Glen Mills Gang: Arrested Without Locks and Bars
True Stories International
Filmed over the course of a year, this documentary goes inside Glen Mills Schools in Pennsylvania, a "boarding school" alternative to prison for about 1,000 young members of street gangs convicted of crimes. Sam Ferrainola, the school's director, has pioneered a system of rewards and privileges where the young men keep themselves under strict surveillance, reporting infractions of the rules to upperclassmen, or "Big Brothers." Ferrainola stresses that Glen Mills is not a boot camp but an educational institution in which the goal is to bring about fundamental changes in behavior without incarceration. The system seems to work: of all institutions for juvenile offenders, Glen Mills' 32 percent recidivism rate is the lowest in the country. (50 minutes)