A printed discussion leader's guide accompanies the video, notes that the program aims to deter youth from juvenile delinquency and crime, and offers a synopsis of the content and suggestions for questions to ask and issues to discuss with students. The video begins with pictures of unhappy faces of people of different races, sexes, and racial backgrounds, ending with a youth whose face becomes cancelled as if it were a stamp and with a sound that corresponds to the shutting of prison doors. The juvenile and adult inmates address their letters to their family and friends. The letters explore the stifling feelings of being confined, regrets over wasted lives, the experience of being in crowded conditions, and the lack of privacy. Other letters speak of the loss of control, the regimentation, the frustration and hopelessness evoked by the prison experience, and the desire to maintain affiliations with family members. Recurring themes include the desire to undo what has been done, to start over, and to make better choices in the future. The readers are well-known male and female actors.