![\"\"](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/larryinclassroom-edited.jpg\")
<\/a>Larry Thompson, an Ohio inmate working to help released inmates stay out of prison, in a scene from UToledo professor Holly Hey\u2019s documentary film, \u2018Reentry Realties, Hope Deferred.\u2019<\/p><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/em>Senior United States District Judge Jack Zouhary helped Hey get access to Thompson inside Marion Correctional Institution in Marion, Ohio, for an hour-long interview and to capture additional footage of Thompson teaching his Reentry Realities class.<\/p>\n \u201cI have known Larry for nearly nine years, and his rehabilitation efforts while incarcerated are the most impressive I have seen in my 16-year involvement with criminal justice reform,\u201d Zouhary said. \u201cHis story is a \u2018must see\u2019 for lawyers, judges and anyone interested in learning about the \u2018reality of reentry.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n Hey led an internship initiative for six UToledo film\/video majors who helped develop and shoot the film in summer 2019. The students\u2019 pre-professional, work-based experience at UToledo has now led to showcasing their work to a national audience.<\/p>\n Ali Moussa, a 2020 UToledo graduate who operated first camera on the documentary, said, \u201cWorking on this project was a real eye-opening experience, as a filmmaker, as storyteller and as a person questioning the purpose and goal of incarceration: Is it to punish or to rehabilitate?”<\/p>\n Hey also collaborated with UToledo\u2019s College of Arts and Letters and College of Law to produce the film. The colleges financed the project in the hopes of bringing visibility to Thompson\u2019s story and his request for judicial release. Hey developed a study guide in collaboration with Rob Salem, UToledo clinical professor of law, and Dr. Ren\u00e9e Heberle, UToledo professor of political science and public administration, that helps frame discussions around our judicial system, rehabilitation, relationships across walls and Thompson and Hoeflinger \u2019s work in reentry. The study guide can be found on the film\u2019s webpage.<\/a><\/p>\n The National Educational Telecommunications Association distributes more than 1,200 hours of media programming annually to 277 public television stations in 46 states, the Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia. \u201cReentry Realties, Hope Deferred.\u201d will air on Public Media of Western New York and Southern Ontario in July and will reach 1.3 million people.<\/p>\n “Although centered in Ohio, this story is relevant and meaningful to audiences anywhere in the United States,\u201d said Kathryn Larsen, vice president of broadcast services for Buffalo\/Toronto Public Media.<\/p>\n