About the Film


This documentary takes the viewer to the heart of the prison rape problem, to meet the victims and the perpetrators, the indifferent officials as well as the isolated reformist administrators. Viewers are not only exposed to the inside of prisons where rape is rampant but also to the houses of incarceration where it has been drastically reduced. It is a story of contrasts: the weak vs. the violent, the indifferent vs. the caring, the 'safe' prisons vs. the violent correctional facilities that do anything but correct. This is the story of prison rape the system that allows it, the reforms that can prevent it and the countless lives that it destroys every day.

View the Film Online

Two completed segments of the film wil be available online shortly at
   Human Rights Watch -- http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/prison/video.html

The first finished segment of the documentary, The Rodney Hulin Story, captures the tragic true story of a young Texas inmate, Rodney Hulin, who was imprisoned for petty arson. He and his brother started a non-lethal dumpster fire that caused no injuries and little monetary damage. In prison, Hulin was repeatedly raped and beaten. He tried desperately and unsuccessfully to get prison officials to remedy the ongoing abuse he suffered behind bars. Defeated and without hope, he attempted suicide and died in May 1996. Along with writings Rodney left behind, the film features Rodney's mother, brother, and a prison social worker who speak out on his specific ordeal. Former Chairman of the Texas Board of Corrections, Selden Hale, and Donna Brorby, lawyer to Texas inmates since 1978, offer a larger, prison system context to Rodney's specific plight.

While some prison systems see rape as an inevitable reality others treat it as a preventable tragedy. The second segment of film, The Rules of the Game: Prison Rape and Reform, focuses on two stories of reform - one in the San Francisco County Jails System and the other at the Carol S. Vance prison unit in Sugarland Texas. Sheriff Mike Hennessey of San Francisco County and a number of jail deputies working under him articulate how improvements in staff training and jail architecture can make time behind bars safer for prisoners and staff alike. In Texas, at the "faith based" Carol S. Vance unit, prisoners receive counseling and education in a safe environment. Prisoners like Julius Lockett and Rudy Serrano report that in contrast to other Texas facilities where guards and administrators often laughed at and ignored inmate complaints, at the Vance facility people are willing to hear what prisoners have to say and to intervene with help if necessary. If Rodney Hulin had been dealing with officials like these at the Clemens Unit in Brazoria, Texas, he might still be alive today.

Contact

Director: Gabriel London - gabriel@foundobjectfilms.com
Development/Media Inquiries or to purchase a tape: (323) 936-1913 or email.

Gabriel Films Office: 212-941-6200
Gabriel Films Online: http://www.gabrielfilms.com/information_gabriel_films.html