‘Hurricane’ Warning

Usually when inmates watch a movie at the Pitchess Detention Center, it is on 19-inch television screens, said inmate Daniel Kilcoyne. And sheriff’s deputies pick the films, which are not recent releases, he said.

But that changed Friday, when about 120 inmates gathered to listen to Rubin “Hurricane” Carter and to watch the movie based on his life. This time, the film was shown on a large screen in the maximum security center’s library.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson and producers of “The Hurricane” also attended the event, which was organized by the Rainbow Coalition and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Organizers said they had recently shown the film to inmates in Chicago and planned to screen the movie at other prisons.

“We will take this movie around the country challenging people to break the chains,” said Jackson, adding that the movie was not being shown only for its entertainment qualities. “It has redemptive value,” he said.

The film depicts how Carter, a former middleweight boxing contender, spent 20 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. Carter and another man were wrongfully convicted of a 1966 triple murder at a Patterson, N.J. bar.

During the screening, inmates cheered when a federal judge released Carter, played by Denzel Washington, from prison. They also shouted their approval whenever Washington knocked out opponents in the ring.

Carter, 63, said screening the film helps prisoners receive positive messages.

“The prison walls and gun towers are not only there to keep prisoners in but to keep the community out,” Carter said. “We need to bring the community in to talk to those youngsters.”

Frank Ramirez, who is serving a monthlong sentence at the center for a DUI offense, said the film reminded him to look forward to better times.

“Hey, we don’t have to be here all the time. We can go home to our families,” said Ramirez, 34, of Burbank. “When I come out, I’m going to keep that path. I don’t want to come back to this place.”