Discussing the films "The People vs. Paul Crump", "To Live and Die in Los Angeles," and "The French Connection," with director and screenwriter William Friedkin.

Nelson Algren, Nathan Kantrowitz, and David Maurer discuss language and criminal subculture, including the development of institutional slang at different prisons, the nature of drug addiction and its influence on criminal language and vocabulary, and the myth of the criminal mind. Includes an Interview with an inmate at a Chicago prison.

Dennis Brutus discusses and reads his poetry. He discusses life in South Africa. Dennis Brutus reads poems from his books of poetry "Sirens, Knuckles and Boots", "A Simple Lust", and "Letters to Martha and Other Poems from a South African Prison". Includes music in the beginning. Includes a clip of Albert Lutuli speaking.

Richard Speck, the man who murdered eight student nurses in 1966, is the topic of Jack Altman's and Dr. Marvin Ziporyn's book, "Born to Raise Hell: The Untold Story of Richard Speck -- The Man, The Crime, The Trial". Altman saw Speck's public and private image as being quite different. When asked to smile for the cameras, Speck obeyed authority and was labeled a monster by the press when in reality, he blocked out the murders and was disgusted by his actions. Dr. Ziporyn sees this murderous violence as a disease and not as a monster as the press portrayed it.