Title: One Nation Under Guard

Producer: Lucas Krost

Region: U.S.A., North America

Length: 10:42

Issues: Tolerance

Description: US prisons have become big business, housing 25% of all the people in the world behind bars, the largest prison population on the planet. In a frenzy of criminal justice, we have turned our backs on the founding principles of this nation to produce state and federal prisons at an alarming rate—in the 1990s, opening 1 every 15 days in depressed rural towns and communities. Private correctional companies are entering the industry, appearing on the NY stock exchange, with an eye on the bottom line.

Under this prison-industrial complex, we are locking up 1 in 3 young black men in this nation, moving them far from home, and stripping them of the right to vote, the possibility of holding decent jobs and the dignity of supporting themselves and their families. US prisons are holding the strangest of reunions: grandfathers, fathers and sons behind bars.

There is no paying of their debt to society, no clean slate. One Nation Under Guard can inspire change by presenting the big picture of a US prison system that values the bottom line more than it does solutions, at enormous cost. Most people are unaware that this is happening. Current TV viewers will begin to see the real need for restorative justice, and will be moved toward supporting and joining those who are working for it. They will begin to demand change to create a prison system that delivers justice for all, not injustice for a marginalized minority.