12th Street

Each year 25,000 inmates are released in Huntsville, Texas — one of the largest prison towns in America.
Monday through Friday, the glass doors swing open on the front of the Civil War-era, red-brick prison they
call The Walls. The inmates exit and shuffle along the sidewalk, some smiling, some pensive, all-shouldering onion sacks full of belongings. With no one to greet them, most of them stream past the
private homes and prison offices toward the Greyhound bus station three blocks away. For hours, until
buses have carried them off, there are lines of released prisoners everywhere near the station: a line for
bus tickets, a line to cash prison checks, a line to buy new clothes.

This documentary features a number of these newly released prisoners and explores one of the most
critical issues in the national debate over criminal justice reform: the flood of prisoners returning to
American communities without the guidance and support needed for a successful transition back to
society. What awaits them on the outside? How are they prepared to deal the new world? Where do they
go from here?