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Prison Chronicles
Prison Chronicles

Prison Chronicles

—Inside the history and inner workings of prisons; covering institutions from the Tower of London to the high-tech ADX through interviews with journalists, former correctional officers and previously incarcerated individuals.
1 seasonDocumentary, CrimeTV-14
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Season 112 of 12 Episodes

  • Three stories of men willing to take risks to escape the cold, dark cells of "the Rock"; six convicts organize a jailbreak; three men attempt an elaborate breakout.

  • On ADX, "Alcatraz of the Rockies" located in Florence, Colorado, Ishmael Petty attacks the staff; Tommy Silverstein finds a way to communicate with Ramzi Youssef; an inmate starves himself to protest the prison's policies.

  • On the Hanoi Hilton, an American POW prison of the Vietnam War located in the city of Hanoi, Vietnam; captives include John McCain, the group of airmen who invent a secret communication code, and Jeremiah Denton who sneaks messages home on live TV.

  • A maximum-security prison on the banks of the Hudson, just 30 miles north of New York City, gives rise to the saying, being sent up the river.

  • Dannemora prison opens in 1845 as a source of free labor for the local mines; Kenneth Kimes takes a Court TV producer hostage; Tupac Shakur stirs up trouble; Richard Matt and David Sweat attempt to escape.

  • San Quentin located in Marin County on the San Francisco Bay is California's oldest prison dating back to the gold rush, and home to the state's only gas chamber.

  • Attica, a 90-year-old maximum-security prison in upstate New York, has a legacy of violence and inmate abuse stretching back decades; stories include the serial killer Son of Sam who gets his throat slashed, a successful escape, and a riot.

  • Leavenworth, located 25 miles northwest of Kansas City, KS, was the largest maximum-security federal prison in the United States for over a hundred years; Carl Panzram, Robert Stroud and Tommy Silverstein share stories of life behind its walls.

  • France ships prisoners to Devil's Island located off French Guiana so they would vanish from the public eye; Alfred Dreyfus, is a military officer is convicted of crimes he didn't commit.

  • In the heart of the Confederacy, Andersonville was the last place a Union soldier wanted to end up during the Civil War; only opened for 14 months, becoming the final resting place for over 12,000 men.

  • Located in the heart of London on the River Thames, the Tower of London's reputation for torture and beheadings fuels nightmares; originally built as a fortress by William the Conqueror in 1078, it becomes a prison in 1101.

  • Within the first forty years of operation, the Soviet Gulag system imprisons at least 18 million people and kills more than one and a half million; three tales of the fight for survival.
Prison Chronicles

More about Prison Chronicles

Inside the history and inner workings of prisons; covering institutions from the Tower of London to the high-tech ADX through interviews with journalists, former correctional officers and previously incarcerated individuals.

Starring

Xavier Cadeau

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