- 3 days ago
“We have the largest prison population on the planet and it’s not because Americans are uniquely evil. It’s because we’ve got this really barbaric system in place and we need to take a look at it,” Cooke told THR.
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00:00Hi, this is Mariah Gullow from The Hollywood Reporter, and I'm in studio today with Matthew
00:07Cook and David Arquette. Thank you for being here, guys. So, Matthew, you're the writer and
00:13director of Survivor's Guide to Prison. I think so. And David Arquette, you're the producer,
00:18along with your wife. That's what they tell me. Yes, my wife especially. I wanted to ask you
00:24guys a question first and foremost. One of the facts that I learned in this documentary was that
00:30the average American, because of all the laws on the book, might commit up to three felonies a day.
00:36Can you take me through a three felony day? Yeah. I mean, look, here's the thing. There is
00:44such a wide kind of array of possibility interpretation of the law that a police officer
00:53could essentially arrest you for resisting arrest. I mean, if there's not circular logic there,
00:59I don't know where you might find it. And so the point about the Wall Street Journal article
01:03is that essentially we're all in jeopardy all the time. And the idea that prison is the natural
01:12response to harm and conflict makes no sense. And I mean, have you noticed any interesting
01:19statistics or trends? I mean, the documentary touches on so many things. I mean, there's so
01:23many issues economically, socially, there's the privatization of prisons, there's racism
01:30within the country, cultural desire to get the bad guy, which is kind of an ingrained cultural
01:36thing in our country. In any country. Yeah, absolutely. But did you see any interesting
01:43trends between like rural and urban or like, are you more likely to get caught in the prison
01:48system if you're living in an urban area versus a rural area? You know, I don't know off the top
01:53of my head, the proportions on that. If you are, I can tell you a little bit more about kind of the
01:59drug markets. And if you, if you operate in an open market, you're more like, in other words,
02:03out on the street, then you're more likely to get picked up than if you work, you know, in drugs in a,
02:07if you sell drugs in a closed market. There are communities and areas where the police routinely go in
02:13and once you've been stopped and then you, you're, you know, you're in suspicion or you're,
02:17you're suspected of being a member of a gang and so forth and so on. There are plenty of urban areas
02:21which are just invaded constantly by law enforcement. And so there's this terrible relationship between a
02:27lot of communities, inner city communities and law enforcement. And the feeling is that law enforcement
02:31isn't there to serve and protect. They're there to fee and fine and arrest and prosecute. You know,
02:36so it's a real problem. And 30% of our population is made up of people of color, but 60%
02:43of our prison population is made up of people of color. So it's disproportionate.
02:49Right. And there's also a disproportionate amount of Americans in prison. There are other countries
02:54who have a way larger population than us, but they have less of a prison population.
02:58Sure. Like China, like Russia and so forth. We have a larger prison population than both of those
03:02countries. We have the largest prison population on the planet. And it's not because Americans are
03:07somehow uniquely evil and criminal and therefore more Americans are therefore in prison. It's because
03:12we've kind of got this really barbaric system in place and we need to take a look at it.
03:17I also noticed that it said that the, we have the largest and the fastest growing female prison
03:23population. Yeah. One third of the world's imprisoned females are in America. You know,
03:31when we look at all these other countries where women's rights are, you know, not as progressive
03:36as ours and we still lock them up more than anywhere. Right. And do you have a, like a personal
03:45story that you can tell that kind of got you on this path of creating this documentary?
03:50Um, there but for the grace of God go I. I mean, when I was a kid, I did a bunch of illegal stuff.
03:57I made fake IDs for money. I was, I don't want to over dramatize it and say I was homeless,
04:03but I like couch surfed for a couple of semesters. I didn't have a place to live. And so I made fake
04:08IDs to, to make a living. Allegedly. Allegedly, you know, I may have done that or may have someone
04:15looked like me. But anyway, the, the, the point is that I didn't go to prison and I didn't go to prison
04:19because, um, I was treated differently by law enforcement and I saw that. And so that made me
04:25slightly aware of it. I, uh, got, had the opportunity to teach acting class in San Quentin
04:31for two days. And that was a really eyeopening experience just to see these people and talk to
04:38them about their story and what, how they ended up there. A lot of the time, every, almost everyone I
04:43talked to was a victim of abuse. So they're, they're going through all this pain and, and, and they've
04:49built up this sort of attitude toward life where I'm going to make sure I get them before
04:54they get me, which just led them to, you know, life of crime or whatever.
05:00And it's funny when you say that, that's, that's our response in the criminal justice system.
05:04It's like, we're going to get them before they get me. Like we're, we're behaving exactly
05:08the same as, as those we supposed to criticize or want to help. And in terms of the women, the
05:13women, the statistics of women in prison is really abominable. The majority of women who are
05:17in prison, we have the most women in prison than any other country. And they're mostly mothers.
05:22Yeah. 80% of the women in prison are mothers.
05:26Wow. Wow.
05:27And there's 2.7 million children that have a parent in prison. So it's totally destroying
05:33our whole family dynamic as well.
05:35Right. I mean, if we care about victims of crime, if we want victims of crime to heal,
05:39to be able to overcome whatever they, that befell them, if we want to help people and save them
05:44from a life of crime, if we want to make society more harmonious and just, then we use a completely
05:50different system than the prison model. And that's what we're hoping people realize when they
05:54watch this film, is they go, wow, we're taking a bad situation and we're making things worse.
05:58This is not police bashing or right politics or left politics. This is just about common sense
06:05and about really caring for each other and taking care of one another.
06:07You touch on so many different topics in the documentary, but is there something that stood out
06:13like a recommendation? Because it's in the form of recommendations on if you get caught
06:18in this situation, if you confront a police officer, if you find yourself being arrested,
06:23here are the things you can do to get through it. What's the recommendation that really stood out to you?
06:29Like what has really stayed in your brain?
06:33Well, I mean, it all unfortunately stays in my brain.
06:37But I would say the one thing that sticks there the most is the big picture.
06:41How do we solve prison? How do we survive prison as a society?
06:46And how we survive it is we no longer use it as the be-all and end-all tool for conflict resolution.
06:54Right. Yeah. Also the plea, like we don't have a court system in this country.
07:01We have a plea bargain system. Most cases are settled through plea bargains.
07:05So, you know, people who have money have a greater chance of not going to jail
07:11if they can afford a great attorney, if they can make bail.
07:13You know, people without money don't have as good a chance.
07:17They'll most likely not be able to make bail. They'll go from, you know, county jail into the court
07:23in a jumpsuit, in shackles, and their chances are, I think, like a third, one third more of a chance.
07:31Yeah, being incarcerated. Just that you're more likely if you don't have money, everything's stacked against you.
07:37You're wearing that orange jumpsuit and then they see you in that way.
07:41And you might sit in prison for a year before you get a trial.
07:44So you might be innocent of this crime, sitting in jail, just, you know, and then all the horrors that you experience while in there.
07:52Yeah. It's really frightening.
07:54Yeah. How do we make real changes to the prison system in a world where facts and compassion and individual rights are being increasingly ignored?
08:06Legislation. The real way we change is by voting. We need people to vote in general. Everyone should just get out and vote.
08:15And there's a lot of, we do a lot of work with Cut 50, Van Jones Company.
08:21And if you go to their website or ARC.org, they'll have a lot of the upcoming legislation, state by state, that's coming up that you can vote on the next time you go to the polls.
08:32There are so many incredible organizations. The ones David just talked about are really, really amazing.
08:38And they just need our support and more support and more awareness that these people are out there and that they're the ones with the answers.
08:45And also, I mean, are you both Californians? Yeah. So, you know, we're living in a place that has, you know, a giant prison system, a huge population.
08:57We're also living in the place where the entertainment business is, like, you know, the dream factory.
09:02Do you think that Hollywood has a responsibility to start changing the culture?
09:08We're all in this together any way you slice it. And the fact is that independent films will do better when audiences buy independent movies.
09:17If audiences out there want to support things other than big, giant action franchises, they've got to go to the movie theater.
09:24They've got to go on Netflix. They've got to go on Crackle. They've got to go on all the places and get those independent movies.
09:29And then we'll be able to make more of them. Hollywood is just a little city that's owned and operated by five giant media corporations that control 90% of what we consume.
09:38So, like, you know, to say Hollywood has a responsibility. Hey, we would love to do more movies, more TV shows, more things about topics that matter.
09:47You know, we just need audiences that want to get them and distributors that want to distribute.
09:51But if you're an actor, please don't speak out or say anything. Have an opinion about anything, especially politics.
09:59Yeah, just stick to acting. Just, yeah.
10:02I mean, it is like an amazing point that, like, you know, a lot of times the culture has to shift before people start voting towards legislative action.
10:12Yes.
10:13And, you know, there's the possibility of the culture shifting now more than ever because we're at this, like, tipping point.
10:20People are very divided right now. What can people do if they feel touched by this particular topic?
10:27Oh, my God. So many things. I mean, they could write a letter to someone who's inside and just be a friend.
10:34They could, as David said, go to ARC.org, the anti-recidivism coalition.org.
10:39They could go to Cut 50, Van Jones' organization, and see what kind of legislation they can help.
10:44There's Sankofa, the Belafonte organization. Gina Belafonte is one of our awesome producing partners.
10:50There's Hudson Link on the East Coast that brings education into prisons, and they're expanding one by one just trying to get education.
11:00I mean, whatever. You can volunteer. There's AA groups that go in and speak specifically to prisoners.
11:06There's people that donate their time as educators to go in there, teach them different things.
11:11You could do, you know, whatever. Volunteering in a community level is great.
11:16And there's companies like Homeboy Industries that take it upon themselves to hire people who've been in prison and, you know, give them a job.
11:26And, you know, that's the main thing. Job, education, some kind of hope that they're, you know, there's a lot of people that also do things when people are coming out
11:36to sort of re-acclimate into the real world, the greater organizations that are doing that as well.
11:43And, you know, somebody who has been caught in the system and is coming out of jail, like, you've mentioned a couple of things already, and the documentary touches on it a lot.
11:52But, you know, one piece of advice that you want to give to somebody who, you know, might watch your documentary and is leaving prison, you know, a piece of advice for them on how to beat that recidivism rate.
12:03Okay, well, you know, go call the Rescue Life Foundation if you're in Los Angeles or, you know, Second Call or, you know, Skip Townsend's organization here.
12:14There's a lot of people who we want to help, and they want to help and reach out, and you're not alone.
12:19And this is a lot. Coming out of prison is a lot. It's scary. It's terrifying.
12:24And reach out for help. There are some organizations to do that.
12:27And go to Facebook.com slash Survivors Guide to Prison and reach out there.
12:32And it's just us, you know, we're volunteering, and there are a bunch of people there who will try to be of service.
12:39Great. And last question, something I ask all documentary filmmakers.
12:43If you could hand-deliver this to one person, hand-deliver your movie, who would it go to?
12:49Wow. That's a great, great question. The Supreme Court.
12:58Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. David, do you have a...
13:02Well, me?
13:05Do you want to give this to anybody?
13:07Uh, just like a college tour.
13:10Hmm. Nice.
13:12Alright, well, Matthew Cook, David Arquette, thank you so much.
13:15The movie is Survivor's Guide to Prison.
13:17Available on iTunes. Download it right now.
13:20Make all your friends download it. Download it again.
13:22Digitally, it's available everywhere.
13:24So if you have DirecTV, you can download VOD there, or Comcast, anything.
13:29Amazon. Yeah.
13:31Great. Thank you.
13:33Thanks.
13:37Bye.
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