At 10:55 Marcus and I met with Adam Blank in the lobby of LREI. We went to the Learning Lab to discuss with him what it was like making a movie about reentry or returning to the “outside world” from prison. His movie, From Prison to Home, follows four African American men who are released from prison ad are part of Columbia Rivers African American Corrections program. We had many questions for him and he answered them with helpful answers. He made it clear that although half of the men that left prison returned in the film, it wasn’t because of the problems with the African American Program or with the people that are part of it, but because of things like external influence. When they leave prison they end up going to those they know, but those they know can be bad influence. If they go to prison on drug charges and when they leave, keep their connection with those they knew when they were doing and continued to see them, these people can introduce drugs back into their life. I was really surprised by how much he knew about the prison system. He did a lot of research on not only the general prison system, but he still remembered a lot of statistics and talked about how he still is interested in learning about the system. This motivates me to continue learning about prisons even after the Social Justice Project is over.
