NCJ Number
71060
Date Published
1979
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This documentary, filmed at New Mexico's State penitentiary in 1979, examines the troubled and often dangerous world of a maximum-security prison.
Abstract
Inmates are shown in the various settings of the facility, such as the cells, exercise grounds, mess hall, visitors' room, and common areas. Individual and group discussions between inmates and the film's interviewer reveal inmates' fears and other feelings about their loss of liberty and their institutionalized life. Intense discussion concerns their values past and present, their isolation from their families, and their worries about coping with survival in the prison environment until the moment of release. To present a balanced and honest treatment of the highly controversial corrections issues, the film represents custodial as well as inmate perspectives. An internal disciplinary procedure is followed behind the scenes for the inmate's impressions both before and after a hearing. The case involved producing and distributing homemade brew. The film also depicts a parole hearing, revealing the dilemma of the convicted rapist as well as that of men responsible for evaluating him since their decision affects public safety. The human despair of family separation is evident in the scenes filmed during visitation. Indications of the nature of prison life are brought out through depiction of such details as inmate's use of mirrors for communicating between cells in the security block, the makeshift chesspieces constructed from toilet paper, and the extravagant body tattooing. A prison psychologist discusses the imprisoned offender as a failure not only from society's point of view but from the perspective of success in the criminal's world as well.