The Reentry Project. Getting Out
Veronica
Flournoy, Ray Diaz, and Jasper Kelly are three of the 600,000 men and women
who are released from prison each year. Each of them is on parole in New
York City, and only a missed curfew or a dirty urine test away from landing
back in a cell. None of them had lived a tranquil, stable life before prison,
and they are not returning to a structured world set to propel them into
constructive citizenship. Two of the three are addicted to cocaine. Two
of them don't even have homes to return to - and the other only has a home
because of his girlfriend. These are once volatile lives interrupted by
a time in prison. Now they are back on the streets, where that volatility
is institutionalized through parole and homelessness.
Getting Out
humanizes a segment of the population that is arguably one of the most beleaguered
of all - convicted felons. It's a phrase that evokes little sympathy, yet
this film leaves viewers challenging every presumption they've ever brought
to it. Each of these characters wants what we all want - stability, love,
opportunity...fairness. Through the choices the characters make, the
hardships they face, and the support they do or do not have,
Getting
Out offers three perspectives of regaining freedom after paying for
it. A Crystal Stair production.
