Prison for Children is a 1987 American made-for-television drama film starring John Ritter, Betty Thomas, Raphael Sbarge and Josh Brolin.
For ten years, he has lived in a cabin on the Saunders Ranch, along with his older brother Chris, who serves as his legal guardian after the deaths of their parents.
Bea refuses, saying she's selling the cabin, despite pleas from Will and her father to let John stay due to his age and the fact that he and Chris fixed it up over the years.
The sheriff returns to the Saunders ranch to try and persuade Bea to drop charges against John of felony grand larceny and willful destruction of private property, but she refuses.
With no options left, the judge reluctantly sentences him to the Sierra Mesa Industrial School for Boys, ordering him to remain there until his 18th birthday.
A teacher at the school, Angela Brannon (Thomas), shares Royce's views and they join forces to inspire change at the underfunded facility.
Meanwhile, John also is exposed to the real-life brutalities of prison life, such as rape, drug abuse, sadistic guards, indifferent teachers, and psychopathic inmates.
When it appears that Royce begins to succumb to the cruelties of the bureaucracy controlling the prison, he decides to come into a darkened ward with the youngest inmates one evening, and takes a seat as the boys rest.
This culminates in a showdown between John and an influential inmate nicknamed Chaser, whom Tyrone had been supplying with homemade glue that led to the earlier incident, and runs the prison population.
Brannon mentions to Royce that she and her brother own a ranch "on the other side of the Rockies" that needs hands, and that one who knows horses could teach the others...and that she could be back in class Monday morning.
The opening credits include the text "This picture is based on the clinical research and professional experiences of E. Kent Hayes and Alex Lazzarino."