Caged Page #4

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You gave me three suspensions,

and you couldn't make

one of them stick, remember?

This time, I will.

So you call the Commissioner. So what?

I call my friend, Thornton Goodrich.

He gets the Commissioner on the phone,

and, bingo, I'm back on the job again.

You sit there on your bustle, the big boss,

and think you know how to run this place.

Do you know how it ought to be run?

With a piece of rubber hose.

Break them in two if they talk out of turn.

Anyone who doesn't toe the mark

sits in solitary for one month.

Bread and water.

One funny move from a girl,

and I clip every hair off of her head.

That's the way it used to be run,

and that's the way it ought to be run.

Just like they're a bunch of animals

in a cage.

Get out of here.

Is she alone?

- She is, but...

- I'll go right in.

If you'd just let me ask her, sir...

Mr. Donnolly.

Blame the Lieutenant Governor

for this visit.

He asked me to drop in.

I'm always glad to see you, Mr. Donnolly.

Too bad about what happened last night.

- Please, sit down, Mr. Donnolly.

- Thank you.

Someone on the state medical board

got in touch with the Lieutenant Governor

early this morning and raised a big howl.

A zealous young doctor. I've...

I forget his name. He called the board.

He was shocked about the infirmary.

I warned you

that something like this would happen

when the board voted us

$8,000 instead of $80,000.

Can't you understand that in the long run,

$80,000 would have saved

the State millions?

What do you want for your girls now?

A swimming pool? Television sets?

A beauty parlor?

No, merely the things I worked to get

in other prisons and did get.

Teachers, a full-time psychiatrist...

Now, don't tell me

that your inmates fell in love

with their grandfather's bicycles

when they were little.

I'm afraid I'm too tired

to appreciate your wit, Mr. Donnolly.

I only know what we need.

I wish we could drag the public in here

to watch the inmates decaying.

I have a great respect for you.

You're a fighter.

I used to be a Golden Gloves boy myself

in the old days.

They taught me that, when the odds

were against a good fighter,

to cover up if you wanted

to keep on your feet

because even though

you lose the decision,

it's better than a knockout.

Good morning, Mrs. Benton.

Good morning.

- Does it say on his birth certificate...

- You got a break.

Mrs. Benton insisted

we just put the name of the town.

Your mother's downstairs

in the visiting room.

Can she come up and see the baby?

It's against orders.

Mom.

Mom.

Marie, baby, you feeling all right now?

I'm okay. How are you?

Oh, ailing a bit.

I hope you understood

about me not writing.

I mean, I ain't much on writing.

Sure.

Isn't it wonderful about your grandson?

Yeah, wonderful.

I'm gonna call him Tommy.

Oh, Mom, you're gonna love him.

Already he's got hair,

the same color as Tom's,

but he's got your eyes.

I can't take the baby. Oh, I want to.

What woman my age

don't want a grandchild?

But your stepfather won't have it

in the house.

We argued and argued

till I was blue in the face.

So help me, if I had a dime to my name,

I'd walk out on him.

I keep figuring how I could take the baby.

I can't leave Gus.

There'd be no one to take care of me

till you get out,

and I ain't getting any younger.

I don't know what to do.

I don't know what to do.

Mom, stop crying. Tom's folks are dead.

If you won't take him,

they'll put him up for adoption.

What do you want me to do?

You've got to leave Gus.

I'll be out of here in three months.

I'll get a job and support you.

We'll have a real home,

you and the baby and me.

Mom, find something until I get out!

Well, I'm not as young as I was. I tire easy.

The doc says my feet...

Can't you think of anyone but yourself?

Maybe it would be better

if someone else took him,

some nice family with money.

They could bring him up real nice.

I don't want anyone else to have him!

Oh, my God! Oh, my God!

You're his only flesh and blood.

You've got to take him!

Don't keep saying that!

Don't keep saying that!

Mother! Mother, come back here!

You gotta take him! You gotta take him!

Mother, come back! Mother! Mother!

No!

Don't let it throw you, honey.

You're still a kid.

If you get paroled soon enough,

there'll be a lot of guys

that will tumble for you.

You can even get hitched

and have another kid

if you're dope enough to want to.

The trick's to flop out as quick as you can.

Like I've told you,

the boys can get your parole moving fast.

How about it? Don't it make sense, honey?

Think it over, sweetie,

but get this through your head.

If you stay in here too long,

you don't think of guys at all.

You just get out of the habit.

Line up, you tramps!

This ain't no upstairs delicatessen.

Time for count.

- Lewis, Millie.

- Christianson, Velma.

- Stark, Kitty.

- Taylor, Alice.

Allen, Marie.

3:
00 tomorrow, Benton's office.

Parole hearing.

- Mullen, Elaine.

- Cardnum, Ruth.

- Branigan, Lottie.

- Hoffman, Ilsa.

- Elkins, Peggy.

- Vogel, Dottie.

When you get in there,

say anything you got on your chest.

It's the one chance you got

to spill the works.

Benton will be pulling for you.

And when you get out of this cage,

go take yourself a bubble bath for me

and park in it for a week.

Have your breakfast, dinner,

everything in it.

You know, honey, you're gonna find out

that most people in free side

wouldn't hand you a job

cleaning out a hog pen.

- Lf you'd listen to me...

- You're wasting your time, Kitty.

Your funeral.

Hey, Foley, wait till Kitty Stark sees this.

- Are they friends?

- Friends? They hate each other's guts.

What's so funny?

We've got a new fish coming in.

Maybe if you're real nice,

you might get her for a roommate.

And old friend of yours, Elvira Powell.

It's going to be a rich haul.

None of your penny-ante stuff.

You'll still do what I pay you to do.

Them days are over.

Hey, girls, take a look at your queen bee.

She's buzzing off the throne.

She never was nothing

but a dime-a-dozen booster

with so little influence

she couldn't even get off

on self-defense for a murder rap.

I ain't got nothing against you.

It's just a matter of dollars and cents.

Elvira Powell's an institution

with a big bankroll stashed away,

and I always wanted

to meet an institution.

Someday I'm going to get my hands

in her hair,

and I'm gonna pull it out by the roots.

I made it! I made it! I made my parole!

This is Marie Allen.

Marie, we have to decide

whether nine months has taught you

that robbing people at the point of a gun...

I never wanted to,

but my husband wouldn't listen to reason.

I couldn't leave him. I loved him.

Now, what type of work can you do?

Speak up.

I could be a salesgirl or wait tables,

work in a laundry

after all the experience I've had here.

Please try to make your answers brief.

This report states your stepfather

refuses to have you in his home.

Where would you live if paroled?

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