Women behind bars! While that's the perfect set-up for a late-night, soft-core cable movie, this flick is guilty of being nothing more than a jailhouse crock. Brand focuses on a group of African-American ladies who've ended up at the fictional Whitehead Correctional Institute. Quickly, they learn that the head officer's a slimebag, the warden's corrupt, and there's little reason for anyone to think things will turn around.
Sadly, it ain't Oz, and it ain't Chicago. Instead, prisoners work for slave wages that mainly line the pockets of the already wealthy. The acting from a series of female hip-hop stars such as MC Lyte, Da Brat and her sister LisaRaye is pretty criminal, too. Mos Def--as a naive college student working as a prison guard to make a few bucks--rises above the mundane material, though. Escape from Alcatraz? Nah, just escape from this.