The Best Inside Prison Documentaries

True Crime - 193 free documentaries about inside prison.

Start with The Patients We Fear: Life in a Forensic Psychiatric Hospital (87 min, ENDEVR), then Life On Death Row: Inside Indiana State Maximum Security Prison (45 min, Real Stories). All 193 documentaries here are free to watch from their makers' official uploads. To read deeper, the top-rated book on inside prison is Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman.

• The Patients We Fear: Life in a Forensic Psychiatric Hospital (87 min, ENDEVR)
• Life On Death Row: Inside Indiana State Maximum Security Prison (45 min, Real Stories)
• Sir Trevor McDonald: Inside America's Most Notorious Prison (45 min, Real Stories)
• Behind Bars: South Cotabato Jail, Philippines | World’s Toughest Prisons (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars: The World’s Toughest Prisons - Miami, Dade County Jail, Florida, USA (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars: The World’s Toughest Prisons - Antananarivo Prison, Madagascar (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars: The World’s Toughest Prisons - Dallas County Jail, Texas, USA (46 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars: The World’s Toughest Prisons - San Pedro Prison – La Paz, Bolivia (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Inside Indiana's Most Dangerous Women's Prison (47 min, Real Stories)
• Women In Indiana's Maximum Security Prison Meet Sir Trevor McDonald (46 min, Real Stories)
• The Ice Prison: Russia’s Most Feared Maximum Security Fortress (50 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars: NECC Missouri, USA | World’s Toughest Prisons (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars: Urso Branco, Brazil | World’s Toughest Prisons (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars 2: The World’s Toughest Prisons - La Mesa, Mexico (45 min, Free Documentary)
• Inside a Maximum Security Prison’s Isolation Unit | Solitary Nation (53 min, FRONTLINE PBS)
• The New Asylums | Are Prisons the New Mental Hospitals? (55 min, FRONTLINE PBS)
• Drain Alcatraz: The World's Most Notorious Prison | Drain the Oceans SPECIAL (47 min, National Geographic)
• Meet Indiana State's Most Dangerous Maximum Security Prisoners (182 min, Real Stories)
• Inside The Filipino Prison Where Dangerous Convicts Dance Everyday (21 min, Real Stories)
• Prison State (83 min, FRONTLINE PBS)
• Jailbreak of The Century I Escape From Death Row (96 min, Wonder)
• How to Escape Alcatraz With Basic Engineering (25 min, Mark Rober)
• Behind Bars 2: The World’s Toughest Prisons - El Hongo, Tecate, Mexico (46 min, Free Documentary)
• When a 16-Year-Old Is Locked Up in a Supermax Prison | Stickup Kid (28 min, FRONTLINE PBS)
• The Toughest Jail in America | Behind Bars (48 min, Wonder)
• Life In Singapore Women’s Prison | Inside The Women's Prison - Part 1/3 (45 min, CNA Insider)
• Behind Bars | Litla-Hraun, Iceland: Prison at the End of the World (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Prisons From Hell - Haiti & Madagascar | Unreported World (47 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars: Philippines - CIW: Locked Up Ladies | World’s Toughest Prisons (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars 2: The World’s Toughest Prisons - Colony 100, Kharkiv, Ukraine (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars: The World’s Toughest Prisons - Tent City Jail, Phoenix, Arizona, USA (48 min, Free Documentary)
• World's Most Luxurious Prison | Halden Prison: Vacation For Murderers? (45 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars: Picaleña Prison, Colombia | World’s Toughest Prisons (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars: Colony 8, Zhytomyr, Ukraine | World’s Toughest Prisons (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Life After Prison for People With Mental Illness | The Released (55 min, FRONTLINE PBS)
• Louis Theroux: Inside Miami's Brutal Mega Jail (118 min, Real Stories)
• Inside Japan’s Prisons: The Most Ruthless Prison System (54 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars: São Luís Female Prison, Brazil | World’s Toughest Prisons (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars 2: The World’s Toughest Prisons - Armavir Prison, Armenia (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Jail Moms: Women Raising Children In Prison (Sir Trevor McDonald) (45 min, Real Stories)
• An Ex-Con's Journey Back to Prison: Revolving Doors (18 min, VICE)
• Inside America’s Most Notorious Death Row Facility (45 min, Wonder)
• What Was Life Like Inside Victorian England's Worst Prison? | Women Behind Bars (44 min, Absolute History)
• Behind Bars: CPDRC, Philippines | World’s Toughest Prisons (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars: Osaka Prison, Japan | World’s Toughest Prisons (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars: The World’s Toughest Prisons | Rahova Prison, Romania (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars: Zenica Prison, Bosnia and Herzegovina | World’s Toughest Prisons (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Tough Jail in Texas | The Insider: Reggie Yates (50 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars 2: The World’s Toughest Prisons - Bogota, Colombia Part 2 (47 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars 2: The World’s Toughest Prisons - Bogota, Colombia Part 1 (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Chinese Exclusion, Alcatraz, and more San Francisco history REVEALED | Hidden History (24 min, National Geographic)
• A Look Back At Dangerous US Supermax Prisons Of The 1990s (46 min, Our History)
• Is There Hope For These Women Beyond Prison? | Inside The Women's Prison - Part 3/3 (47 min, CNA Insider)
• The Inmates We Fear Most | Inside a Maximum Security Prison for Murderers (94 min, Free Documentary)
• Surviving MACA: Life Inside Côte d’Ivoire’s Toughest Prison (60 min, Free Documentary)
• Overcrowded and Forgotten: Surviving Zambia's Horror Prison (52 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars: Lepoglava, Croatia | World’s Toughest Prisons (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars: Philippines - New Bilibid Prison | World’s Toughest Prisons (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars: Maafushi Central Prison, Maldives | World’s Toughest Prisons (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Working as a Jail Guard in a US Jail | The Insider: Reggie Yates (55 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars: The World’s Toughest Prisons - Sofia Central Prison, Bulgaria (46 min, Free Documentary)
• Dying Out Loud (19 min, Real Stories)
• Last Days of Solitary (113 min, FRONTLINE PBS)
• Inside Broadmoor (48 min, Real Stories)
• 'Never Going Back:' Releasing Inmates During a Pandemic (25 min, VICE)
• The Water Prison | Gorgona: Secrets of the Remote Island Complex (50 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars: Taichung Men's Prison, Taiwan | World’s Toughest Prisons (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars: My First Days in Prison - South Cotabato Jail, Philippines (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Behind Bars: USA - Locking Up Children (54 min, Free Documentary)
• Trevor Mcdonald Meets The Most Dangerous Women In Prison (96 min, Real Stories)
• Pregnancy In Prison: An Awful Truth (44 min, Real Stories)
• What Happens When 16,400 Inmates Are Released Early? (32 min, VICE)
• The Filipino Prison Where Drug Lords Live Like Kings (44 min, Free Documentary)
• German Maximum Security | JVA Aachen: Germany's Toughest Prison (49 min, Free Documentary)
• Prison Brides: Marrying Dangerous Men (44 min, Free Documentary)
• Toughest Stories from Behind Bars | Banged Up: My Story (48 min, Free Documentary)
• Will This Snitch Get Stitches? | Prison Girls (45 min, Real Crime)
• No Motherly Instincts: Women Kills Her Your Own Child | Women Behind Bars (46 min, Real Crime)
• Women In Prison: Inside America’s Only Female Chain Gang (136 min, Real Stories)
• The Strangest Army on Earth | Inside the Vatican's Swiss Guard (53 min, ENDEVR)

Top-Rated Books About Inside Prison

1. Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman - View on Amazon
2. American Prison by Shane Bauer - View on Amazon
3. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (4.3/5) - View on Amazon
4. Papillon by Henri Charrière (4.5/5) - View on Amazon