Film Screening – Locked in a Box: Rediscovering our Humanity in Immigration Detention

Join the Interfaith Welcome Coalition for this pre-release film viewing and discussion on the US immigration detention system and the power of visitation ministries.

“Locked in a Box” is an award winning short documentary that follows the stories of individuals held in the U.S. Immigration detention system and those who visit them. The film traces the lives of individuals who fled their homelands in search of safety and freedom only to end up in U.S. prisons under a mandatory bed quota system run by Immigration Customs & Enforcement. Since the 1990’s there has been a massive expansion of the immigration detention system up to 34,000 immigrants in detention on any given day in approximately 200 different facilities, many of which are for-profit prisons. In partnership with Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Service, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance supports the development of visitation ministries, legal orientation programs, and community-based services to those who are released. “Locked in a Box” helps strip away the political rhetoric to see the human cost of detention. This film is the result of the collaboration between PDA and LIRS with local partners in the hope of inspiring its viewers toward action. **Winner of the Morris Film Award at the Tryon International Film Festival

Trailer for “Locked in a Box” from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance on Vimeo.