An Impossible Trust

Screening of the award-winning documentary Unguarded, on APAC, the revolutionary prison system aimed at the full recovery of the person. Introduced by Valdeci Antônio Ferreira, general director of the Brasilian Fraternity of Assistance to Convicts (FBAC), and Simonetta d’Italia Wiener, director of Unguarded, moderated by Michelle Riconscente, chief operating officer, Motimatic

Unguarded takes us inside the walls of APAC, the revolutionary Brazilian prison system centered on the full recovery and rehabilitation of the person. Beginning in 1972, APAC founder Dr. Mário Ottoboni volunteered in some of Brazil’s worst prisons. Seeing men and women frequently return to a life of crime once they left prison, Dr. Ottoboni decided to found his own restorative justice-based system. The results have been extraordinary. While the crime rate and recidivism rates have continued to increase in Brazil's public prisons, within the APAC (Association for the Protection and Assistance of Convicts) system they have steadily decreased. Unguarded explores the unique method behind this system, now present in 13 countries across three continents. Observing the daily lives of the recuperandos (recovering inmates) who live and work there, we see firsthand why—as one inmate puts it—“no one escapes from love.”