I år 2032 vækkes ærkeskurken Simon Phoenix til live efter at være frosset ned i 35 år i et nedfrysningsfængsel, og han opdager snart, at Los Angeles er en fredelig by uden vold, som han uden videre kan tage magten over. Da de ikke har noget modtræk mod Phoenix´ brutale 1990´er-stil, må myndighederne finde en gammeldags strømer til at bekæmpe den gammeldags forbryder. De genopliver politimanden John Spartan, som med urette afsoner en nedfrysningsdom efter sit sidste opgør med Phoenix.
Da en person i Ray Breslin's sikkerhedsstyrke forsvinder, tvinges han til at vende tilbage til det fængsel, som han en gang kæmpede sig ud af.
Four prison inmates have been hatching a plan to literally dig out of jail when another prisoner, Claude Gaspard, is moved into their cell. They take a risk and share their plan with the newcomer. Over the course of three days, the prisoners and friends break through the concrete floor using a bed post and begin to make their way through the sewer system -- yet their escape is anything but assured.
En gruppe forbrydere havner sammen i et fængsel langt ude i ørkenen i Det Vilde Vestens glade dage.
Den forbitrede straffefange Robert Stroud slår en fangevogter ihjel og bliver idømt livsvarigt isolationsfængsel. Han får dog lov til at holde kanariefugle, man da de bliver ramt af en alvorlig sygdom, udvikler Stroud et serum, der kan helbrede dem, og han bliver dermed en anerkendt forsker.
An unfortunate and naive girl is set-up by her boyfriend and convicted of drug smuggling. She is sent to a women's correctional facility where she must constantly struggle to survive.
An American tourist lands in a Slavic prison run by a twisted woman and the U.S. ambassador.
Brash hoodlum Tom Connors enters Sing Sing cocksure of himself and disrespectful toward authority, but his tough but compassionate warden changes him.
En elskværdig, nyudnævnt universitesrektor viser sig at være en ikke helt almindelig mand, da en gammel fjende dukker op og udstiller mandens voldelige fortid.
A gangster takes a doctor and his family hostage.
A gangster is put in prison, but finds salvation through music while serving his time. Again on the outside, he finds success elusive and temptations abound.
After young Robert Graham commits a murder while drunk and defending his girlfriend, he is prosecuted by ambitious Mark Brady and sentenced to 10 years. Six years later, Brady becomes the prison warden and offers the beleaguered Robert a job as his chauffeur. Robert cleans up his act, but, on the eve of his pardon, his cellmate drags him back into the world of violence, and he faces a difficult choice that could return him to prison.
The daughter of a British prison governor returns from an American finishing school, and chases after the inmates of her Dad's prison.
A nurse is framed for her involvement in the hospital murder of a politician who was threatening to expose corrupt practices. She escapes from jail but is captured and sent back, resulting in the rest of the inmates being punished, added to which of a new, tougher, head of security arrives to take up her new job....
Oscar, a tough guard at Newberry Prison, gets into an argument with Jerry, a smallish barber. He causes Jerry to be arrested as a fugitive, and gets him sent to Newberry. It's not long before both men fall in love with Mary, the daughter of the warden. Oscar gets Jerry put on the prison football team, where he is the smallest guy there, figuring that he will look like a fool in front of Mary and then she will pick Oscar. However, things don't turn out quite the way Oscar planned.
Konrad von Seidlitz is a young yuppie lawyer currently celebrating his engagement with Cornelia, daughter of minister of justice Volkerts. As a public relations gag, he hasn't paid his parking fines for two years and now insists on being sentenced to jail for two weeks as punishment. Using his knowledge as a lawyer he makes the best out of his visit in jail still working, still in a splendid mood and not adapting to any rule. Probably a good way to get the desired public attention, but also a good way to make enemies inside the jail-house. One day before Konrad is to be released his booth is searched and two hundred grams of cocaine are found. That's a serious problem even for a brilliant lawyer like Konrad and even if you're innocent
Today's the day the Missouri madman Otis Boyle finally gets executed. The Warden and his Captain of the Guards, York, have been looking forward to this for years, but they could never have prepared themselves for his last request. As Warden insists upon fulfilling their most notorious inmate's twisted demand in the name of "tradition" and "protocol," York struggles to keep up in order to keep his job -- no matter how much it asks of him.