An Ex-Con's Journey Back to Prison: Revolving Doors
Fifteen years after he left prison, Jason Bobbitt found himself headed back. The father of five tried to find honest work once he got out, but couldn’t—getting nabbed on the exact same cocaine charges that first landed him behind bars. Now, in his 40s, he was facing up to ten years away from his home, his wife, and his kids, and there was nothing he could do about it.
In ‘Revolving Doors,’ filmmaker James Burns spent two years following Bobbitt and his family as the ex-convict prepared to head back to prison. The documentary chronicles how losing their father to jail for a second time devastated Bobbitt’s family, and—even after getting out on parole 18 months later—it was too late for most of the damage to be undone. The film is a portrait of American recidivism, told through the unique lens of a filmmaker who also served time in prison and struggled with the effects of incarceration.
This was a fascinating documentary that followed one man's story of returning to prison. What I found very sad about this story was overall the guy seems like a pretty nice guy. He seems like a family man, he spends time with his kids, he's trying to give them a better childhood than he had, he's trying to teach them personal responsibility and thinking about their futures.
The reason he's going back to prison after having already served 15 years is for a conspiracy to distribute cocaine charge. There's really no excuse for that, it's against the law, all that, but the guy basically says after getting out he tried to get jobs, either people don't want to hire felons or the few jobs that are available to him pay $8 or $10 per hour which just isn't enough to raise a family of 7. He basically said he knew what he was doing was wrong, but tough situations make people make tough choices and he wasn't going to let his family go hungry.
While obviously this man is responsible for much of his own choices, it's sad that many peoples childhoods and upbringings don't really even give them a chance at success. It also shows how the system is broken, half of people who get out of prison go back, the system doesn't rehabilitate people, it destroys families. I don't know that there's a better way but there's no denying the current system doens't work.
The man in this story has since gotten out of prison and is back with his family, however during his 18 months away, a couple of his kids have slipped away and are getting involved in gangs and drugs and hanging out with the wrong people. It's a very sad story.