Two-time Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Roger Weisberg (\u201cSound and Fury,\u201d \u201cWhy Can\u2019t We Be a Family Again?\u201d) helmed this intriguing documentary short on efforts by New York\u2019s notorious Sing Sing Prison to reduce recidivism through higher education.<\/p>\n
A primary force in this endeavor is Sean Pica, who first came to Sing Sing as a 16-year-old convict\u2014he earned his Bachelor\u2019s Degree while incarcerated and later returned to run the prison\u2019s program in conjunction with Mercy College. Also interviewed is Jermaine Archer, a former drug dealer and convicted murderer who is banking on his degree to help facilitate a successful reintegration with the outside world. Also included here is graduation ceremony within the prison\u2014and no less a figure than legendary singer\/actor Harry Belafonte is the commencement speaker, offering an upbeat pep talk for the unlikely student body.<\/p>\n
The film details how the program also provides job-hunting consultation involving work-appropriate clothing, resume writing and interview training. One graduate, Clarence Maclin, benefits from this last boost and is able to gain work as a social worker counseling juvenile offenders. There is also a financial consideration of how the investment in education proves to be more cost-effective: recidivism among graduates of the Sing Sing program is miniscule.<\/p>\n
Sadly, \u201cFirst Degree\u201d has a troubling post-script: funding for this type of program has been shrinking over the years while the U.S. prison population is ballooning. Hopefully, this well-made and moving tribute to the power of education can help change minds and bring more money back to this worthy cause.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two-time Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Roger Weisberg (\u201cSound and Fury,\u201d \u201cWhy Can\u2019t We Be a Family Again?\u201d) helmed this intriguing documentary short on efforts by New York\u2019s notorious Sing Sing Prison to reduce recidivism through higher education. A primary force in this endeavor is Sean Pica, who first came to Sing Sing as a 16-year-old convict\u2014he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":21358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[292,316,798],"class_list":["post-21357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-indie","category-movie-reviews","tag-documentary","tag-education","tag-prison"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21359,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21357\/revisions\/21359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}