The released
A documentary is a film that tells about a person, place, idea, or issue. A good documentary should not use reenactments, it should use real life people, facts, and documentation to describe the subject matter. Most do this through interviews and statistics. A good documentary should also give the viewer reliable information from reliable sources and should let the viewers make their own opinion or come up with their own solution to whatever the issue may be. The documentary should not tell the view how to think but instead make them think for themselves in a way they never have before. It should open the viewers mind to new ideas and concepts. It should be entertaining as well as informative and educational.
The Released was filmed in 2009 and it was produced by award-winning documentary filmmakers, Karen O'Conor and Miri Navasky (“Producer Miri Navasky” par. 1). PBS Frontline describes The Released as“the next chapter in this disturbing story: what happens to mentally ill offenders when they leave prison” (“Introduction: The Released.” par. 1). It follows 4 men being released from prison or jail while also dealing with the struggles of having a serious mental illness (SMIs) like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, etc.
The Released, happens to have been inspired by a previous documentary also filmed by O'Conor and Navasky in 2005 for PBS Frontline. The New Asylums documented how and why prisons are becoming the new asylums in the Untied States (Jamie par. 1). It was described as “an intimate and powerful portrait of the hundreds of thousands of mentally ill people incarcerated in jails and prisons across America”(“Producer Miri Navasky” par. 1). A few years after filming The New Asylums, O'Conor and Navasky made the discovery that most of the inmates they filmed for the documentary had ended up back in prison or jail within a few months to a few years of being released and this is what inspired them to film
The Released.
The Released.
The Released set out to answer the following question; why are these inmates with SMIs not surviving on their own outside of the jails and prisons? The 4 inmates they documented where, Jerry, Micheal, Lynn, and Benny who all have SMIs and who were all recently released from an Ohio state prison or jail.
The first man, Jerry, who was documented was in his mid-20s and a schizophrenic was serving time for aggravated robbery. While in prison he was given medication and and some psychiatric help he needed to keep his schizophrenia under control. Jerry was released without supervision, meaning no one was assigned to check in on him making sure he stayed off drugs or continued to take his medications.
The second man was Micheal, a paranoid schizophrenic who served 21 years for murder which he committed during a paranoid delusional episode caused by his schizophrenia. Micheal was lucky enough to be released into a reentry program that helps inmates with SMIs transition back into the community. The program gives him access to mental care and requires him to see a psychiatrist once every 2 weeks.
The third man, Lynn is also a paranoid schizophrenic who had been arrested and released over 20 times throughout his lifetime, mostly for the crime of breaking and entering. He was also released without supervision.
The final man, Benny was also a schizophrenic who was arrested for setting his girlfriends house on fire. Benny's mental illness is so bad that even when he is taking his medications regularly and receiving psychiatric care he is still constantly looking over his shoulder for fear of someone trying to kill him. Benny has been arrested over 10 times within the last 2 years. When released Benny was placed in a group home for the mentally ill and receives psychiatric help and care similar to care Micheal gets through his reentry program.
All these men, as well as all the inmates with SMIs throughout the United States, are released with roughly only “a bus ticket, $75 in cash, and 2 weeks' worth of medication” (“Introduction: The Released.” par. 2). Unfortunately, if they are not released into a group home or a reentry program like Benny and Micheal, it can take upwards of 3 months to get into a psychiatrist and even longer to get a prescription for their medications. That means that most inmates are off their medications for over 2 months before they can even have a chance to get more.
The Released does a great job of giving just the facts about why most SMI inmates are not surviving more than a few months outside of prison before being rearrested. It raises a thought provoking question, 'Why aren't SMI prisoners not making it on the outside?'.
The first man, Jerry, who was documented was in his mid-20s and a schizophrenic was serving time for aggravated robbery. While in prison he was given medication and and some psychiatric help he needed to keep his schizophrenia under control. Jerry was released without supervision, meaning no one was assigned to check in on him making sure he stayed off drugs or continued to take his medications.
The second man was Micheal, a paranoid schizophrenic who served 21 years for murder which he committed during a paranoid delusional episode caused by his schizophrenia. Micheal was lucky enough to be released into a reentry program that helps inmates with SMIs transition back into the community. The program gives him access to mental care and requires him to see a psychiatrist once every 2 weeks.
The third man, Lynn is also a paranoid schizophrenic who had been arrested and released over 20 times throughout his lifetime, mostly for the crime of breaking and entering. He was also released without supervision.
The final man, Benny was also a schizophrenic who was arrested for setting his girlfriends house on fire. Benny's mental illness is so bad that even when he is taking his medications regularly and receiving psychiatric care he is still constantly looking over his shoulder for fear of someone trying to kill him. Benny has been arrested over 10 times within the last 2 years. When released Benny was placed in a group home for the mentally ill and receives psychiatric help and care similar to care Micheal gets through his reentry program.
All these men, as well as all the inmates with SMIs throughout the United States, are released with roughly only “a bus ticket, $75 in cash, and 2 weeks' worth of medication” (“Introduction: The Released.” par. 2). Unfortunately, if they are not released into a group home or a reentry program like Benny and Micheal, it can take upwards of 3 months to get into a psychiatrist and even longer to get a prescription for their medications. That means that most inmates are off their medications for over 2 months before they can even have a chance to get more.
The Released does a great job of giving just the facts about why most SMI inmates are not surviving more than a few months outside of prison before being rearrested. It raises a thought provoking question, 'Why aren't SMI prisoners not making it on the outside?'.
O'Conor and Navasky document pure reality in The Released. They never once used reenactments, actors or scripts within the film. The majority of their footage is interviews with the 4 men who they follow through their release and prison and community psychiatrists. With only interviewing the 4 inmates and a few psychiatrists they got a limited view on the issue, it would have been nice to have more perspectives on the issues, like the family members and political representatives from both the Republican and Democratic parties.
While the interviews were insightful and full of information the film shots of an individual sitting and talking got really boring visually. Other graphics, photos, or even charts would have been a good change up and kept the viewers more interested in the visual aspect of the documentary.
Along with the visual aspect being under par so was the music. In parts it was hard hear it to the point where it was just an annoyance. The music didn't evoke emotions on the scale it could have. The music could have brought so much to this film but instead it was turned into a distraction.
Their sources where reliable. They interviewed and quoted several psychiatrists, residential treatment center directors, and members of the
community outreach teams.
The documentary as a whole was very thought provoking. The most emotional and thought provoking part is when they strategically placed the end story of the inmates at the end of the documentary. Doing this made the impact greater on the viewers. The most tragic being Lynn, who was shot to death in a robbery after he stopped taking his medications because he, like many other paranoid schizophrenics, thought he was cured after they start feeling better and no longer was having delusions and hallucinations while taking their medications. After 3 months of being released Jerry stopped taking his medications and robbed a pharmacy and landed a spot right back in prison. Benny disappeared for months
and then ending up back in jail due to his illusions that he was being targeted for a killing.
O'Conor and Navasky set out to give the facts of how SMI inmates are living once they are released from prison and jail and they did just that. They did not give suggestions on how to change the system or try to provoke the view to a specific set of steps to change this system. They presented the viewer with the facts and left it up to them to figure out and choose if and how the system should be changed to better serve the inmates being released and the communities into which they are being released.
Overall, I would give this film 3½ watermelons out of 5. It was informative and fulfilled it's purpose however, it could have offered more information and followed some inmates who successfully reentered society and shown comparatively what they did differently.
Angie Howe
While the interviews were insightful and full of information the film shots of an individual sitting and talking got really boring visually. Other graphics, photos, or even charts would have been a good change up and kept the viewers more interested in the visual aspect of the documentary.
Along with the visual aspect being under par so was the music. In parts it was hard hear it to the point where it was just an annoyance. The music didn't evoke emotions on the scale it could have. The music could have brought so much to this film but instead it was turned into a distraction.
Their sources where reliable. They interviewed and quoted several psychiatrists, residential treatment center directors, and members of the
community outreach teams.
The documentary as a whole was very thought provoking. The most emotional and thought provoking part is when they strategically placed the end story of the inmates at the end of the documentary. Doing this made the impact greater on the viewers. The most tragic being Lynn, who was shot to death in a robbery after he stopped taking his medications because he, like many other paranoid schizophrenics, thought he was cured after they start feeling better and no longer was having delusions and hallucinations while taking their medications. After 3 months of being released Jerry stopped taking his medications and robbed a pharmacy and landed a spot right back in prison. Benny disappeared for months
and then ending up back in jail due to his illusions that he was being targeted for a killing.
O'Conor and Navasky set out to give the facts of how SMI inmates are living once they are released from prison and jail and they did just that. They did not give suggestions on how to change the system or try to provoke the view to a specific set of steps to change this system. They presented the viewer with the facts and left it up to them to figure out and choose if and how the system should be changed to better serve the inmates being released and the communities into which they are being released.
Overall, I would give this film 3½ watermelons out of 5. It was informative and fulfilled it's purpose however, it could have offered more information and followed some inmates who successfully reentered society and shown comparatively what they did differently.
Angie Howe