How a Police Detective Helps Inmates Prepare to Live on the Outside
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Seattle police detective Kim Bogucki teaches female inmates at the Washington Corrections Center for Women in 2015. KATHLYN HORAN/TINFISH FILMS
A new documentary spotlights a program that reclaims lives through writing.
Movie makers have long loved the story of the big city cop, gritty or flashy, corrupt or clean. So it wasn’t surprising to learn that this year’s Brooklyn Film Festival, a 10-day event that starts Friday, includes a 90-minute documentary centered on one.
But this story strays from the romantic or violent big-screen depictions. It’s called “The IF Project,” and as a synopsis explains, it’s about “a compassionate Seattle police officer,” a detective named Kim Bogucki, who creates a writing program with female inmates at the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor. Bogucki asks the prisoners to ponder the choices that led them to end up behind bars by posing the question: “If there was something someone could have said or done that would have changed the path that led you here, what would it have been?”
The documentary, directed by Kathlyn Horan, follows four inmates over seven years, as the writing program evolves into Bogucki’s life-consuming job. In an interview with The Marshall Project, Bogucki explained that the original idea has turned into a much broader effort.
In addition to the more than 3,000 inmates who have participated in Bogucki’s program, the IF Project now pairs prisoners with mentors who guide them through their first year of reentry after prison. A dozen prisons and juvenile facilities across Washington State currently host IF Project volunteers. Bogucki is also planning to open a women’s reentry center in Seattle with the proceeds of a 2015 Justice Department grant worth nearly $1 million.
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