Survivors Guide To Prison (2018) Poster

User Reviews

Review this title
23 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
8/10
Eye opening but ....
nburgess-6821713 November 2018
I took a lot out of this documentary in terms of seeing things from a different perspective. It's Heart breaking and horrifying and I do agree that there should be other, more civilized means of rehabilitating people, I also have to point out that there really are EVIL people out there. I'm not referring to the guys who killed someone in a moment of rage, I'm referring to serial rapists, serial murderers, serial child predators. These people cannot simply walk the streets and they certainly don't deserve any "sugar coated rehabilitation". These people are rotten and deserve as much pain and suffering as they inflicted upon their victims. I do not believe prisons should be done away with altogether but merely reserved for the true evil members of society. The difficulty comes in in drawing the distinction though. It's a complicated and very distorted mess.
4 out of 10 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
Every story is different ...
kosmasp11 October 2018
.. and yet you have quite a few similarities between them. Starting point is, that the prison system is ... well broken to say the least. Privatising certain "businesses" can be a good thing. And I reckon it may take something away from the goverment. Like a weight they don't have to lift themselves. But that also opens up a big can of problems.

And many of them get shined upon here. Now this casts a wider net that another documentary I watched, which was about injustice against black people. This puts the justice system overall on trial. So that's quite a big undertaking. It works quite nicely, especially with narrating by Susan Sarandon and many contributions by people like Ice-T, Danny Trejo and Police employes who try to do the right thing (and get somewhat blocked by a justice machinery that needs reform as soon as possible) ...
2 out of 7 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
Way better than I was expecting
Mcduff360112 March 2020
I am fascinated by prison, especially in the US so I watch a lot of the documentaries and shows. Most of the time they focus on a few inmates and show their lives for awhile. This was different it was really all about the system itself and how messed up it actually is. It really focused more on how easily innocent people can get washed away in a corrupt system that is designed to make corporations money and not about reform.

The style is a mix of interviews with actual people who were locked up and later found innocent of their crimes and narrated by a variety of celebrities (not just Danny Trejo) It is a fast paced expose into the reality of the justice system and the mentality of the US in general. There are some gorey scenes of blood, they show a couple scenes of people who have been stabbed but overall it's pretty mild. I would recommend this to everyone.
1 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
Don't Let the Title Fool You
AnarcoCap26 February 2018
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.
42 out of 68 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Unrealistic
supermalta20 February 2019
It's very dreamy without being realistic. It's just as much a political propaganda film as it is a informative documentary
9 out of 18 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
a MUST watch
ladycop-113105 July 2018
I was blown away by this documentary and disgusted with our court system. Very well put together. I think this is something everyone in America needs to watch. Get me the hell outta here!
13 out of 29 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
Found a lot of truth in this... but...the lady ??
I never do reviews..but ..

After watching Wendy Williams interview with David Arquette.. And having experience working in the prison systemi thought I would check this out.... given the cast, many whom I like and respect ,I found this to be very good and honest for the most part. A large part of the American Criminal justice system , particularly corrections are employed by average people who are ethical and not corrupt and who are just trying to make an honest livings to support their families who really do put themselves on the line to protect the public. But it is a large money making enterprise.. But a lot of these officers come face to face with people that you would not ever want to meet .or have around your family .. They should be commended for that !! Most American inmates also live bette than many people living in third world countries .. ! Unfortunately no system is perfect and hence this documentary does touch the surface and shows some excellent examples this other unfortunate side, as well as provide good examples of cautionary tales of those newly incarcerated that have no clue about the system. The story of the wrongly convicted gentlemen were very heartbreaking..but it is a stone cold reality . I noticed that most of the interviews of the inmates were done with Caucasian inmates who were released because I'm quite sure it would be difficult for them to find any inmates who would be filmed in California unless their identity is hidden, as the unwritten rules of gang politics prohibit being filmed normally. Everyone that participated on camera seemed to have been very knowledgeable about what they were speaking about , but I'm sorry the lady at the desk who was over the educational system really seemed a bit clueless .?.and seemed a bit out of place for such an excellent documentary ..I I don't want to be offensive .. as I'm not quite sure what unicorn filled cup of sunshine she was drinking during this interview, but at the end of each murder , you still have a victim. To say that most murders are" situational " shows a very diminished understanding an insensitivity of the impact that murder has on its victims and those left behind, as well as a lack of basic fundamental knowledge of the type of brutality that occurs everyday among inmates while incarcerated. I would think as the head of the educational prison program, she should have had a more educated insight about what goes on.. clearly she has no clue and it might have been better to edit her part out. But then again perhaps they left her part in just for that very reason.

Except for that part ..great overall. Would have like to see perhaps a part II or III ..
10 out of 21 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
A few more facts that would have been good in this film !
I wish the documentary would have expanded more on the following :

Most people serving time.. Put themselves in situations to go there or associate with those who help them to get there ..

There are a million others things in life to do than sitting behind bars .

If you do become incarcerated in the US ... You have free and better access to healthcare, dental care, mental healthcare ,legal aid and free educational opportunities more than the average working American on the outside.

If you find yourself incarcerated , take full advantage of all of the above mentioned benefits while you, particularly health and educational .

A lot of people go to prison and prefer go BACK to prison because they actually make more money being incarcerated then being on the outside

People tend to get more charges inside than what they originally went in for in the first place .

Youth prisons tend to be worse than adult prisons..much worse !

If you are not educated on the above mentioned when you go in , you will have a Ph.D. On criminal enterprises by the time you get out ..

Most importantly. nothing and no one is worth your freedom !!!

If you are not about " that life"... Do whatever you can to stay out !

Good job with this film !!
11 out of 25 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
It's not a survivors guide
fpuwasabadpresident27 June 2018
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.
22 out of 38 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Political Piece Hiding as an Exploitation Picture
Michael_Elliott28 September 2018
Survivor's Guide to Prison (2018)

* (out of 4)

Danny Trejo partially narrates this documentary that, from the various covers out there, appears to have the former prison inmate telling you how to survive prison. Seems like an exploitation movie, huh? Well, to be honest this here is a Left-wing propaganda piece that has countless celebrities reading from cue cards and explaining why the prison system is evil.

Look, there's no question that there are issues in our legal and justice system and I'm sure a large political debate could break out about this documentary but to be fair it would be rather pointless simply because this thing is so poorly made. I mean, while watching this film I really forgot I was watching a movie because it had the professionalism and quality of something below an infomercial that you'd see at four in the morning.

There are countless problems with this movie but the biggest is the fact that you've got a lot of celebrities on hand and they're obviously reading from cue cards and you really can't help but somewhat laugh at this. It's clear that the famous folks just read their lines and then it was edited together to try and bring more style to the picture. This certainly doesn't work and the various techniques that are used here just come across cheap and they don't pack any sort of punch.

Again, you could get into a political debate about the various things that are said here. This is a very "Left" documentary as it's clear that these famous people want not only justice for innocent people but they also want rapists and murderers to have a good time while in prison. They want them to be educated, have great health care and of course not be used to various jobs. I wonder why they don't invite them to stay at their own homes?

Patricia Arquette, Susan Sarandon, Quincy Jones, Danny Glover, Ice T, Warren G, Q-Tip, Chuck D, Busta Rhymes, Tom Morello and Russell Simmons are just a few of the famous people who are on hand to read the cue cards and attack the police, the judges and the various prisons yet they offer up very little advice on what we could do differently outside of one certain experiment that wouldn't possibly be logical considering how many people are locked up for violent crimes in this country.
9 out of 23 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
Best System in The World - That's why it Works???
rozyber28 July 2020
I once served as a jurors and the vederict was 6 guilty 6 not guilty some of the jurors asked me to change my vote to guilty. One person said she was in a hurry she needed to do the payroll for her family business. One white juror told me come on he is black he's got to be guilty. The rest guilty voters wanted to home.
1 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
The enslavement of lower class society
surfsaltwater3 September 2021
Compelling story and a scary reality of what's really going on within society. It's basically slave labor while the wealthy politicians criminalize everything in order to profit from the cheap labor of the lower class citizens. Prison systems are a slave labor machine for the lower class. P. I. A. Prison industry authority funds the politicians that pass the stricter laws that incarcerate the lower class which ultimately turns them into slave labor because they can't afford a proper legal defense. The wealthy have always been immune to the laws. The rich and powerful can always buy their way out meanwhile the lower class suffer and become slaves to the rich while the poor becomes cheap labor for all the wealthy politicians and investment firms who profit millions of dollars annually and fund The wealthy politicians who keep the slave labor cycle going. The one thing everyone has in common who is in prison is they're all poor.
0 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
A must-watch no matter what you believe
maraprousalis28 June 2020
Well-researched and far from boring, this is an excellent look inside America's "justice" system. Even more powerful when viewed from 2020's lens.
0 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
An interesting but very obviously agenda driven film.
skot-watson30 May 2018
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.
30 out of 56 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
Right message wrong execution
adtoney-584-99385119 May 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This documentary has the right message but it's goes the complete wrong way about it. The basic story is people who were innocent going to prison because the justice system is backwards in America. The stories and opinons from former inmates, lawyers ect are great. However it's shot like a low budget music video and getting celebrities to talk about the prison system isn't great when they are clearly reading off of auto cues. Having someone like Dann Trejo and a member of MC5 who have been to prison does it credibility. However all that is taken away when people like Macklemore and Patricia Arquette are trying to tell me how hard prison is.... Also one of the guys may have been innocent of his original crime, however stabbing someone in prison to protect yourself kinda takes away from the message

****
4 out of 6 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
2/10
Criticises the prison system without offering alternatives
ChronicCinephilia11 June 2018
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.
22 out of 60 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
Not Great
ghostamongyou16 April 2020
I really resent how this is marketed as a survivor's guide to prison, because it isn't. There are a few basic, generic suggestions given - i.e., be polite, don't speak much, defend yourself if necessary - but it's hardly any sort of guide on anything. The documentary is frankly all over the place and tries to accomplish way too much. It's overly ambitious and the end result is a scattered, disappointing mess.
4 out of 8 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
2/10
Garbage
jdgtc114 October 2021
This is a leftist / progressive propaganda piece. The level of bias against law enforcement is ridiculous. There are definitely systemic issues within the criminal justice system, which must be addressed. However, torching the entire system out of spite, isn't a solution.
4 out of 8 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
The vast majorty of imprisoned people in this film have committed really nasty crimes
VoyagerMN198617 June 2018
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
12 out of 37 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
1/10
Political propaganda disguised
offthewall10120 July 2018
Identity politics are jam packed in this liberal propaganda piece, white bad, minority good. Trying to sway the viewer that crime is good, white cops are bad. I don't see how any of this will help the current climate, one thing I do know is this will get rave reviews and high scores because it's politically correct at this time.
9 out of 34 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
1/10
should be titled : everyone in prison is a VICTIM! They are ALL INNOCENT!
cdelany9 August 2018
Very misleading title, it is in reality Hollywood's far left love affair of criminals while simultaneously hating Law Enforcement! Everyone in prison is innocent, the police are all evil and intentionally throw law abiding people in prison! Oh yes and Prison is so unfair, it is no fun and makes it hard to make phone calls as often as you want. Hey, prison does suck but it is supposed to! Do some people get wrongly convicted? Absolutely but thanks to DNA it happens less and less often. In reality, you have to either commit a heinous, violent crime or be a repeat felon to be sentenced to prison. This movie makes me sick! I was especially disappointed with Danny Trejo, I thought he was a "straight shooter" that supposedly has done a lot of work trying to rehabilitate convicts. THIS SHOW WAS GARBAGE!
7 out of 26 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
Pretty good documentary
derekbrown-564818 September 2021
It features people like Danny Trejo and George Lopez.
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
3/10
Absolutely True and Helpful HALF THE TIME
praisngod8223 January 2022
Ok, first off, this doc had some very helpful and truthful information. The problem is that the dialogue that these ACTORS were reciting (repeating a script they were given to read) left out the full truth and/or exaggerated the truth and/or embellished personal experiences to sound like they are the norm.

Secondly, most of the unconstitutional issues that are actually throughout the prison system are NOT the ultimate responsibility of the police force on the streets. Or, for that matter, the ultimate responsibility of the prison guard. ThE buck stops with the local politicians of that city if it's a city jail, or the state politicians of that state if it's a state prison, or the federal government if it's a federal prison or penitentiary. AND the same for the local police and county sherriff officers patrolling the streets AS WELL AS the District Attorney's office, Public Defenders Office and any prejudice/unfair/crooked judges.

Thirdly, in our current corrupt political environment here in the US (and most banana republics), everyone knows that if you conduct yourself in an unethical, nefarious or unscrupulous manor while executing your position within any branch of the DOJ, it is very rare that there will be any accountability. ESPECIALLY if you hold that position because of who you know, who you are related to or who you can blackmail if your job is threatened.

Fourthly, the truth of the statistics regard the percentage of US citizens rightly or wrongly incarcerated are high compared to other countries. HOWEVER, in many other countries (communist for instance) they would rather execute "guilty law breakers" rather then build more prisons. In some major countries citizens accused of a crime are not entitled to a speedy trial and can wait years for their case to be heard. And in many 3rd world countries the army is police, judge and jury.

Yes, the US has issues, but they are made worse by corrupt politicians, gangs from other countries that we are feeding and clothing instead of exporting to their own country and not allowing to return. It would also be a great improvement if the politicians would stop using our tax dollars for vacations, homes, cars and big banks balances but rather use our tax dollars for making common sense laws that require a better and longer education for local law keepers.
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed