This is a quite remarkable piece of film-making. Nick Broomfield made this documentary in 1978 and it shows a style of documentary making that has been sadly lost in the last 30 years. There is no narration, just a handful of explanatory captions and the film-makers have almost no presence in the film. Louis Theroux (or even Kurt and Courtney) this is not.
And with material this brutal, this disturbing there is no need for any of it. What we get is a simple document of the way that prison dehumanises both guards and prisoners. Most of the young men incarcerated are there for minor offences (one is in for glue sniffing). They frequently rebel to make life difficult for the guards for no reason other than that it is their last remaining form of control over their own lives. In return, the guards act more and more brutally to control the prisoners. The prisoners react by rebelling harder and the cycle continues. Boys sentenced to 3 months stay in for three years or more as time gets added to their sentences.
The last image of the film is one of the most bleak and unforgettable I've ever seen on screen.