Tuesday, November 3, 1998
Road to recovery
FILM: A new documentary explores Project Return, a program that
provides job training for inmates returning to the outside
world
By Cheryl Klein
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
On any given night, viewers can expect to turn on the evening
news and see a bloody montage of car chases, gang shootings and
armed robberies. In between segments, Gray Davis and Dan Lungren
skirmish via commercial spots over who is tougher on crime. If
journalistic and political fervor are any indication, crime is a
hot issue.
Meanwhile, back in America’s prisons, criminals are piling up,
shipping out and being thrust back behind bars in frightening
dimensions.
But convicts have a determined few people who are working with
them, not just talking about them. Among the ranks is the somewhat
unlikely duo of Tulane University professor Bob Roberts and ex-bank
robber Nelson Marks. Together they form the backbone of Project
Return, a 90-day rehabilitation program that equips
soon-to-be-released prisoners with job skills that will arguably
deter them from returning to crime out of desperation.
When filmmaker Leslie Neale and her husband, former Doors
drummer John Densmore, discovered Project Return, they were proud
to join the effort by creating "Road to Return," an hour-long
documentary which screens on campus Friday at the James Bridges
Theater.
The road they embarked on to compile the personal stories of the
criminal justice system was eye opening in itself, Neale says.
"Especially as a woman, to walk into that world. Not just the
production world of being the director, producer and writer and
calling all the shots, which was quite empowering, but also to be
in the primarily male-dominated world of criminal justice," Neale
says.
Any stereotypes she had about inmate behavior were quickly
dashed.
"The only pass I ever got  and this was an all-male prison
 was made by the warden," she says.
Neale and Densmore took part in community-building workshops and
drum-beating rituals  two attempts at giving prisoners a
voice as opposed to governing by fear  that the film depicts
in powerful detail. In fact, the documentary’s acclaim thus far, as
well as the program’s, may owe largely to individual stories.
Take program head Marks, for example.
"Nelson went back to the bank that he had robbed many years
later and apologized," Densmore says. "He talked to some of the
tellers and found out they had kids like he did. They had a real
healing."
On the other side, there is 19-year-old Fenesha Blunt, who
speaks to the camera in an oddly childlike tone about her years as
a prostitute and drug addict and the equal number of years she has
spent in jail.
Of her own volition, she wrote to Project Return, professing her
desire to break the cycle and receive job training. Tragically, the
letter came when the program was struggling for funds and she was
turned away.
Now she is in prison again, facing a life sentence or even the
death penalty for her involvement in a robbery and homicide.
Such events evoke questions regarding the efficacy of "three
strikes" legislation, in which the nature of the first two
convictions are ignored.
Both Neale and Densmore stress that the answer lies in looking
at convicts first as people.
"I said, ‘Fenesha, what are your hopes and dreams? What are you
looking forward to?’" Neale says. "She got this huge bubbly smile
and hope filled her eyes and she says, ‘Well, I’d really love to go
to college like the other kids and wear blue jeans and dreadlocks.’
And my heart was breaking. Because I knew for her that was never
ever going to happen. But in order to survive, she’s got to hold
onto some kind of hope."
Densmore adds, "Two of  in my opinion  the most
respected world leaders today didn’t come out of universities,
which everybody thinks. They came out of prison. Nelson Mandela and
Vaclav Havel."
So what are U.S. leaders doing? A partial answer may come with
today’s elections. Both parties are undeniably entrenched in the
issue of crime, though candidates reflect voters’ fears when they
speak more often of harsher sentencing than reform.
"To those more conservative folks out there, this is not being
soft on crime," Densmore says. "Because 80 percent of everybody
(incarcerated) goes back out and commits a crime. So it ain’t
working, this ‘tough on crime.’"
This is something politicians may be privately aware of, Neale
says. She spoke about the subject with Tim Robbins, who narrates
"Road to Return" and brought prison life to Hollywood both as an
actor ("Shawshank Redemption") and director ("Dead Man Walking,"
whose real life inspiration, Sister Helen Prejean, also appears in
the documentary).
"He told us, ‘When I was doing "Shawshank," I would have
politicians come up to me and say, "I know what we’re doing is only
contributing to the problem, but if I go out and say that, I will
be perceived as being soft on crime. I’ll never get re-elected,"’"
Neale says. "So I hope the film begins to empower politicians with
a good side of the argument that we can rethink the problem."
She attests that many conservative audiences have applauded both
the film and the project for its emphasis on hard work,
accountability and its economic rationale. Project Return spends
about $4,000 per person. In comparison, incarcerating a convict for
a year costs between $15, 000 and $20, 000.
Neale speculates that the hardest audience to reach includes
"people who are locked in cynicism," a trait that crosses political
and demographic boundaries. While both gubernatorial candidates
arguably fit this group, Neale hopes college students haven’t
reached that point yet.
"I don’t necessarily have my pulse on young adults right now, so
I’m excited to see what the reaction is," Neale says. "One of the
things that happens with the screenings is that people want to talk
a lot afterwards."
And that, even before increased education and intervention and
programs like Project Return, may be the crucial first step on the
road to return.
FILM: "Road to Return" screens Nov. 6 at 7:30 p.m. in UCLA’s
James Bridges Theater. Admission is free. Call (310)
825-7403.Photos courtesy of Chance Films
Nelson Marks served 12 and a half years for armed bank
robbery.
An inmate is processed for release after having served two and a
half years for a sex offense charge.
Inmates wait in lockdown at Angola Prison.
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