Marino does a piece on women's detention, more specifically the overcrowding in women's prisons, and why such a high number of teenagers are ending up there. He witnesses the arrival of seventeen year old Terry Farmer, charged with armed robbery.
Gritty and gripping, this was a real course change, most episodes have followed a specific, but very successful pattern, there haven't been many women playing The Corruptors, generally villains.
Terry's story is a genuinely interesting one, and serves to show how easily a youngster can fall into trouble, and start on the wrong path. Good to see Marino operating in a world that's somehow alien to him.
Lots of unsettling scenes, the most powerful I thought was where Terry tries to stick up for the young girl who was always crying, and a brawl almost followed, those scenes were full of menace, as indeed were the characters.
Terry's scene with her mother was also very good, so harsh, she couldn't wait to distance herself from her daughter.
Shades of Prisoner Cell Block H, those officers were well cast.
Lynn Loring was first class as Terry, that has to be one of the best performances on the show to date.
Very good, 8/10.