the opportunity.
Judy: More than 70 million
Americans have an arrest
requirement or record and in
many cases, that prevents them
from getting housing, work, and
reconnecting with their families
after incarceration.
Those challenges are the subject
of a newshour documentary
premiering tonight on pbs called
searching for justice, life
after lockup, it is produced by
our Mike Fritz and frank Carlsen
and hosted by almond Vaux.
Here is a quick look.
>> I was released February 10,
2020.
Around 7:00.
>> Yay!
>> And when I get to the door,
the first person I see is my
daughter.
It was surreal.
>> After more than two decades
in prison, Michael plummer is
released under a Washington,
D.C. Law that allows some
prisoners who committed crimes
as juveniles to be freed early.
>> I was just thinking, I am
trying to lead free, what is the
next step in my life?
You have to get a birth
certificate, social security
card.
I was gone for 23 years.
Both parents passed away.
These documents were lost.
So I had to go and get them
again.
This felony, it is over the top
of your head.
Not having an established credit
long enough.
So I'm not able to purchase a
house or get the assistance I
need.
It is always a burden, knowing
that you made a mistake, and
these burdens will be placed in
front of you.
Judy: And amna joins me now.
You have been reporting on
issues around incarceration for
years.
What is it you were trying to
capture with this documentary?
Amna: You know better than
anyone, our entire newshour team
has been covering stories around
incarceration for years.
Stories of incarceration are
more familiar to Americans than
many people know.
One out of every two Americans
has a loved one or knows someone
who has been incarcerated.
Oftentimes, those incarceration
stories are about life inside
prison or about the time the
person gets out.
For most formally incarcerated
people, the day they get out is
the beginning of their story.
That is when a vast array and
issues arise.
That is what we wanted to look
into.
The driving forces behind this
documentary, that is where we
wanted to focus the U.S. Locks
up more people than any other
country in the world, 600,000
people get out every year.
They did their time.
Now they are free.
Now what?
We look at the lives of four
people to answer that question.
Judy: Tell us about the people
you followed, the hurdles they
encountered when they were out
of prison, and we should say a
lot of this during the pandemic.
Amna: We just heard from one of
those people, Michael plummer.
He was just a kid when he was
incarcerated.
He was 17.
He was convicted for murder.
He was not released until he was
a 40-year-old man.
He said, I feel like I will
always be in some kind of
incarceration, even though I'm
free.
What he was talking about was
even when you get out, on the
outside, you are met with the
system, more than 40,000 laws
and rules and regulations that
really limit how formally
incarcerated people can work.
And move and stay.
Even with their own family
members.
How they can parent, how they
can even try to find footing and
reconnect with family and
communities and all of the
support networks that we all
need.
Michael is now working two jobs,
he is trying to cobble his life
together, trying to reconnect
with a daughter who was a baby
when he went into prison, and
his new granddaughter.
You will meet another man,
Michael, who really tried hard
after he was incarcerated as a
teenager to stay out.
But every time, found a problem
trying to get a job, finding
stable housing, and ended up
back in prison.
He has been incarcerated for
more in his life than he has
been free.
You will meet a woman who had a
traumatic childhood.
She lost custody of one of her
children during her last
conviction and is fighting to
get her daughter back.
You will meet a woman named Rene
Wyatt, who is the exception to
the rule.
She got out and stayed out.
She is trying to counsel other
formally incarcerated women to
make sure they stay out too.
The sociologist we talked to
said, the system really does try
to keep people from making their
way back into society.
Judy: And you were telling us
that you looked at their
backgrounds, the kinds of things
that led them to be incarcerated
in the first place.
Amna: That's right.
We had a long, into the with
them.
We talked about the fact that
every single one of them had a
parent who was incarcerated or
struggled with addiction.
That is the data come to life.
We know people who grow up with
a parent who is incarcerated is
more likely to become
incarcerated.
Our system reinforces those
patterns.
We hope people will watch.
We hope they will get to know
these people to better
understand how the system works,
and maybe ask the question if
the system can and should be
better than it is.
Judy: Shining a light into an
area that gets so little
attention.
We are looking forward to seeing
this.
The documentary is called
"Searching for justice: Life
after lockup" and airs tonight