American Me

AMERICAN ME The movie American Me was nothing new to me, I must have seen that move at least 2 other times, but never really focused on the main issue itself, returning to society. Never did I really realize till this class that that was a huge problem with prisoners who are released back to society. Especially those who knew nothing but the 3 walls in that small cell they were sentenced to, Prisoners that have spent most of their lives in and out of those barb wires. In the movie there are several re-entry problems that they faced. The first one that came to mind and one that I also thought was funny was when Santana (Edward James Olmos) attended a party right after his release and had no clue how to mingle with other people. Dancing, something we do or have seen, he couldn’t do. It was like everything was new to him and non the less he was nervous to try for the first time. Socializing he also couldn’t do, people had to get the attention of others for him in order to talk to them, as it happened when he first met Yolanda. He even needed help shopping and eating out was really new, which I thought was funny but really a social problem. Intimacy was also hard for him and a first it was hard to actually show affection towards her, unfortunately once he got comfortable he obviously messed up by doing acts he has seen and even experienced in the prison. Both Santana and JD got themselves into trouble with drugs and still having conflicts with the blacks. Rather than finding a job and actually working for their money they do whatever to take the easy way out. Only to find themselves back in those prison walls. Puppet who took so much care,an watched over his younger brother little puppet ended up killing him, a few hours after his release from prison. All for keeping the gang he was in content. Those are just a few conflicts these men had when re-entering society. Something we really don’t think about when releasing these individuals. I believe the prison