggiero.,2003.