District of Second Chances

A quest for redemption is unfolding in Washington, D.C. Thanks to the forward looking Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act, also known as "Second Chance" legislation, three men who were sentenced to life in prison in youth and young adulthood have the chance to be released back to their families and communities.

The film captures the journeys as they unfold: Anthony "Pete" Petty, who has just won his freedom and must rebuild his life after three decades in prison; Gene Downing, who awaits his second chance hearing after two decades behind hard and hopes to reunite with a daughter born after his incarceration; and Colie Levar Long, who is mentoring youth incarcerated with him at a D.C. jail. All three men would have been locked up for the remainder of their lives, but now have an opportunity for a second chance as the district looks both to reduce their prison population, and address overzealous sentencing during the Clinton-era "super-predator" hysteria. During this era, the number of minors given life sentences skyrocketed from just 2 a year in the 70s, to 152 annually by 1996. 

The men featured speak at length about the environments they grew up in, the ways prison shaped their adulthoods, and the support systems needed to avoid recidivism. The film also goes over the long reaching negative harm that extreme sentencing and over-incarceration has had on generations of young Black and brown men, as well as their families and communities, and highlights the nationally low recidivism rates experienced by citizens released through these programs. With the United States a global outlier in draconian sentences among developed nations, Washington, D.C. is leading the way with second chance reform, a transformational criminal justice movement spreading across the country. But, as the film shows, a second chance is never guaranteed. District of Second Chances highlights how offering a corrective to harmful criminal justice practices of the past are crucial to rebuilding and strengthening the communities of the future. 

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FILMMAKER'S STATEMENT: "I love filmmaking because it allows the audience to come into close contact with people they would never meet otherwise, in situations they could never imagine. District of Second Chances was a chance to go behind in the usually impenetrable barbed wire walls of prison to meet the flawed, striving and very human individuals who find themselves incarcerated.

I am hoping that the audience is moved by the humanity of the people in the film, especially as these people who are generally looked down upon or dismissed. I would love to have an impact on people's assumptions that life sentences are effective as a crime deterrent and that people with long sentences deserve it. 'If you do the crime, you do the time' doesn't take into account the length of the time and whether it truly serves our society."