geoff: For the past few years,
the "Newshour" has been
reporting on issues facing the
formerly incarcerated, like
finding a job, housing and
health care.
Next week, those issues are
front and center in a pbs
newshour documentary called
"Searching for justice: Life
after lockup."
Let's take a look.
>> I never planned to go back.
So every time, it has been
extremely devastating.
When I went to jail this time, I
must have anguished for days.
I could not believe it.
I just knew that this is not
right, it is not where I want to
be, not what I want for my life.
There is so much more to this
life than sitting in a cell.
It has ruined -- I lost the
normal things people lose when
they go to jail, part of the
process.
>> What are those normal things
for people who don't know?
>> Everything, everything.
The normal things you lose when
you go to jail is everything.
Your whole life.
Whether it be a marriage,
family, kids, finances.
You know, people can say money
doesn't make you happy.
Not making money doesn't make
U happy either.
Now I am out here and I don't
know, I am not set up for
anything, I'm not set up for any
financial situation.
Geoff: This past week, I spoke
with "Newshour's" chief
correspondent and host of the
documentary, amna nawaz.
So amna, tell us more about this
documentary.
What were the questions that you
and your team were trying to
answer?
Amna: I think most people know
or have heard before that the
U.S.
Incarcerates more people than
any other country in the world,
right?
Something like 70 million
Americans now have an arrest or
criminal record.
And so there's a lot of stories
about life inside prison.
But you should also know that
600,000 people get out every
year.
And what happens to them?
So our colleagues, producers
Mike Fritz and frank Carlson,
spent about two years looking
into just that, following the
lives of four people, including
Michael Cevallos, the man who
just we just heard from there to
see for those tens of millions
of Americans, what is life like
after you've served your time?
And what we found was that that
time in prison or jail for most
of these people really haunt
them for long, long, long after
their free.
The rules and the regulations
that greet them on the outside
limit where they can work and
how they can live and how they
can parent.
So we spend a lot of time with
them, not just trying to
understand who they are today
and how they're living today,
but what led to their
incarceration in the first
place.
Geoff: You mentioned Michael
Cevallos, who we saw in the
clip.
Who else did you follow?
Tell us more about who else will
meet in this documentary.
Amna: Yeah, so a bit more about
Michael.
He is 53 years old, and we
should note he has now spent
most of his life, most of his
life behind bars and with no
support or training inside.
So basically every time he gets
out, he really struggles to
build a life and to reconnect
with family and to find work and
get his footing.
You'll also meet a woman named
Rachel Schuyler.
She is 32 years old.
She is now fighting to get her
daughter back.
She lost custody after her last
conviction.
Rachel really struggled with
addiction and had massive
childhood trauma early in life.
She was never, never really able
to get any kind of help for the
-- kind of help, and the system
just keeps putting her back
behind bars.
You'll meet a man named Michael
plummer, who was convicted of
murder when he was 17.
He was just released in 2020,
and now he's trying to reconnect
with his now adult daughter and
a granddaughter.
He met the granddaughter for the
first time.
He's working two jobs and trying
to make ends meet and trying to
build a life at the age of 42.
And you'll also meet a woman
named Renee Wyatt.
Now, Renee struggle with
addiction and with homelessness.
She's been in and out of jails
and prisons for much of her
life, and she became kind of the
exception to the rule.
She beat the odds, she got out
and she stayed out, and she's
now using her experience in
prison to try to counsel and
support women who have similar
stories, too.
So every single person we met,
we should note every single
person had a history of trauma
or instability.
Every single one of them had a
parent who either struggled with
addiction or had been previously
incarcerated.
Studies show these are patterns,
right?
And these are patterns that our
system really does more to
reinforce than it does to break.
Geoff: What do you hope that
people will take away from this
documentary after they watch it?
Amna: You know, watching these
folk's stories, you're not just
going to meet them, you're going
to really get to know them.
You're going to get to
understand them.
You're going to see the whole
picture of their lives, not just
not just their time behind bars.
You know, these people are so
much more than their criminal
records, but really, oftentimes
society sees just that and only
that even after they're out.
So we now know tens of millions
of people, more than any other
nation, are basically written
off because of their crimes,
right?
They're not able to participate,
let alone integrate into the
world around them after they've
done their time, after they have
paid their debt to society.
That's because our systems just
continue to punish them long
after they're free.
So we hope that people will
watch.
We hope they'll get to know
these folks, and we hope that
maybe they'll stop and wonder,
can we do better?
Can we be better?
Geoff: I will tell you, I will
be among those watching this
documentary.
Thanks so much for your time.
It's great to have you.
"Searching for justice: Life
after lockup" airs Wednesday
night at 10:00 eastern / 9:00
central on pbs.