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- Academic Video Online This link opens in a new window Academic Video Online delivers more than 67,000 titles spanning a range of subject areas including anthropology, business, counseling, film, health, history, music, and more. It includes documentaries, films, demonstrations, and other content types.
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Featured Films
- Released (streaming, Academic Video Online) Two-thirds of convicts released from prison return behind bars within three years. Released presents the hopeful stories of four parolees who prove that the tide of recidivism can be reversed, if former prisoners are given the support they need to reenter society.
- Life on Parole (streaming, Academic Video Online) With unique access, FRONTLINE and The New York Times go inside an effort to change the way parole works in Connecticut and reduce the number of people returning to prison. The film follows four former inmates as they try to find work, stay sober and keep out of trouble while navigating their first year on parole.
- Life Sentence (streaming, Academic Video Online) Recent statistics indicate that one in 100 Americans are incarcerated. This shocking figure impels us to look closely at our penal system. Tough sentencing rules and release policies have become the norm in the federal system, which is extremely punitive. Life Sentence lets us hear from six formerly incarcerated men and women, some of whom were sentenced as adolescents.
- Restitution Community (streaming, Academic Video Online) Discusses the idea of providing restitution to the victim or doing community service projects as an alternative to paying a fine, probation, or imprisonment for the punishment of a crime.
- Circle Up (streaming, Kanopy) Circle up tells the powerful story of a group of Boston mothers who seek true justice for their sons' murders. For these women, justice is not about revenge or mass incarceration but about healing, accountability, and community peace. This documentary speaks to the practice and power of restorative justice.
- Shakespeare behind bars : A theater troupe in prison(streaming, Kanopy) Murderers, Fugitives, Thieves...Shakespeare would have loved these guys. Shakespeare Behind Bars is an unexpectedly delightful documentary that follows the casting, rehearsal, and presentation of Shakespeare's play, The Tempest, by convicted felons inside Kentucky's Luther Luckett Correctional Complex.
- The Work: Group Therapy with Folsom Prison Inmates (streaming, Kanopy) Set inside a single room in Folsom Prison, THE WORK follows three men from outside as they participate in a four-day group therapy retreat with level-four convicts. Over the four days, each man in the room takes his turn at delving deep into his past.The raw and revealing process that the incarcerated men undertake exceeds the expectations of the free men, ripping them out of their comfort zones and forcing them to see themselves and the prisoners in unexpected ways.
- Concrete, Steel & Paint: A Film About Crime, Restoration and Healing (streaming, Kanopy) When men in a state prison join with victims of crime to create a mural about healing, their views on punishment, remorse, and forgiveness collide. Finding consensus is not easy - but as the participants move through the creative process, mistrust gives way to surprising moments of human contact and common purpose. This complex story raises important questions about crime, justice and reconciliation-and dramatically illustrates how art can facilitate dialogue about these difficult issues.
- First Degree (streaming, Academic Video Online) Nationwide, nearly half of released inmates return to prison within 5 years. First Degree takes viewers inside Sing Sing Prison, one of the nation's most infamous maximum-security prisons, and presents a remarkable program that has dropped the recidivism rate to under 2%.
- Transitioning Clients from Corrections to Community (streaming, Academic Video Online) The program provides information about offenders incarcerated in state of Missouri prisons with Substance Abuse problems and Mental Health disorders. Dr. Nolin will discuss some basic challenges faced by offenders with co-occurring disorders face within the correctional system and upon release into the community and reference some evolving interventions and initiatives being implemented by MoDOC and partnering agencies.
- Beyond Conviction (streaming, Academic Video Online) In 1998, the state of Pennsylvania launched a pioneering mediation program in which victims of violent crimes or their family members could meet face-to-face with the perpetrators of their crimes. The program provides an opportunity for survivors to express long-brewing emotions and get answers to questions that have haunted them. It also allows perpetrators to express remorse and attempt to make amends after years of reflection.
- Pervert Park (streaming, Academic Video Online) Florida Justice Transitions is home to 120 convicted sex offenders. Like in many other U.S. states, sex offenders are not allowed to live within 1000 feet of places frequented by children. Because of this, many sex offenders live under bridges or in woods - or in the trailer park Florida Justice Transitions - also known as "Pervert Park". The crimes committed by the residents range from simple misdemeanors to horrendous acts unbearable to contemplate. The characters in Pervert Park are all fighting their own very different battles and demons. In this film they tell us their stories as they have never told them before.
- Road to Reentry: Reconnecting with Family and Community (streaming, Academic Video Online) This program helps viewers: Understand the importance and advantages of reconnecting with family and others who may be positive influences. Prepare for the difficulties they may encounter when re-establishing relationships. Identify situations where it may be detrimental to reconnect with people from their past. Discover community-based organizations or programs that can support their reentry goals.
- Road to Reentry: Meeting Your Basic Needs (streaming, Academic Video Online) This program helps viewers: Prepare for the barriers they may face transitioning back to society, particularly in the first few weeks or months of their release.
- Road to Reentry: Finding Employment (streaming, Academic Video Online) This program helps viewers: Learn the most effective techniques for finding job leads and securing job offers. Discover best practices for completing job applications and creating resumes and cover letters. Understand how to present themselves professionally in interviews. Know when and how to appropriately address their incarceration with employers.
- Road to Reentry: Making Healthy Choices (streaming, Academic Video Online) This program helps viewers: Understand the importance of managing their physical and mental health. Identify resources and programs that help formerly incarcerated individuals monitor and improve their health. Discover techniques for dealing effectively with substance abuse and addiction. Learn about healthy coping methods for dealing with stress.
- Road to Reentry: Succeeding on the Job (streaming, Academic Video Online) This program helps viewers: Identify essential skills and personality traits required for retaining employment and career advancement. Understand employers’ expectations. Learn about behaviors and attitudes that can be detrimental to their job security and reputation
- Halfway House: Prison Without Bars (streaming, Academic Video Online) This episode of Investigative Reports examines Garrett House, a Camden, New Jersey, halfway house run by Volunteers of America. This facility exclusively serves violent offenders who are hoping that this will be their last step before being granted parole.
- College Behind Bars (PBS) Explore the transformative power of education through the eyes of a dozen incarcerated men and women trying to earn college degrees – and a chance at new beginnings – from one of the country’s most rigorous prison education programs.
- Frontline: The Released: The Cyclical Incarceration of Ex-Cons with Mental Illnesses (dvd) In this follow up to the groundbreaking film The New Asylums, FRONTLINE examines what happens to the mentally ill when they leave prison and why they return at such alarming rates. The intimate stories of the released-along with interviews with parole officers, social workers, and psychiatrists-provide a rare look at the lives of the mentally ill as they struggle to stay out of prison and reintegrate into society
- Chasing Bonnie & Clyde: When Texas Gets Smart on Crime (streaming, Academic Video Online) ‘‘Don’t build prisons, they cost too much!’’ In this era of Great Recession, the conservative and tough-on-crime State of Texas takes an unprecedented path by becoming a social justice leader with programs that rehabilitate offenders. Several teenagers’ journeys to get a second chance are paralleled to the authentic and mythical outlawed path of Bonnie & Clyde, who were not given the chance to survive in the 30s.
Podcasts
- The Second Chance Club: Life in Parole World (Criminal Injustice) Every year, more than 600,000 Americans leave our jails and prisons. Many are on parole. Others people are put on probation instead of going to prison. The job of supervising all of them falls to parole and probation officers.
- In Louisiana, prisons shift toward rehabilitation (PBS) For decades, Louisiana incarcerated more people per-capita than anywhere else on Earth, and more than half of the state's inmates are now held in sheriff-run jails. But a major overhaul to Louisiana's criminal justice system is shifting the focus to rehabilitation.
- A Life Sentence – and Now Out (Criminal Injustice) Every year, courts hand out sentences of life without the possibility of parole to people convicted of serious crimes. Our guest today was one of those people, and he’ll tell us what that was like – and, with his sentence commuted, what his life is like on the outside, after 43 years.
- Hear This: You're Doing Fine, Oklahoma (Criminal Injustice) Recommended: NPR's November 4 report on the release of hundreds of prisoners in Oklahoma after their sentences were reduced by the state's Pardon and Parole Board.
- Rehabilitation And Education In America's Prisons (nor) Joining us for our discussion about education in prisons are Jule Hall, Bard Prison Initiative alumni and program associate for the Ford Foundation; Charisma Howell, director of the Georgetown Street Law program; Rep. David Trone, D-Md., and David Wise, former warden of St. Clair Correctional Facility in Alabama.
- One in Four Podcast Humanize. Educate. Elevate. Conversations on the re-entry process of people who have experienced incarceration.
