HBO/Vice examines the U.S.’s crumbling prison system as President Obama talks with inmates. 

Barack Obama is the first sitting president to visit a federal prison while in office. That fact shouldn’t carry the weight that it does, but in a country that has less than 10% of the world’s population yet has 25% of the entire globe’s prison population, and that most of those are the result of nonviolent drug arrests made against people of color (African and Latino-Americans in particular), it’s a cultural cut that runs deep. But President Obama is took the issue to heart and stepped in to talk to six inmates about their situations, and HBO and Vice Magazine were invited to join in. If you’re unfamiliar with America’s perplexing prison system and the people that it affects, Fixing The System is a great place to get informed, but even if you’re aware, the doc is a revealing trip into the lives of the families that the U.S. prison system has permanently fractured.

Though the president’s visit to El Reno Correctional Institution in Tusla, Oklahoma is certainly the centerpiece of Fixing The System, it’s sandwiched between talks with police officers, judges, and even former Attorney General Eric Holder about the fundamental brokenness of the prison system, particularly the idea of minimum sentencing for drug charges (and the disproportionately classist sentencing for powder cocaine vs. crack cocaine). The crash course in prison reform and the president’s highly-anticipated sit down with six inmates work well together, painting a picture that will wake some people up.

Fixing The System premieres at 9PM tonight on HBO.