Institutional Fail is one of the best SVU episodes.
Season 17 Episode 4 "Institutional Fail" has stuck with me for years. I'll never forget the opening scene of Bruno (the child, not new detective Bruno, for clarification) wandering around town, searching for something to eat, and Liv and Carisi later finding Keisha unconscious, in a cage ("I thought you said she was eight, she's small!")
The way the episode tackles the overwhelmed DCS system is simultaneously infuriating and heartbreaking and you end up feeling for the workers, particularly Keith, who's so overworked his case load is literally longer than there are hours in a day, making it physically impossible for him to see every child on his list.
And while falsification of documents and ignoring cases is obviously awful, Whoopi Gholdberg's character's breakdown on the stand is damn iconic:
Oh! Now you wanna give me a break? After 25 years of "Make your quota, Janette!" "Push that paper!" "Hit those numbers!" Right, Matt? Right? It's impossible! And everybody knows it. You all know it. But you wanna scapegoat me. You wanna make me feel bad. You wanna take me down so you can feel better about yourselves. See? 'Cause you pretend like you don't know that there are poor people out there in the city! Broken people! Like you don't turn away from the homeless guy on the subway? 'Course you do! Everybody does, 'cause it's too much! You wanna put me in jail for this? Look in the mirror, my friend. Look in the damn mirror.
Like give Whoopi an award for her delivery here.
Season 17 Episode 4 "Institutional Fail" has stuck with me for years. I'll never forget the opening scene of Bruno (the child, not new detective Bruno, for clarification) wandering around town, searching for something to eat, and Liv and Carisi later finding Keisha unconscious, in a cage ("I thought you said she was eight, she's small!")
The way the episode tackles the overwhelmed DCS system is simultaneously infuriating and heartbreaking and you end up feeling for the workers, particularly Keith, who's so overworked his case load is literally longer than there are hours in a day, making it physically impossible for him to see every child on his list.
And while falsification of documents and ignoring cases is obviously awful, Whoopi Gholdberg's character's breakdown on the stand is damn iconic:
Oh! Now you wanna give me a break? After 25 years of "Make your quota, Janette!" "Push that paper!" "Hit those numbers!" Right, Matt? Right? It's impossible! And everybody knows it. You all know it. But you wanna scapegoat me. You wanna make me feel bad. You wanna take me down so you can feel better about yourselves. See? 'Cause you pretend like you don't know that there are poor people out there in the city! Broken people! Like you don't turn away from the homeless guy on the subway? 'Course you do! Everybody does, 'cause it's too much! You wanna put me in jail for this? Look in the mirror, my friend. Look in the damn mirror.
Like give Whoopi an award for her delivery here.