MovieChat Forums > Brubaker (1980) Discussion > 2 questions...

2 questions...

posted 14 years ago by bmoviebimbo
7 replies | jump to latest

what happened to Bullen when they took him away- was he getting a "phone call" too?

were there any guards? seemed like just a warden and a bunch of trustees ran the place.

[–] ellecamino12 14 years ago

I think that the idea behind this prison was to make money, so they didn't hire guards, just gave the prisoners certain positions. That was a big reason why the place was so corrupt, but also why they had the ability to make so much money. If only the board would have let Brubaker run the place the way he saw fit.

[–] smcbee27 10 years ago

4 years later... Don't forget in the real incidents the convicts sued the prison system after Morton left and brought it down. Not only were prisons reformed but this one was closed. Once the people of Arkansas got the whole story there was a huge scandal and, thankfully the Governor was not re-elected.

[–] scgary66 9 years ago

All the prison workers were inmates, including the trusties. At one point, another character advises Brubaker against recommending "free world" guards as a reform.

Gary Krause 

[–] cpoet 8 years ago

CRUCIAL point. Very dangerous to stand up against the status quo when you're trapped in there with the people who reap the benefits. Even "back in the day," it's hard to believe no one thought putting the inmates in charge of the institution might be a bad idea.

[–] samma_grace 8 years ago

I don't see an answer for "phone call" and I wondered the same thing... In the next scene, David Keith is out of it when they head into solitary and Brubaker pointedly looks at an electric chair in the corner. Is that a "phone call" electric torture?

[–] samma_grace 8 years ago

Another thread has "phone call" as a crank telephone style torture device where they hook wires to the genitals and big toe of the prisoner and then crank electricity through them.

[–] eggman75 8 years ago

The "Phone Call" was electro-shock treatment. Probably on the brain. One of the trustees alludes to this when he is assigned sanitation duty the next day.

The second question regarding the guards. It was common practice in some prisons to use lifers as Trustees rather than having to pay outsiders to do it. In theory, the practice should work but in Wakefield Prison, the Trustees are part of a bigger corrupted regime.