Welcome to this passionate slice of Substack! Mm, mm good! We’re here to talk about serious things, but I really don’t want this to be dry.

This is a real discussion of movies and criminal justice. We're on the internet, so this is not much of a novelty to you, but it's pretty unique to me.

I was a prisoner of the federal government from 2014 to the beginning of 2023. In March, 2023, I was able to leave my halfway house and rejoin society. I've left behind a pretty broken, damaging system, one that does nothing to improve the lives of victims or perpetrators.

We're soapboxing already, I know. But let’s talk about movies.

In the federal prison system, of which I toured a couple of facilities, they have an Institution Movie program where they play recent releases on DVD. In addition, we are the slaves of basic cable, so two years after the film was released, more or less, we would see it repeated ad nauseum on a combination of TBS, FX, TNT what have you.

Obviously the bulk of these films are generic big budget crowdpleasers made for teenagers, so it's not exactly an embarrassment of riches. And as a fan of cheeseburgers, I know how unwise it would be to eat one each and every single day. The Institution Movie program was beholden to the Zimmer Amendment (aka the No Frills Prison Act), so we were forbidden to have R-rated movies and premium cable, elements Congressman Dick Zimmer pegged as "amenities" (peruse the implications as you will).

1. What Are We Doing Here?

The purpose is for me to see and review films that I did not get to see, released between the periods of late 2014 and early 2023. Because of the aforementioned programs, I did indeed see many of the big blockbusters but I was foiled in efforts to see smaller, more challenging fare. Part of the criminal justice system involves treating inmates as if they are children. This is an attempt to rectify this. I kept a list of what I was missing when I was down, and since I’ve been out, I’ve been working my way through it.

Each review, five per week, will be accompanied by a short discussion on a matter related to criminal justice, possibly from a first person perspective. So you’re getting some film chit-chat, and you’re getting a side of what incarcerated people experience every day in America.

2. Why Only Arthouse Films?

Well, I hope there's room for more fun, popular stuff too. I love the Marvel movies as much as the next guy, though I recognize that there's not that much to be gained from really doing a deep dive discussion on them. I might try anyway!

Still, federal prison is a time when your spirit and your body are challenged, but not so much your mind. I hope arthouse films can reawaken something inside me. And I hope that maybe we can embark on this challenge together. So hopefully this is an opportunity to pick through a pretty exciting time for cinema that has emerged off the beaten path. Do I care more, or less, about what’s important to arthouse film viewers?

3. Why 2014-onwards?

In case you've noticed, we've lived through some interesting times during this last decade. I'm sure it's a bit egocentric that all generations think they've lived through history, but a lot has happened since 2014, and I've experienced it from prison. Donald Trump, COVID, Ukraine. Some might say the death of truth. The rise of Facebook. Choose your chyron. So the good news is, lots of great movies from which I can choose.

4. Oh, and about Donald Trump…

Glad you asked. If you want to find a website sympathetic to the viewpoint of the world's least empathetic man, I'm afraid you'll have to go elsewhere. One of my fascinations is that as I was incarcerated, forced to adapt to a prison atmosphere, I saw a man ascend to the presidency and try to turn the country into a microcosm of my environment. Poor choices, insane bedfellows, loud bluster and obnoxious antagonism, and a culture of punching down. No, I do not look favorably on this man, nor does history.

I was eager for a while to get this project going. But the fact is, people are now either talking about criminal justice, or at least pretending to. We have a President who has been convicted of, and accused of, several crimes. And he has earned support due to the skepticism people have towards the justice system. This skepticism was recently shared by the Supreme Court, who essentially said Presidents could not be prosecuted for “official acts”, casting a mighty wide web. So, we have finally placed one person above the law in America, that position may be filled by someone who has had a contentious relationship to the law for decades.

So maybe it’s time for us to discuss what exactly the government is trying to do when they enforce the law. Or, in this case, don’t. This question is relevant both to (improbably) the President, as well as the two million people in America currently incarcerated and their families and loved ones.

5. So… how was prison?

Such a generous question. I like you!

During the course of these reviews I'll be discussing different aspects of the prison life that defined me over the last couple of years. I watched indie and foreign cinema before this experience, but I imagine I'll be watching it differently now.

I was limited to low-security facilities for the majority of my term though I did end up at a penitentiary at one point for an odd brief spell. I stayed at a few holding facilities as well, in-between spots where you mingle with all sorts of colorful comers-and-goers.

I did not serve time in the medium-security federal prisons or the penitentiaries for the most part. And while one holding center where I stayed was also a state prison, I cannot exactly give an opinion on many state jails and prisons.

Low security federal prisons house the most prisoners by far in the federal system. So we're talking about a large percentage of the incarcerated people in this country, many serving very long sentences. It was a colorful atmosphere, but largely low security federal prisons house inmates with one of three types of crimes: drug crimes, sex crimes and financial crimes.

An important difference between state versus federal charge is that the feds are primarily concerned with interstate commerce. So if you move product on the corner, the police will pursue you and you'll probably do time in a state prison. But if you move product and you and/or that product cross state lines in the process of that transaction, the federal government will get involved.

I highly recommend you look deeper into the federal criminal statutes, as they are largely based on illicit financial operations crossing state lines. Not so much on helping or protecting victims.

6. A Community For Comments?

Obviously, being in federal prison, I was not acquainted with the internet in any reasonable capacity. As such, I only heard about the very worst tendencies of those online, from the media and through anecdotal discussion. You can forgive me for being cagey. So this is not going to be one of those free speech bastions: if you are harassing others or generally picking fights, you will be banned. If you are discussing the personal information of anyone else commenting (is this called doxxing?) you will be banned. Any other scenarios are up to my discretion. If you are banned, you have not been cancelled. I went to prison, therefore I was cancelled. Any other situation, as long as you're alive, you've been postponed.

And please, if there’s any place where your male fragility is unwelcome, it’s here. I’ve been in prison… where did all this male fragility come from?

7. What Is The Zimmer Amendment?

The Zimmer Amendment was proposed in the 1990's by Rep. Dick Zimmer, as part of a larger hard-on-crime campaign that largely defined criminal justice in the 1990's. In short, Zimmer was facing pushback regarding taxpayers supposedly paying for criminals to live handsomely. The proposal eventually outlined a series of fairly arbitrary restrictions on the lifestyles of the incarcerated, in an era where ideas like parole went by the wayside.

This proposal resulted in a paradox. Zimmer's proposal was meant to pass through the House and the Senate. However, before this could happen, the Federal Bureau Of Prisons (FBOP) basically implemented the plan without approval, which is why many claim the Zimmer Amendment and others like it "died" in the process of being approved. Tellingly the FBOP selectively follows the policy -- in many prisons, I've seen weightlifting gear we are not supposed to have. Basically, the FBOP is looking for a license to make their own rules, and the loose implementation of the Zimmer Amendment gives them carte blanche to restrict anything as long as it is "relevant to the penological goals of the institution". There have been lawsuits on First Amendment grounds. They have failed.

8. What’s In Store?

Well, I’m trying to do five posts a week, all based on a certain film theme. I hope you’ll spread the word. I’m not doing this to make money, so all posts will be free. Please let everyone you know who might be interested in movies and/or criminal justice to subscribe and pass the word!

If you’d like to know more about criminal justice and related topics, I’d highly recommend reading/subscribing to the fine folks at:

The Appeal (theappeal.org)

Mother Jones (Motherjones.com)

Truthout (truthout.org)

And The Marshall Project (themarshallproject.org)

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