“Escape: Getting High and Getting Out” examines the lives of drug addicts and the relationship between the criminal justice system, society and sobriety.  It’s way too much to put in a simple introduction, but the thing to take away here is that the system is broken.  This documentary highlights the element of choice that we hold so dear here in the good old US of A.  Almost any job of worth does a background check, and if you can’t pass it you’d better be prepared for a life of minimum wage.  And most of us just accept that if you do the crime you pay the price and take responsibility.  But does this actually help anyone?  Is anyone safer because one out of the hundreds of meth heads in your community sits in jail?  Does it help your personal neighborhood to know that someone’s motivation to stay clean rests on $8.00/ hour?  And probably the most important question to ask yourself might be, how do you know that any of the many people in your life haven’t done exactly the same things as that junkie criminal, just without getting caught?  What difference does that arrest record really make?  How many people work at the bank where you keep your money or the preschool where you send your children who just never happened to get caught?  And maybe, just maybe, they were able to see some real improvement in sobriety because they didn’t have to contend with a criminal record.  Maybe the key to staying sober is to experience real inclusion in your community.  I know it was for me.

                Read more in the "About the Filmmakers" section and my blog.