Survivors Guide to Prison (2018) Reviews

• Don't Let the Title Fool You

  sjmiller052018-02-26

  This documentary is for the people that support the police and the justice system. This is for the people that believe they are law abiding. This is for the people that believe the old adage "if you do nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about." This is for the people that believe they will never see the inside of a jail cell. If this is you, it is a must watch. It is time to get out from under the rock you have been under the last 30 years. Hopefully, this will open your eyes.

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• An interesting but very obviously agenda driven film.

  skot-watson2018-05-30

  I watched this movie expecting a gritty how-to for surviving in prison but the longer I watched the more it felt like an advertisement for a politician during reelection. Lots of percentages and statistics thrown at you with very little in regards to the sources of where they came from. It also felt very imbalanced in its portrayal of prison and prisoners, on one side talking about how terrible prisoners are but then talking the next about how they all shouldn't be there. They didn't seem to be very clear to what exactly they were trying to say. One woman in particular struck me as being in complete denial that murder is bad. I would have liked to see both sides of this issue not just the one that they seem to want to shove down your throat.

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• It's not a survivors guide

  fpuwasabadpresident2018-06-27

  The movie wasn't that bad but it wasn't a survivors guide to prison at all. I feel like someone about to go to prison somewhere is going to watch this and be like "thanks for the stats but I learned jack about how to survive in prison". I mean the documentary brings up some good points, if a bit one sided. You might not feel the same way but I hate the fact that celebrities who never went to prison or knew anything about anything would comment throughout the film. Why are they here? They know nothing, they've never been to prison. If you want some good points for your college paper it's good (trust me that's what I used this film for), if you want to survive prison find something else.

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• Criticises the prison system without offering alternatives

  ChronicCinephilia2018-06-11

  This documentary shows the viewer a handful of people who were wrongfully convicted and then suggests this could be widespread the USA. The current system is by no means perfect, and innocent people will sometimes be wrongfully convicted, but they represent a tiny percentage of those currently in prisons. Most of the people who are imprisoned deserve to be there because they've committed a crime and are being punished. This programme suggests that imprisoning individuals doesn't work. Then what should we do with rapists, murderers, robbers, and drug dealers? They can't just walk the streets. I'm all for rehabilitation but that needs to happen in prison where the public can be kept safe from violent offenders and other dangerous people. Lastly, this program pushes the idea that blacks are more likely to be convicted (which is true but not for the reasons given within the documentary). A disproportionate number of black people are incarcerated because of their culture, not institutional bias. Black people commit crimes in numbers way above that of any other ethnicity. There's a criminal culture within the black community and these people need to take responsibility for that. They're not being locked up for simply walking down the street.

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• The vast majorty of imprisoned people in this film have committed really nasty crimes

  VoyagerMN19862018-06-17

  If you want to open your mind take a look at US incarceration rates trends over the past 25 years AND violent crime rates which have plummeted. google some charts on incarceration rates and violent crime/murder rates and superimpose them in your mind. AS incarceration rates rose, US murder and violent crime plunged. US murder is down 55%, gun murder rate down 59%. shortly after Us incarceration rates started falling again (and they have fallen the last four years) , murder started to creep up again News coverage of murder has increased, but murder has decreased (yes even mass shootings are down by 40%) . The peer reviewed science using anonymous surveys of prisoners shows on average they commit 20 serious crimes for every crime for which they are caught. 93% of all US murder is committed by prior criminals, 80% by prior felons or persons with 10 or more arrests (meaning 100 crimes). I don't care about people who live in buildings with heavy security like Cynthia Nixon, Danny Glover, have to say, they have not been victims of violent crimes. Russel Simmons? So now we have people with sexual assault allegations? Who will be lecturing us next? Harvey Weinstein? As far as drug offenses the number of people in prison solely for recreational drug use is under 0.1% . This game has been played before bringing out as an example someone arrested for drugs, but not mentioning they were mugging people or beating people or also selling to children. As far as comparing us to Japan-- come on. The confession rate for crime in Japoan is 95% the conviction rate is 99%. That is not exaggeration just google japan confession rate or japan conviction ate. In japan they can hold you in jail for a month without charging you and interrogating you 12 hours a day. If you want to get rid of the fourth and fifth amendments you can then talk about comparing the US to other countries. Even in Canada and Australia OJ Simpson could have been criminally tried a second time, something forbidden in our criminal defense system. Across the board in other developed democracies it is easier to get warrants, easier to wiretap, more evidence not specified on warrants is allowed in court. In most counties police do not need reasonable suspicion to search your car at all. In Germany and half of the developed world there is no such thing as a jury trial Criminals get away with more crime, we have more crime and therefore we have more people imprisoned. If you want to copy systems where prospective criminals are more certain to go to jail, therefore lowering crime before it is committed, then fine. Tell the ACLU they have to accept what they would call a police state

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