Civil Brand

Civil Brand is a 2002 thriller drama film written by Preston A. Whitmore II and Joyce Renee Lewis, and directed by Neema Barnette. It stars LisaRaye McCoy, N'Bushe Wright, Da Brat, Mos Def, and Monica Calhoun. The film is about a group of female inmates fighting back against their abusers and taking over Whitehead Correctional Institute, where they are incarcerated. At the American Black Film Festival, the film won awards for Best Film and Best Actor. It also won the Audience Award and Special Jury Prize at the Urbanworld Film Festival. Plot Sabrina Downs narrates an experience that she had while serving time as a convict in the Whitehead Correctional Institute. Her story begins as she meets Frances Shephard, a timid woman that is new to the prison system, during their bus ride to the correctional facility. The women arrive at the prison, where they meet Captain Alan Dease, who proceeds to line them up and exclaim the rules of the prison and consequences for not abiding by them. As Frances is escorted by an officer to the jail cell she will be living in, she enters to a scene of female convicts gambling, smoking, and talking amongst themselves. She attempts to move in with her cellmate Nikki Barnes, who is presumed to be the leader amongst the convicts, but is denied and instead lives with Lil’ Mama, a 17-year-old pregnant convict who is deeply involved in Christianity and befriends Frances. Lil’ Mama introduces Frances to another inmate named Wet, who informs her on the different crews in the prison. When asked what crime she committed, Frances confesses that she accidentally murdered her abusive husband in an effort to protect herself. The next day, Frances is familiarized with the inmates’ daily routine of hard labor in what the other convicts refer to as a "sweatshop."