Murder in the First

“The trial that brought down Alcatraz.”

Alcatraz in the 1930s holds the men no other prison in America can manage, and Henri Young (Kevin Bacon), a petty thief, is sent there and later charged with murdering a fellow inmate. James Stamphill (Christian Slater), a young and inexperienced public defender, is handed the case, with Marc Rocco keeping the camera close on the cells and the paperwork. What the trial puts in front of a courtroom is how a prison treats the men it has locked inside it.