Jump Street
A group of men and women inmates at Terminal Island Federal Prison in Southern California spend five months writing and rehearsing a play about their life experiences, improvising scenes about their struggles with drugs and the temptations of fast money. Three women from the outside come into the prison to help the inmates structure and rehearse the play, and the gap in understanding between these two groups is one subject explored in the film. The inmates are released to perform the play, which they call “Jump Street,” in Hollywood, for most of them the first glimpse of the outside world in years. Although the reaction to their play is enthusiastic, it offers them no way out of their situation: they must still return to Terminal Island. This documentary, unlike the numerous prison dramas and documentaries of the past few years, is nevertheless an exploration of how human potential can be encouraged and developed, rather than wasted by the tedium and hardship of prison life.