Actor and director David Arquette hopes to raise awareness about the U.S. criminal justice system in his latest documentary, “Survivors Guide to Prison.”
“We have more prisons than we do colleges and universities. It’s just completely backwards,” he told Cheddar. “It’s a plea system: 98 percent of the cases are settled in a plea, so we don’t really have a court system, and that’s what we’re trying to address.”
The star-studded production is narrated by the likes of Danny Trejo, Donald Glover, Jesse Williams, and Susan Sarandon. It tells the story of Bruce Lisker and Reggie Cole, two men wrongly convicted of murders, and offers advice on how to navigate -- and survive -- the current prison system.
Arquette told Cheddar that the documentary is more than a film and that it’s has sparked activism amongst the cast.
“[Director] Matthew Cooke doesn’t think of it as a movie, he thinks of it as a movement,” he said. “So we’re getting behind groups like “Cut50, that’s Van Jones’ company, and we’re working with them on the ‘Dignity Campaign,’ and that’s to get women in prison some basic human rights.”
“Survivors Guide to Prison” premieres in theaters and on-demand on February 23.
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/david-arquette-on-prison-documentary-that-has-hopes-will-become-a-movement).
Designed Peter Som joined Cheddar News to discuss why he decided to move from a fashion career to creating culinary spectacles. "Growing up and being in the kitchen with my grandmother and my mom really formed everything," he said.
The iconic Budweiser Clydesdales will no longer have their tails shortened using a common, yet controversial, procedure that has drawn the ire of animal activists, parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev announced Wednesday.
An Alabama high school band director said Wednesday that he was just “doing my job” when police officers arrested him and shocked him with a stun gun after he refused to immediately stop the band as it played in the bleachers following a football game.
