The 1%: How Americans are Still Being Treated Like Slaves

Essential facts:

The Bureau of Prisons currently has a prison population with little to none job training programs or computers for their inmates. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2017/08/23/can-a-general-conquer-the-federal-prison-system
A Justice Department report finds a “disturbing degree” of physical abuse from staff at a privately owned prison. https://www.themarshallproject.org/documents/3939635-Top-Management-and-Performance-Challenges-Facing
Only 3% of inmates have access to computers. http://famm.org/pressrelease-prisonreform/
BOP budget will fall 14% according to the 2018 fiscal budget. That’s 6,100 jobs lost. https://www.themarshallproject.org/documents/3939635-Top-Management-and-Performance-Challenges-Facing
Only 3% of the federal inmate population were receiving mental health treatment in 2015. https://www.themarshallproject.org/documents/3939635-Top-Management-and-Performance-Challenges-Facing
Within three years of release, 67.8 percent of ex-offenders are rearrested, and within five years, 76.6 percent are rearrested. https://socialwork.simmons.edu/blog/Prisoner-Reentry/

Topic Description

The prison system of the United States has purposely set up its own citizens, imprisoned for their actions—and in some cases wrongfully imprisoned—to fail once they reach the outside world. Prisons have failed to adapt to common standards of human decency, still treating their residents like lab rats—like locking one up in a solitary cell for years on end. And when prisoners are eventually released from prison, their fundamental rights to vote and access to public housing have been removed. There are those who believe that being tough on crime is essential, that criminals deserve no remorse for their actions. However, the prison system has been about reformation and should not solely be about cruel and eccentric punishment. These are human beings that the Bureau of Prisons deals with, and although they may have committed heinous acts in their life, they deserve to still be treated like human beings and nothing less.

Media Advocacy Project

WHAT- The unfair treatment of prisoners within the United States Prison system and how it requires major reform in serious areas.
WHY- I want to educate those who are not aware and present the case as to why the prison system needs to be reconstructed in many areas.
WHO- The average American.
HOW- I want to use a variety of documentary film-making of the prison process and while also incorporating a reporter format by asking random people about their knowledge of the prison system.

Sample Media: