OVER PUNITIVE

A Louisiana Community Storytelling Film

What are we really buying into with decades-long sentences — and what kind of future do we want instead?

Over Punitive documents the human cost of Louisiana’s extreme sentencing culture and invites audiences to imagine something better: a future rooted in second chances, community investment, restorative justice, and true public safety instead of endless punishment.

About The Film

Louisiana is often celebrated for its food, music, and culture. But it also has the highest incarceration rate in the nation and, at times, the world. Over Punitive explores that contradiction by examining a statewide crisis of tough-on-crime policies, extreme sentencing, and a legal system that too often fails to deliver true safety.

Through the stories of Ronald Marshall, his mother Susie Ann Marshall-Tarleton, Sandra Starr, Brett Malone, and Don Allison, the film reveals the human impact of a system that has prioritized punishment over people. Ronald reflects on the conditions he and his mother experienced that ultimately led him down a path of being incarcerated at Angola before later becoming an educator and advocate. Sandra shares her experience as a domestic violence survivor sentenced to life without parole. Brett speaks to his journey from seeking retribution after his mother’s murder to seeking reconciliation. And Don recounts his own path of reconciliation with the man who once shot him. Together, their experiences challenge the false victim-perpetrator divide and show how trauma, survival, resilience, and healing intersect across communities.

Over Punitive grounds these stories in fact and statistics about Louisiana’s sentencing laws, the unsustainable reliance on prisons, and the limited public safety benefit of decades-long incarceration. Ultimately, this film asks audiences to confront a hard truth: punishment in Louisiana has far outpaced fairness.

However, Over Punitive does more than expose harm. It calls viewers to imagine a different future — one where Louisiana invests in people, strengthens communities, embraces restorative justice, and makes room for second chances.

Details

Runtime: 43 mins

Location: Louisiana

Created in partnership with: Vera Louisiana, The Promise of Justice Initiative (PJI), Louisiana Parole Project (LPP), Second Look Alliance, The First 72+, Voice of the Experienced (VOTE)

Themes: Mass incarceration, sentencing reform, domestic violence, criminalization, restorative justice, reconciliation, second chances, community investment, true public safety

ABOUT THE ISSUE

Louisiana’s overreliance on punishment has come at an enormous cost. Harsh sentencing laws and decades-long prison terms have been treated as solutions to many problems, even when they do little to create true safety. Over Punitive challenges that logic and asks viewers to reconsider what safety actually requires.

The film pushes audiences to consider how safer communities are not built through harsher punishment alone. They are built when people have access to support, healing, education, accountability, and real opportunities to return, rebuild, and contribute. Louisiana does not need more policies rooted in fear. It needs deeper investment in communities, rehabilitation, restorative justice, and pathways that honor the dignity and humanity of people impacted by the criminal legal system.

By centering stories of transformation, reconciliation, and survival, Over Punitive argues that second chances are not a soft alternative to safety — they are part of how real safety is created.

What narratives the film is challenging:

  • Does extreme punishment actually make Louisiana safer, or has the state confused severity with safety?

  • What are we really investing in when we support decades-long sentences and increased reliance on prisons instead of investing in people and communities?

  • What would it look like to build a Louisiana rooted in compassion, accountability, rehabilitation, and second chances rather than permanent punishment?

  • How can restorative justice, education, and community support create alternatives to incarceration that strengthen public safety in the long run?

Bring Over Punitive to Your Community

By hosting a screening, you could help shift harmful narratives about Black and Brown youth, build civic engagement, and connect audiences to real opportunities for local and state action. Request to host a screening using the button below, and you will receive a link to download a toolkit with additional screening resources and ways to connect with film participants, co-creators, and advocates.

host a screening

Interested in a panel or Q&A with film participants, co-creators, or advocates connected to the issues raised in the film? Request to host a screening through this form, and you will receive a link to download a toolkit with additional screening resources and contact information.

Take Action

    • Support HB 219 — Gives people convicted by non-unanimous juries a chance to return to court for a hearing and possible resentencing.

      Support HB 532 — A constitutional amendment that would more fully address non-unanimous jury convictions moving forward and help create a path to parole eligibility.

      Use this tool to ask legislators to support these bills.

    • Support HB 432 — Ends prison gerrymandering so incarcerated people are counted in their home communities, not where they are imprisoned.

    • Support HB 270 — Allows incarcerated voters to vote absentee by mail without first having to vote in person.

    • Support HB 361 — Restores voting rights for people whose registrations were suspended but whose convictions were later overturned.

    • Support HB 167 — Requires the Department of Corrections to provide people leaving incarceration with key documents like IDs, birth certificates, Social Security cards, and copies of certifications and credentials.

    • Support HB 168 — Establishes a pilot program allowing qualifying women to be paroled to a community-based reentry program in the final six months of their sentence.

    • Support HB 394 — Allows the parole board to grant conditional parole so a person can complete required rehabilitation programming instead of being denied release outright.

    • Support HB 480 — Expands eligibility for reentry court and workforce development programs.

    • Support HB 282 — Requires employers to consider the full person, including rehabilitation, youth offenses, and job readiness, and gives people the ability to file complaints through the Human Relations Commission.

    • Support HB 458 — Increases the amount of money people in work release can take home, helping them better support themselves and their families.

    • Oppose SB 215 — A District Attorney bill that is not likely to lead to freedom for anyone. If passed, it would create a panel designed to limit relief yet may allow lawmakers and prosecutors to say they “did something” without anything meaningfully changing for people in prison.

    • Use this tool to ask legislators to oppose this bill!