Film Review on After Innocence

Here is my film review on the documentary, After Innocence.

Film Review On After Innocence

“It’s finally over it’s been 19 years.” That is more than just a number, it’s nearly a third of a man’s life that has been absolutely traumatized. It symbolizes an unfortunate truth that resides amongst us today. The documentary I watched for the DOC Project was After Innocence. This film consisted of several men who served in jail for many years over crimes they did not commit. However, that is just part of the issue as these men try to transition back to society.

To start off there were a couple things that surprised me in the film. Although sentencing innocent people to jail was not much a surprise as mistakes will happen, taking twenty years to figure out they were innocent is just beyond belief. Weather the DNA test be done earlier, hearing from more witnesses, whatever the cause may be, but to realize someone was innocent after they were in jail for over two decades is unacceptable. Another thing that surprised me in the film was the government ignoring the situation and not helping the people get their lives back on track. The very least they could do is offer some money to help them get themselves situated but ignoring the problem is a major problem in itself that needs to be fixed.

Moreover, questions remain unanswered after watching this film. The men in the film have already gone through the difficult phase of jail and trying to get back to their normal lives, but what about the rest of the men and women innocent in jail? The question that demands an answer, and quite frankly the right answer is, what will the government do going forward to solve this issue? There should be a law where the government owes innocent people a certain amount of money for the time they served in jail so they could get their loves back on track. Whatever conclusion they come to, one needs to transpire quickly.

To add on, some problematic concepts I see in this film that I would research more about is in fact how the government plans to address this issue. I also want to understand from the people that served in jail, their perspective on the situation and their lives five, ten, fifteen, years later and how they have adapted back to society. I would be intrigued to see how time in jail has changed them, even though they were innocent, but the people they have become after 20 years locked in a cell. However, the most important problem issue is how the government plans to fix this glaring issue that is ruining the lives of hundreds of people each and every year.

In conclusion, the men in this film are just a few out of hundreds around the country that served over decades in jail for a crime they did not commit. There has to be a better way to treat these people that have been proven innocent and more importantly to assure the people serving time in jail are all guilty of a crime, rather than innocent. It’s saddening a normal person like you and I could experience such a tragedy, but it is a main problem in this world that needs to be solved.

Presidential Candidate Debate

As the election of our next president nears, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton begin to have debates to persuade us on whom to cast our vote for. Personally, I'm not too thrilled about our candidates but I do look to vote for this upcoming election. I felt Donald as well as Hillary touched on some key points our country needs to address moving forward. Something I realized was many of their goals were similar such as making the economy better, defeating Isis, as well as solving the racial issues that remain in our country today, however their approach to get there differed from one another. It will be interesting to see what they believe is necessary to make America a better country for all going forward and which candidate will win my vote along with the millions of other Americans around the country.

Campus Parking

Many students across the campus of Lewis University will admit that parking is a problem. With the limited parking spots available, many students are wondering why we are required to pay for a parking pass if it does not even ensure a parking spot on a daily basis. Students will say they wouldn't mind paying for a parking pass if the money was going into creating more parking spots for students, but that doesn't seem to be the case as it's an ongoing problem semester after semester. Students as well as professors seem to have an issue with this and it's causing problems such as being late to class. I wouldn't mind paying for a parking pass if it meant finding a parking spot was a sure thing every day, but the last thing a college student wants is to pay for something that has no use.

Blogging

Blogging is something new to me, however it's just another form of social media. When I learned we were required to create a blogging account for this class I didn't like the idea because I felt I already spend enough time on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. However, I now view this as another learning experience and something that could be more interesting than a typical day of lecture and notes in a classroom. Although it did take some time to create and set up my blog, it didn't take long for me to learn how it worked. To sum it up, I'm excited to see how this form of social media will collaborate with out College Writing Class as the semester goes on.