Apart

Since the beginning of the War on Drugs, the number of women in U.S. prisons has grown over 800%. The majority are mothers. 

In a Midwestern state caught between harsh drug sentencing and rising incarceration for women, three unforgettable mothers return home from prison and try to rebuild their lives after being separated from their children for years. 

Lydia, a devoted ‘soccer mom’, fell into opiate addiction after being prescribed painkillers by her doctor, and her family are shellshocked by her incarceration. Amanda’s son was three when she was imprisoned. Since then has only seen him every few months, and dreams of setting up a home with him when she gets out. But it isn’t easy to find a family home after being incarcerated. And Tomika was sent to jail when her daughter Bailee was just nine months old. On her release nine years later, she tries to rebuild a relationship with Bailee while working multiple jobs to make ends meet.

Their stories overlap at a new reentry program for women, run by Malika, an advocate formerly incarcerated in the same prison. Filmed over three and a half years, ‘Apart’traces their steps as they reconstruct lives derailed by drugs and prison. It’s the story of separation, loss and survival. But it’s also a story of women helping each other return to their communities—a story of love and reunion.