Derek
Sands is returning to prison; he is also returning home. Within
the guarded walls he has friends and a respect he can't find anywhere
else. But this time it is different. In his all too brief stay
on the streets, Derek has met Marilyn and sees a chance for a
future on the outside. To keep this precious relationship alive,
Derek must reveal his closely guarded secret, that he is illiterate.
In a fragile alliance he befriends Jeff Winston, a "college
boy" who is terrified by prison life. Jeff agrees to secretly
tutor Derek in return for protection from the range "low
lifes". Derek's first faltering steps toward literacy in
the tense environment of a federal prison becomes the catalyst
for a unique story of one man's struggle for personal empowerment.
THE
CHARACTER
Jeff Winston is an ordinary middle class kid in his final year
at college. Driving home one night from a frat party he kills
a young girl. His crime is not that he had been drinking but that
he left the scene of the accident leaving the dead girl in the
middle of the street. He must now pay for this lack of judgement
with ten years of hard time. He is bright but morally weak. A
coward who blames a politically motivated judge for his sentence
not his actions. Having grown up in a safe environment he has
no tools to help him survive in this jungle. Derek is his salvation
until he can get into segregation. To protect himself from harm
he becomes a rat throwing his protector to the wolves. Fear rules
him.
COMMENTS
" Doing research for my role in The Other Prison was a very
interesting and unique experience. I actually received permission
to talk to a young inmate who was doing hard time for killing
his mother's abusive boyfriend. He was 18 at the time. I hoped
to find out what it was like to be thrown into a maximum-security
prison at a young age. We spent hours talking. He seemed very
fragile when he recounted his past to me..."
