Tattooed Tears (1979)

Director:

Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill

IMDB

Review:

Before he became an onscreen documentary provocateur, Nick Broomfield got his start with this made for PBS look at life in the California Youth Authority. It was quite a coup for Broomfield to get access to the Authority, and this remains an extremely powerful, disturbing, and moving document. Focusing on a handful of incarcerated youngsters, including kids in jail for glue sniffing and B.B. gun use, the film is a raw depiction of a dehumanizing penal system that crushes the hopes and dreams of at risk teenagers.

A Jail in Colombia (2007)

Review:
A look inside the La Modelo prison in Bogota. Colombia. Called a "model" prison by Colombia officials the prison in reality is controlled more by the prisoners than the guards. With 5000 prisoners for 2400 spots, and not more than 150 security guards assigned to the prison. The prison is awash in violence, and drugs. Last year, 162 prisoners were killed there. The prison is controlled by three criminal groups: members of the guerrilla movement, paramilitary forces, and cocaine traffickers. They have broken the prison up into three different territories and each group has it's own security forces, defending it's own territory.

Prisoners of The War on Drugs (1996)

Director:
Marc Levin

Review:
A documentary that goes behind the walls of three of America's toughest penitentiaries to reveal how drugs are bought and sold, as well as used and abused, by a majority of the convicts serving time.