Oprah on How Ex-Prisoner Series 'Released' Tells Stories of Redemption

Oprah Winfrey loves to read, but she spent a year putting off Shaka Senghor’s book, Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in An American Prison, before she picked up the book based on the author’s life.

And when she did, the media mogul was so moved by Senghor's story that she set up a meeting with him, which she calls “one of the best interviews of my life."

While speaking on a panel for Released at the Tribeca TV Festival, Winfrey said she asked Senghor, as she does with all of her interview subjects, what his intentions were for that interview.

His response was that he “wanted people to know that you weren’t your biggest mistake.” Winfrey and Senghor are both firm believers that “everybody has the ability retell their story and to be redeemed.” And so the concept behind Released was born.

The docu-series follows six individuals that have recently been released from prison and their families. The pilot episode introduces three of the main subjects featured on the series. Each individual was incarcerated for different offenses, but they all share the same experience of living behind bars and trying to stay out of prison once they have been released.

Executive producer Jon Sinclair said that the main intent of the series is to “humanize this issue of mass incarceration of African-Americans in America" and show that there is a human behind the label of an ex-prisoner.

When it came to finding former inmates to follow, Sinclair said, “We wanted to pick characters that could bring that story to light.”

UCJ, UNILORIN.