Jailhouse Doc

A NEW DOCUMENTARY CAPTURES WOMEN'S MEMOIRS OF MURDER

Fifteen women, some young, some middle-aged, some Muslim, some Christian, some Ph.D. candidates, others high-school dropouts—most convicted of murder—struggle on paper to confront their crimes. They are part of a writing workshop held inside Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, in Westchester County, New York, founded by playwright Eve Ensler in 1998. They are also the subject of a remarkable documentary produced by Judith Katx called What I Want My Words to Do to You, which airs next month on PBS.

Their stories are harrowing. Among the women are Betty Harris, who admits to finally killing her mother after enduring years of abuse, and Cynthia Berry, an ex-drug addict and prostitute who is near-suicidal as she relives stabbing a 71-year-old john "over and over again."

Then there's Kathy Boudin, the former fugitive radical who pleaded guilty to her role in a 1981 robbery and shoot-out that left a guard and two police officers dead, and who won parole this August after 22 years in prison.

A moody energy suffuses each workshop session as the women read their work and talk about their lives. They refuse to pass judgment on one another; they simply acknowledge with bitter sadness what they've done. The film closes in an avalanche of dark, rich colors when actors Glenn Close, Marisa Tomei, Rosie Perez, and others give emotionally charged readings of the women's stories at the Bedford-prison gym.

Three hundred inmates, guards, and supervisors listen intently in a restless sea of green uniforms. The stories are a reminder of the terrible capacity for violence that lurks in all of us.

PATRICIA BOSWORTH