Shakespeare Behind Bars begins with Sammie working on Caliban's speech from Shakespeare's The Tempest. We journey through 25 weeks of inmates in the Shakespeare Behind Bars program working on the play in order to perform it for friends, family and other inmates. The film documents the journey of the men as they uncover deeper truths about their lives through working on this play. The inmates seek forgiveness, redemption and freedom from the burdens of their crimes in hopes of one day being freed and becoming a part of society once more.
The struggle to understand why they did they things they did is seen as well as them finding understanding for their crimes. They are still deeply moved by their lives as prison has given them time to reflect upon what has occurred to bring them to this place of confinement. And, working on Shakespeare allows them to open up to more healing as they progress through The Tempest.
