Troop 1500: Girl Scouts Beyond Bars

You might think its all about singing “Kumbaya” and selling cookies, but the primary activity of Girl Scout Troop 1500 is a once-a-month, four-hour visit with their inmate mothers, incarcerated for drug possession, assault, robbery, and murder at the Hilltop Prison in Gatesville, Texas (most—with the exception of a former nurse who euthanized two patients—are up for parole within a year or two). In filmmakers Ellen Spiro and Karen Bernstein's Troop 1500, emotional journeys unfold as seven young girls meet with their mothers and social workers in an attempt to rebuild broken relationships, explore feelings of abandonment and anger, and (hopefully) break “the cycle” (because daughters of inmates are six times more likely than other girls to land in the juvenile justice system). Combining interviews—with the mothers, daughters, social workers, and prison officials—as well as casual footage of the prison visits (each girl was given a camera and the opportunity to interview her mother in jail), the film also follows the girls as they venture into more traditional scouting activities, working to fulfill the Girl Scout mission of “building girls of courage, confidence, and character.” In addition, the program includes campy archival footage of Girl Scout advertising campaigns, which offer a poignant juxtaposition between the broken homes and emotional scars of members of Troop 1500 and the stereotypical Girl Scout. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (A. Cantú)