The movie features interviews with former prison inmates, police officers, court officials, lawyers, and journalists, as well as many appearances by celebrities such as Danny Glover, B-Real, Macklemore, Deepak Chopra, RZA, Busta Rhymes, Q-Tip, Quincy Jones, Tom Morello, Wayne Kramer, Ice-T, and Danny Trejo.

[7] Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 66 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

[8] Critics generally praised the film, especially its subject matter and statistics, with Joe Leydon at Variety calling it "surprisingly potent.

"[3] For the LA Weekly, Paul Rogers spoke of the movie's "impassioned interviews" and "harrowing" score,[9] while Simon Abrams at the Village Voice criticized its "eclectic group of celebrity experts", calling it overall "messy but compelling".

[10] The Los Angeles Times' Michael Rechtshaffen also compared it to Ava DuVernay's documentary 13th.