Prison for Children

Yet another TV film that attempts to shed light on a pressing social issue(juvenile offenders and the facilities that are supposed to protect and rehabilitate them)but instead exploits it's more tawdry side. A teenage boy who perpetually runs afoul of the law is sent to a youth home for boys where intimidation, stabbings, and gang rape are the norm. Perhaps John Ritter conned himself into believing that making this film might actually make a difference(he's the new superintendant of the school who tries to pass reforms), or maybe he was just trying to pay the rent between THREE'S COMPANY and HOOPERMAN. No intimidation-in-the-shower scenes that I can recall, and no graphic violence(all the rapes and what-not are performed off-camera). Still, the very mention of these things in a boys' home(and all the homosexual overtones)must have been pretty risque, even in the eighties. A companion film to BORN INNOCENT.