American Violet

Inspired by true events, this penetrating drama centers on Dee Roberts a 24-year-old mother of four who's forced to take on a corrupt district attorney when she's unjustly prosecuted in a large-scale drug case. This is an inspiring tale. - From the Netflix Web Site.

I saw this movie over the weekend. It was a very very good movie, based on an NPR story by Wade Goodwyn. It was mostly a believable, yet unbelievable story. A shocking thing this movie looked at, other than racial profiling by cops, was plea bargains, which almost every person who is arrested is offered. A plea bargain means that you admit you are guilty, whether you are or not, in order to take the minimum jail sentence and avoid the maximum jail sentence the person could get by going through with a trial. When a person admits they are guilty to a felony, they lose public housing and other benefits, such as welfare and food stamps, something that I personally was not aware of. Once you are convicted of a felony its also much harder to get a job because you have to put that on every single job application.

From the movie: America has the world’s largest prison population. More than Russia. More than China – a country with over four times our population. Over two million Americans are in prison. More than 90% of these convicts accepted a plea bargain. They never faced a jury of their peers because in our country we do not adjudicate cases, we dispose of them.

Check out their Web site or watch the movie, I think you will really like it.

http://www.americanviolet.com/