That's so sad. I can't imagine spending my life working in prison. I wonder what it takes to survive as a CO.

Irina:

It takes skin that's been transformed into armour.

I have to end the injustice! Newman did win the Oscar for "Color of Money." He should have won it for so many other films, but he did finally get a nod.

Jake:

I probably put it out of my mind at the time, or just plum forgot because he deserved it for so many other films--not for COM which was a pity Oscar. You see, even now it just does not register. But yes, thanks for correcting me.

It was definitely a pity Oscar, but I did see the movie again for the first time in many years a few weeks ago and I have to say it really holds up! The fact that Tom Cruise has become such a loathsome creature now is actually a benefit for the film because it works better if you don't identify with his character even a little bit. I thought Newman should have won for "Cool Hand," but even as a 12-year-old I was mesemerized by his performance in "The Verdict," a great movie which pre-saged the era of liability law.

Interesting tactic of yours to talk less about yourself and bring it all back to Hollywood, ie. educating Cindy re. the best (your personal favorites, anyhow) prison films ever made. You're throwing the ball back in her court this way, tossing her something that you hope she can relate to on a grand scale.

Jake:

As far as I'm concerned, Newman should have received the Oscar for his performance in "The Left Handed Gun." A neglected masterpiece.

Robert, I think Cindy may have had a crush on you!

Fascinating that she had the freedom of choice to be somewhere else, and yet, not only chose to work in this setting, but identified with the prisoners, even calling it "home".

I saw the Birdman of Alcatraz when I was teenager, late one night while babysitting. The kids were asleep and I couldn't take my eyes off of Burt Lancaster. His transformation from cold blooded killer to this caring, nurturing human being was mesmerizing to me as a young girl. To this day, it is one of my favorite movies.

Pearl:

What can I say, I'm a giver.

Robert: That's really sad about Cindy. It makes you wish you can help a person take themselves out of their situation.
Also, as much as you learned about these women, I'd like to think that you made a difference in their lives, too. I know that that wasn't the point, but maybe...

Randi:

No crush! She was just fascinated by Hollywood. She asked me tons of questions about various starlets.

As for "Birdman of Alcatraz," I too love the film. When I met the late director, John Frankenheimer, I asked him tons of questions about it.

But you should know, it's pretty much, and you're gonna hate me for this, a vast lie.

I know a woman who began life as a prison guard as a young woman. She is now some kind of top position with the prison guards, she's early 40s and tough as a boot, more man than woman. Its very sad to see her. Absolutely not a life I would recommend.

Sarah:

I don't flatter myself one bit. I doubt I made a dent in anybody's life in that prison. The environment is too all-encompassing, rigid, too violent, too unforgiving. I was a blip on the radar. Already forgotten.

Very few Seraphic friends probably know that Robert also wrote a short-lived series on ABC called "Mariah State," I think it aired in 1987 or 1988. It was about a small town where the state prison is the whole economy and culture. It was very good. It's too bad it didn't pan out because prisons continue to grow in this country at fast rate despite the massive drop in crime in our cities. The rural areas that once thrived on farming or logging and then shifted to light manufacturing now face two choices: prisons or casinos. For big city folk like us, living in a "prison town" is far from what we know. But it's a growing scenario in this country.

I don't think it's the greatest commentary about our economy when "prison guard" is still one of the most promising careers for many of our high school graduates. Of course we need them, and I thank goodness they're there. I just wish we didn't need so many. It's also disturbing that one of the biggest donors to the anti-death penalty movement is the prison guard union in California. These people should know better than anybody that reforming murderers in our world today is mostly hopeless. I suspect the rank and file CO's support the death penalty almost unanimously, but their union leaders smell economic opportunity and fewer executions means more jobs. It's a weird deal.

Suz:

You will find that women who rise to top positions in organizations that have traditionally been male dominated have shed their femininity. In fact, they identify with their male comrades and look with contempt at women. All you have to do is look at women who have risen to positions of high command in the Army and Navy. Same for the State Police forces.

There is vast price to be paid for this male/female equality in fighting forces--and it never pays off in true combat.

I will blog about this in the future.

Robert, I had heard that awhile back, and was sorry to hear that. Nonetheless, it was a great story and movie. (Although in light of James Frey, I guess we wouldn't put up with that today!)

So "The Shawshank Redemption" didn't make your cut (of top 10)? It's one of my all-time faves!

Whatever became of Cindy? (I mean, I guess you didn't keep in touch w/her?)

Oh and off topic, I was soooooo excited to learn that Keira Knightly got an Oscar nomination for Pride & Prejudice. Well-deserved!

Jake:

For "Mariah" which I co-created, Exec Produced and wrote every episode I did my research in, gulp, Sing-Sing.

Do not even ask.

I just realized that I have probably spent more time in maximum security prisons with every manner of car thief, drug addict, killer, rapist, drug-dealer, pyromaniac, you-name-it, than most any Orthodox Jew on the planet.

Hmmmm...

Something to ponder.

Or not.

The hated NY Times did a wonderful feature piece several years ago about the people who take the upstate bus from the Port Authority on 42nd Street every Saturday. One guess who these people are... yes, they are the relatives of the inmates at Sing Sing and a few of the other NY state prisons. It was really interesting, and I remember thinking even as I read it that following these people's lives would make a great movie. There's a great public service ad running on TV now that shows a kid about to commit a crime and then shows him facing a life where his family can only visit him in prison. It's pretty powerful.

Randi:

Why not? Spielberg just did it with "Munich." That film is an even bigger lie than "Birdman of Alcatraz" and it just got nominated for an Oscar.

Stacey:

I had not seen "Shawshank" when I was at the prison. In any case, I was listing "classics." A film only becomes a classic after a test of time. Now if I made my list, "Shawshank" would probably make it. Though I'm not sure which film I would drop.

I know, I'd make it a "Best 11 Prison Movies of all Time."

I'm a wuss.

How about "Take the Money and Run"?

Jake - you seem to be suffering from Butterfield Syndrome. You state: "...prisons continue to grow in this country at fast rate despite the massive drop in crime in our cities." What's really happening is "There is a massive drop in the crime in our cities because prisons continue to grow in this country at a fast rate."

Ralphie:

I hope that's the reason. I'm not 100% sure.

Ralphie:

I know this is heresy, but I'm not a big Woody Allen fan. In fact, I find his films deadly boring, and as filmic art, totally inept.

I don't know enough to comment on the drop in crime that you and Jake are discussing.

Well, just thought I'd give my 2 cents (gee, how unusual). Shawshank Redemption is one of the best movies I've ever seen, let alone prison movie. To me a classic (and this is just personal opinion Robert, I'm nooo professional!)is a movie that you can watch over and over and over again...and Shawshank is one of those. Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins...amazing performances. The movie was shortchanged because it came out the same year as Forest Gump...too bad.

As far a Munich, I have not seen it and truthfully don't have much desire to. I was surprised it was nominated and surprised that Walk the Line was overlooked.

Randi:

No argument from me about "Shawshank." It's a fine, fine movie and as I said, it would make my list.

This year's Oscars are the most politicized in history. That "Walk the Line" was overlooked is a disgrace among a long list of disgraces.

Robert:

100% agree re:Woody Allen...I just don't get the humor/pace/inside joke in his movies. Plus, marrying your former step-daughter is just creepy.

Loved the quote about the sword in salt water. We live near a CO, nice guy...but total nutcase. He hates what he does, hates the inmates but can't (won't) give up the pay or benefits. He justifies working at a job he despises while the hatred eats his soul.

I don't know what the age difference was between you and the women but it seemed to me they were all craving fatherly input...must have missed out on that at "home".

Lisa:

I was a good ten years older than CO Cindy and almost all the inmates.

None of the inmates had fathers they knew as fathers.

None of the inmates had weddings.

All of the inmates I dealt with had children out of wedlock with
multiple fathers.

No social programs can fix these broken families.

In fact, it was social programs that helped create these broken families.

Robert,
A social worker I knew, felt her life's work in the city system was useless; that the dysfunctional cycles of her cases kept repeating, with no end in sight. No way out.

How do you see social programs as creating broken families?

Riveting writing, Robert. Riveting.

Seeing your comments about no inmates having a wedding, nor fathers, etc....really brings home the place society has in....well, in civilizing us. Our rites of passage and cultural norms serve to mark the boundaries of our behaviour. Interesting to see lives where no boundaries exist.

Robert:

This has been a positively addictive story!

I lived in New Orleans about 15 years ago. We had a saying about the NOPD: "The only thing separating the crooks from the cops is the badge". One of the most freightening dates I ever had in my life was with a New Orleans cop. I was lucky our first (and only) date was in a restaurant, and nice waitress helped me sneak out through the kitchen.

As for women getting less feminine in certain professions, add "Trial Lawyer" to the list. I know lots of female trial lawyers or litigators that look very nice, but their personality is very tough...... sometimes too much.

Thanks so much for writing this story. It was a real treat. I kept coming by (sometimes many times during the day), just so I could see how it was progressing.

Yael:

Briefly: It started with The War on Poverty in the 60's, the welfare system created a cycle where families became dependent on government handouts. Fathers looked around and realized they did not have to hang around anymore and be providers, fathers, men.

They split, took up with other women, created more fatherless families.

Several generations grew up without fathers. This created multiple pathologies that resulted in illiteracy, drug addiction, crime--inner city hell.

No government program or agency can replace a stable family. No how, no way.

In Sing-Sing, another prison I spent time visiting, almost every prisoner had one thing in common with the other: no father.

No one can tell me this is coincidence.

Thanks so much for your comment, as always good to hear from you.

Suz:

Yes, you are correct. We desperately need rituals. Have you ever noticed that even in a TV show like "Survivor" when they go to "Tribal Council" the whole thing is highly ritualized. And then, to make everything official and "holy" the flaming torch of the "banished tribe member" is extinguished with a heavy musical beat, almost a dirge, and the prayer-like pronouncement: "The tribe has spoken."

Ritual big-time.

The great crime against society right now (among some others) is that liberal secularists are trying to strip ever vetige of religion and ritual from our Judeo/Western culture, claiming that it is repressive.

For this, they should be sent to oh, how about Saudi Arabia. Teach them what it means to live in a truly repressive society.

Rightmom:

Good to hear from you. Thanks so much for the nice words.

You know, I'd love to hear more about your date with the Cop. It sounds like an episode from a future series that I'm going to write with Jake tentatively titled: "Dates From Hell: Sort of a Comedy, Well, Not Really, Actually Not at All."

The title,as you can tell, still needs work.

Lots of work.

Let me know when that series co-written with Jake gets off the ground. I know I'll have a contribution or two to add to the mix.

Pearl:

My people will be in touch with your people.

I love movies 4, 5 and 9. I love watching McQueen ride that motorcycle and thanks to Newman I once got one hell of a stomachache from eating too many eggs.

I know that in these days, I'm in the minority opinion among the middle class, but I couldn't disagree more about the Great Society. Taking housing as just one example, within a few years from the institution of the Great Society, I saw persons go from living in squalor to being able to enjoy the benefits of indoor plumbing, heat during winter, and privacy. Illnesses like fulminant tuberculosis virtually disappeared.

Jack:

Please feel free to list your Ten Best Prison Movies. I left out some beauties: For instance, "Bridge Over the River Kwai." I felt it was too foreign for Cindy.

EV:

Thanks for your observation. I'm not an expert at all in these areas but let me take a stab with my common sense.

I know that the breakdown of the family and the welfare system are inextricably linked. It has been a disaster for a whole segment of society, generations who have grown up never having known what a father is, what a family is, thus our streets and prisons are bursting with anti-social psycopaths.

If you think the trade-offs were good for society--okey-dokey.

Personally, I believe other remedies could have been made in more compassionate ways, instead of falling back on Soviet style social engineering.

Just a thought from a man who believes that the more capital the more happiness.

Always good to hear from you EV.

Okay, I'm game.

Episode One: "The Brisket Brigade"

A suddenly widowed elderly Jewish man in Boca Raton is inundated with women suddenly showing up at his doorstep with piping hot pots of brisket. Each and every one of them is disappointed as they learn his fleishig teeth are in the shop.

Episode Two: "A Date with THE MAN"

A fortyish successful restaurant owner is enjoying her date with the very proper buttoned-down gentleman when he suddenly reveals he is with the IRS and this is actually a field audit.

Episode Three: "All in the Family"

A 30-year-old woman is swept off her feet by the man of her dreams. And for the crucial third date, he takes her for a fabulous ski weekend in Utah... where she meets his five other wives.

I'm hoping we can get a 22-episode deal with the new CW network.

I guess I'm a bit too young for Cool Hand Luke....I always thought that 'What we have he-are, is a fa-ail-ure to co-mmu-ni-cate.' was straight from the Guns & Roses song "Civil War".

Fascinating blog Robert....I'm a longtime reader, first time poster...

Jake:

Let's talk to Pat.

PicklesDad:

Thanks for De-lurking. Great compliment. I only know Guns n' Roses from their name and photos that feature their, um, big haircuts, so I didn't even know that they quoted Cool Hand Luke.

I am old.

Check out the film. It is awesome.

Hey we could mix genres by doing some episodes about "conjugal visit" dates to the women's prison! I'm just old enough to remember a few Roger Corman classics. His work was nicely parodied in the "Catholic High School Girls in Trouble" segment of "Kentucky Fried Movie" by Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers of "Airplane" and "Naked Gun" fame. Another good segment in KFM is Bill Bixby flogging a new headache medicine called "Sanhedrin."

Jake:

Speaking of Roger Corman classics, a friend just lent me a film called "Blood Island." It's about two GI's stuck on a "Jap Island" during WWII. Here's the hook: one is a Jew the other Christian. They have to work out their "differences."

Uh-huh.

It is wretched beyond belief. Not even camp.

Here's the good part.

It's based on a short story by Philip Roth.

I bet you don't see that on Phil's resume.

PS: I love KFM. "Especially Catholic HS Girls in Trouble."

My dad's Freshman English professor at University of Chicago in 1957? Philip Roth. To this day my dad boasts that he was the only student in the class who got an "A" without sleeping with the instructor.

Nobody does spoof better than the KFM/Airplane/Naked Gun guys. Abrahams and the Zuckers are probably my #1 comedy influences. But they only do it right when they all work together. Try another one of their lesser-seen gems: "Top Secret" a great spoof of a lot of WW II movies, including "Great Escape."

I'm willing to call Pat if you are!

Oy, Kentucky Fried Movie...I'm old enough (like you Robert!) to have gone to the original live show of Kentucky Fried Theatre.

Randi:

I went to the theatre once in my life, and then never again.

No close-ups.
No montage.
No car-chases.
And the acting was so... theatrical.

I'm a child of the movies.