"Adapted from a successful one-man show, ''Jails, Hospitals and Hip-Hop,'' presents the performance artist Danny Hoch as nine characters, counting himself. Mr. Hoch is a gifted performer who uses his mastery of rap rhythms to invest his characters with remarkable energy and definition." - Dave Kehr, The New York Times

"In a move that simultaneously highlights its theatrical origins and renders it more thrillingly cinematic, JAILS, HOSPITALS & HIP-HOP alternates between documentary footage of Hoch performing his one-man show for often captive audiences, and filmed dramatizations that transform it into a series of interconnected short films… JAILS, HOSPITALS & HIP-HOPqualifies as a poignant, touching, sociologically astute, kinetic, and gorgeously filmed tour de force. Hoch's labor of love, which he wrote and co-directed, spent years gathering dust, but as long as prisons continue to be built faster than schools, and rampant inequities and social, class, and racial schisms persist, the film's compassionate, sensitive take on capitalism's collateral damage will remain timely and relevant." - Nathan Rabin, A.V. Club