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11|A SENTENCE APART | Discussion Guide | www.asentenceapart.com DISCUSSING A SENTENCE APART REFLECTION QUESTIONS • What scenes or stories stood out to you? • What themes resonated for you? • What thoughts or questions came up for you as you watched the film? • What additional resources would like you to have after watching this? A SENTENCE APART DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 1. Re-entry • What do you think are some of the barriers faced by ex-prisoners to finding housing, a job, or going back to school? • Describe the hopelessness and pain of Cheyanne’s father. Why did he go back to selling drugs? • Do you think our parole and probation system broken? Why or why not? • What does the word “rehabilitation” mean to you? Based on what you have learned today about the United States’ prison system, do you believe it is rehabilitating inmates? • What is the difference between “rehabilitation” and “punishment?” Do you need one for the other to succeed? 2. Breaking the Generational Cycle of Incarceration • Tanea says: “Just because my dad’s in jail doesn’t mean I’m not going to be anything. It doesn’t mean I’m not going to be successful. We don’t have to make the same decisions that our parents make. I advise that we don’t!” • What do you think are important factors to stopping the generational cycle of incarceration? 3. Emotions/Feelings of the Family Members • Describe the scene when Tanea and Cheyanne visited their fathers, and Linda visits her daughter? What do you think the impact on child visiting a parent is in that environment? What do you think the impact is on a parent visiting their child is in that environment? • What do you think the emotional impact of Cheyanne’s father constantly going back to jail/prison is on her? 4. Social Justice/Civil Rights • Tanea raises the issue of how we spend our resources and the underlying issue of priorities. She mentions that the cost of incarcerating her father is more than her family makes in a year; while she and her classmates have to share books at school. Do you agree with her assessment? What do you think would happen if the government spent the same amount of money on education as incarceration?

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