Gritty cell-block dramas, escape thrillers and women's-prison soaps from several countries, some ruthless and some surprisingly warm. Time served ranges from a single season to decades.
1Prison BreakA structural engineer gets himself jailed to break his death-row brother out of Fox River penitentiary.1000pts
2OzHBO's brutal 1997 drama about the inmates and staff of an experimental unit in a maximum-security prison.856pts
3AlcatrazFox mystery in which the island prison's long-vanished inmates and guards reappear in the present day.660pts
4Prison PlaybookKorean drama about a baseball star jailed for assault, praised for its warm and funny take on prison life.642pts
5Escape at DannemoraLimited series dramatizing the real 2015 breakout of two killers from a New York maximum-security prison.513pts
6WentworthAustralian reimagining of Prisoner that follows a mild-mannered housewife thrown into a women's prison.513pts
7El MarginalArgentine series about an ex-cop who goes undercover in the violent San Onofre prison.513pts
8TimeBBC drama following a teacher jailed for manslaughter and a prison officer under pressure, starring Sean Bean and Stephen Graham.434pts
9Orange Is the New BlackNetflix dramedy following a woman serving time in a women's federal prison for an old drug offence.434pts
10Prisoner: Cell Block HLong-running Australian soap set inside a women's prison, a cult classic since 1979.233pts
11Vis a VisSpanish thriller, also called Locked Up, about an ordinary secretary sent to a women's prison and the criminal world inside.233pts
12The Night OfHBO miniseries in which a young man accused of murder is held at Rikers Island while his case unfolds.233pts
13ScrewBritish series seen through the eyes of the officers working inside an overstretched prison.0pts
14Within These Walls1970s British drama set in a women's prison, an early landmark of the prison genre.0pts
