'Sing Sing' screens at Sing Sing, in an emotional homecoming for its cast
As movie premieres go, the one for “Sing Sing” at Sing Sing prison was about as poignant as it gets
OSSINING, N.Y. (AP) — Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin is standing inside Sing Sing Correctional Facility for the first time since he was inmate here 12 years ago. In this very chapel, he reminisces, he once sold drugs — a backup plan for when the yard was closed.
Not many men pine to return to the prisons in which they toiled away years of their life. Maclin, 58, was incarcerated at Sing Sing for 15 years. But on this day, he's buoyant.
“I got a purpose now,” Maclin says.
Maclin was at Sing Sing, the 198-year-old maximum-security prison perched on a hillside overlooking the Hudson 30 miles upriver from New York City, last Thursday for the premiere of the upcoming movie “Sing Sing." In the film, which opens July 12 in theaters, Colman Domingo stars as an incarcerated man who helps lead a theater program for Sing Sing inmates. Together, they find community and catharsis through theater.
