Inspired by a federal civil rights class action suit known as Doe v. Burwell, which challenged the incarceration of children in the Lawrence County jail in Ironton, Ohio.
Co-star Tammy Lauren jokingly refers to this film as "MIDNIGHT EXPRESS for teens".
Acting debut of Khrystyne Haje; her "Head of the Class" co-star Brian Robbins appears here as well.
An early draft of the script strengthened the roles of Rene Petersen (who commits suicide) and her parents (who confront Judge Sullivan over the living hell he has created for their own plus many other families). Also featured was:
1) a scene with Spector denouncing Sullivan as "the Bar Association's answer to Attila the Hun" - and with Sullivan viciously (and characteristically) backhanding him across the face for this;
2) a scene of a Bar representative serving Sullivan with a license-suspension, right in the middle of a trial...wherein the judge is thoroughly humiliating two families, whose gay teenage sons have been found in a compromising position at their school (Sullivan was in the process of serving both families with a permanent restraining order, against each other AND their sons - who were to be forced into conversion therapy);
3) a climatic scene of Sullivan being ordered, by the judicial inquiry, to attend Cory Yeager's rape trial (along with all the other County Jail personnel - directly involved or no - who were on duty the weekend in question) "so that you will have at least a nodding acquaintance with the true nature of the man whose care you entrusted those girls into";
4) a closing montage of Sullivan being turned away from numerous local establishments, because "the management has a strict directive that you're not to be served".
All of this was left on the cutting room-floor, however, in order to fit the movie into a 2-hour time-slot.
1) a scene with Spector denouncing Sullivan as "the Bar Association's answer to Attila the Hun" - and with Sullivan viciously (and characteristically) backhanding him across the face for this;
2) a scene of a Bar representative serving Sullivan with a license-suspension, right in the middle of a trial...wherein the judge is thoroughly humiliating two families, whose gay teenage sons have been found in a compromising position at their school (Sullivan was in the process of serving both families with a permanent restraining order, against each other AND their sons - who were to be forced into conversion therapy);
3) a climatic scene of Sullivan being ordered, by the judicial inquiry, to attend Cory Yeager's rape trial (along with all the other County Jail personnel - directly involved or no - who were on duty the weekend in question) "so that you will have at least a nodding acquaintance with the true nature of the man whose care you entrusted those girls into";
4) a closing montage of Sullivan being turned away from numerous local establishments, because "the management has a strict directive that you're not to be served".
All of this was left on the cutting room-floor, however, in order to fit the movie into a 2-hour time-slot.