Madea Goes to Jail

After a car chase ends with her arrest, the outspoken Mabel "Madea" Simmons finds herself before a judge who has little patience for her courtroom behaviour. The sentence sends her to prison, where she quickly becomes a figure among the other inmates. Among them is Candace, a young woman and former drug addict whose past connects her to Assistant District Attorney Josh Hardaway. He has been assigned a case involving Candace that strikes uncomfortably close to home, and when she too ends up locked up, Madea takes her under her protection, setting up a conflict with those who mean the younger woman harm.

Tyler Perry wrote, directed and produced the film, his sixth as director on a list that runs to 29 features. It followed Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys and preceded Why Did I Get Married Too?. Perry plays Madea alongside his other recurring characters, with Derek Luke as Hardaway, Keshia Knight Pulliam as Candace and Sofía Vergara, Vanessa Ferlito and Ion Overman among a credited cast of 36.

Made for about 18 million dollars, the film returned roughly 91 million worldwide, a large multiple of its cost and a sign of the following Perry's stage-born character had built by 2009. Audience response was mixed: on IMDb it holds 4.7 from about 14,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.5 from some 216 votes.