The journalist, Bill Moyers, moves throughout the detention center observing its activities and interviewing numerous inmates and custodial personnel. Moyers and his camera crew penetrate all areas of the institution, beginning with an observation of the admissions process, which includes humiliating body searches, proceeding to the mess hall, where Moyers shares lunch with the inmates, and finally taking a bus ride to a city landscaping site where the women are involved in a supervised wage-earning work experience. Moyers attends inmate group sessions, a religious revival meeting, a family visit between an institutionalized mother and her children, the jail infirmary, a basic education classroom, recreation areas such as the television room and the gymnasium, as well as the inmates' private rooms. Evident throughout is the absence of bars. Brightly colored walls and furniture take the place of traditional institutional trappings, and a semblance of comfort shows through. The inmates interviewed display a range of emotions, from despair, rage, and callousness to resignation. They represent a variety of races and ages; all are articulate, all are bitter. The issue raised in discussing their criminal activities is frequently that of survival; economic pressures led to crime for obtaining easy money. Other problems evidenced are drug addiction, lesbianism, and prostitution. Conversations touch on sentencing discrepancies and police and society's labeling attitudes. Above all, their remarks show that the institution, even a humane one such as this, represents lost freedom. All inmates await the moment of release, even though few subscribe to the possibility of rehabilitation as a reality. As many as 10,000 admissions are processed through the center annually; some persons appear as frequently as 22 times in 6 months; most are jailed for prostitution and drug-related offenses.