‘The Sentence’ Is A Grueling Documentary Exposing How ‘Justice’ Destroyed A Family

In 2002, Cindy Shank was living with her drug dealer boyfriend when he was shot and killed outside his home. She was charged with conspiracy because of the amount of substances and weapons inside the house. The charges were initially dropped because she didn’t have anything to do with her boyfriend’s activities. However, federal charges were eventually brought against her, and she received a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison.

The Sentence is a grueling documentary that examines nearly a decade in the life of Shank and her family as they deal with the stress of Cindy’s incarceration and the lengthy appeals process. Birthdays are missed, relationships fall apart, and a family does its best to stay together under the crushing weight of an arguably excessive federal sentence.

The Film Highlights The Problem Of Mandatory Sentencing And Conspiracy Laws
Aside from presenting a story about the strain a prison sentence puts on a family, The Sentence argues that mandatory sentencing on nonviolent crimes does more harm than good. As the documentary begins, Shank is sent to federal prison on a 15-year sentence on conspiracy charges.

Shank didn’t take part in the sale or manufacture of controlled substances, but just by being there, she was guilty of knowing about the crime. As the documentary observes, an immense amount of money is spent on incarcerating people who committed nonviolent offenses, and on those who pose little threat to society. The law under which Shank was prosecuted in the early 2000s was established in the 1980s and hasn’t changed since.

It’s Also About How A Family Adjusts To A Staggering Change
Every member of Shank’s family has to adust to their new reality brought on by her incarceration. Her daughters seem to get along well in a single-parent family, but Shank’s youngest daughter has to contextualize her mother through her older sister’s memories.

Her father feels as if he’s let her down on a basic level; as a result, he avoids visiting her for nearly six years. He does work overtime to make extra money to send her way, loading up her commissary and making sure she keeps phone privileges. Meanwhile, her husband attempts to raise their three daughters while making sure they have a relationship with their mother.

The documentary itself is an attempt by Shank’s brother, Rudy Valdez, to cope with her incarceration. By filming the family for nearly a decade, he not only shows the damages of the flawed American justice system but gives his a sister a way to experience the time she missed.

Cindy Was Sentenced To 15 Years For Knowledge Of Someone Else’s Crimes
It’s important to note the 15-year sentence Shank received wasn’t for drug or weapons charges: Her crime was one of knowledge. In 2002 her longtime boyfriend, Alex Humphry, was killed in a drug-related squabble. During the investigation, police located a large amount of cocaine and marijuana, along with 12 guns and $37,000 in cash, in their home in Lansing, MI.

Local police believe that more than $200,000 in cash along – as well as more weapons and controlled substances – were removed from the home and shipped out of state by one of the 28 individuals believed to be working with Humphry. Some of the blame was pinned on Shank, who said she was being held captive by Humphry during their relationship. State charges against her were finally dropped, but five years later the federal government picked up the case.

One witness said Shank had nothing to do with the group’s activities and “that she tried to stay out of Alex’s business affairs in the drug trade.” However, the federal government argued that, because Shank knew about the substances and weapons in their home, and had tangential knowledge of deals he was making, she, too, was guilty.

When Humphry was shot outside their home in 2002, it took away any chance for her to provide information on his activities to the police. It’s never clear why the federal government picked up Shank’s case after it was dropped by the state of Michigan.

Cindy Served Her Time Thousands Of Miles Away From Her Family
Though Shank committed conspiracy in Michigan, she’s initially remanded to a federal penitentiary in Pekin, IL. In order to visit her, the family has to pile into a van and drive out of state for an overnight stay in a crummy motel near the prison. When that institution closes in 2011, visiting her becomes even more complicated.

Following her stay in Pekin, Shank is moved to a women’s prison in Florida, where it’s impossible for the family to visit more than once a year. Traveling to Florida from Michigan requires Shank’s husband to fly three children along with his mother-in-law – an expensive proposition. In 2014, Shank was moved to Kentucky, making it a much more manageable, if still not ideal, six-hour trip.

We Rarely See Cindy, But Instead Hear Her Disembodied Voice On The Phone
Even though Shank is visually absent for most of The Sentence, her voice guides the documentary through some of its most trying moments. The family – Shank’s daughters, parents, ex-husband, and brothers – take up most of the screen time, and it’s through them the audience feels the weight of the situation.

Over the course of the documentary, Shank’s daughters grow up without her, knowing her as little more than a voice on the phone. Throughout her time in prison, Shank only received 15 minutes a week of phone time – an amount she had to split between her daughters and her brother’s documentary crew.

Sometimes Cindy Just Wants To Listen To Her Girls, And It’s Heartbreaking
One of the most devastating moments in the documentary comes early on, when Shank just wants to hear from her three daughters. In this moment, the audience sees just how much of Shank’s real life she’s missing out on. While she waits on the other end of the phone, her husband tries to corral the kids to get them on the line. The kids are as normal as can be, but the mere juxtaposition between their healthy, rambunctious zeal and their behind-bars mother fighting for just a few minutes with them makes the scene hard to watch.

Later in the film, Shank says she sometimes asks her husband to set the phone down so she can listen to her girls argue – just to get the fleeting feeling of being in the room with them.

Cindy’s Imprisonment Puts A Strain On Her Marriage
Though Cindy and her husband Adam are shown in the film’s first half diligently trying to navigate the intricacies of their marriage during her incarceration, their life together quickly falls apart. The couple frequently argues about how her time in prison is affecting them, specifically how Adam has no life aside from taking care of their daughters. Grief, stress, and emotional distance further drive them apart.

After she gets moved to Florida, the marriage is so strained that Adam files for divorce, unable to deal with being in a relationship with a voice on the phone for another nine years. Cindy later tells her brother she doesn’t blame Adam for the separation and that she understands the strain he’s been under. He continues to take care of their daughters but never visits her in prison again.

The Family Can Accept Cindy’s Guilt, But Not The Excessive Sentence
Even though Shank’s family acknowledges she was on the wrong side of the law while living with her drug-dealing ex, they believe her 15-year sentence is far too excessive. According to a policy consultant interviewed in the film, Cindy was sent to jail over something called the “girlfriend problem” – basically any situation in which a person has criminal information on a close acquaintance and doesn’t provide it to the authorities.

The film makes clear that incarcerating people for extended periods, simply for withholding information on a crime, is a drain on the economy with little social benefit. Lawmakers on both sides of the issue have admitted the law is too restrictive.

“It does affect every single one of us,” director Rudy Valdez told TIME. “Even if you aren’t affected by the human stories, you should be concerned about the resources going to perpetuate this.”

The Documentary Was Made Over A Nine-Year Period
The documentary begins in 2007, about a year into Shank’s incarceration. When she goes into the system, her youngest daughter is barely a year old. The film observes the way the family deals with the near-decade that Shank serves behind bars – and the differing ways it affects everyone.

Shank’s daughters grow up mostly without a mother – aside from an occasional voice on the phone. They do enjoy being around her, but when they’re away they have little choice but to adjust to life with just one parent. Shank’s mother tries to fill the void in an attempt to make life as normal as possible. She cooks for the family, she offers to dry their clothes, and does anything else she can to help lessen everyone else’s emotional burden.

Meanwhile, Shank has various appeals denied and slowly loses hope over the course of nearly 10 years.

Even After Gaining Clemency, Cindy’s Life Isn’t The Same
The Sentence does have somewhat of a happy ending. After a series of appeals, Shank receives clemency from President Obama, and she’s released from prison in 2016. However, she’s not exactly ready for life outside of prison. When she’s picked up by her brothers, she mentions that she’s been warned by fellow prisoners how much different life was about to be for her.

Shortly after her release, Shank’s brothers take her to Walmart to buy clothing and necessities before she sees the rest of her family. But the newness of modern America, and the sheer amount of things that available to her, is too much to deal with. The footage makes clear that nine years in prison changed Shank irrevocably.

The Daughters Provide A Tearful Through-Line For The Story
Even if the information about the justice system, or the ins and outs of Shank’s case, are confusing to viewers, her daughters serve as a clear through-line for the audience. It’s easy to connect with these three young, articulate girls, who are trying to live a normal life during their mother’s time in prison.

Much of the film is driven by interviews with the girls, who answer a number of questions about their mother and their feelings about the situation. The oldest, Autumn, is the most reflective about her mother’s imprisonment, at one point describing the terse way she discusses the situation with friends:

Sometimes they’ll say, “Why is she in Florida?” I’ll just say, “It’s something that only the family really needs to know about,” and they won’t ask any more questions.

The Director Thinks His Sister Won’t Understand What Her Incarceration Did To Her Family For Years
Even though director Rudy Valdez is happy his sister is finally out of prison, he realizes that everything isn’t perfect for his family. He believes that, following her release, she went through an “extended honeymoon” during which she was able to experience life on the outside – but that over the next decade, she’s going to understand how her time in prison really affected her.

Valdez told TIME:

At some point, she is going to sit down and look at her life and see what life after incarceration means. The ramifications, especially on the girls, we’re not going to see the effects on them for another five or 10 years. They had their mother away from them for nearly a decade.