Prison Movies on Netflix, Plus Series and Documentaries

For a film, start with The Shawshank Redemption if your Netflix has it, and The Platform if it does not. For a series, Orange Is the New Black has seven seasons waiting. For a documentary, 13TH explains the most in one sitting.

Those are four of the sixteen titles below. We opened the Netflix page of each one to confirm it was there and to read what it is about, and we have sorted them by kind so you can go straight to the part you want.

Before you pick: your Netflix may differ

Netflix’s catalogue is different in every country and it changes every month. The pages we opened were the ones Netflix serves in Nigeria. To see whether a title is in your country, click its name in the table below. If Netflix does not have it where you are, the page tells you the title is not available to watch in your country.

Most of this list is Netflix originals, and Netflix says it holds worldwide rights to most of those. The four that are licensed, and so the likeliest to be missing, are The Shawshank Redemption, Miracle in Cell No. 7, Jigra and Prison Playbook.

Prison movies, series and documentaries at a glance

For a series, the year is the one Netflix shows, which is the year of its latest season.

Prison movies

The Shawshank Redemption (1994). A banker is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover. Inside, what keeps him going is hope and his friendship with Red, another lifer. Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman star, and Frank Darabont directs. Netflix files it under classics and films based on books.

The Platform (2019). The setting is a vertical facility, a tower in effect, and the food comes down through it from above. Whoever is near the top eats their fill. By the lower floors there is nothing left, and the people down there will not put up with it for ever. It is a Spanish thriller directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia Munitxa. The page we opened offered English audio, carried Netflix’s “violent” tag and was rated 18+. The Platform 2 (2024), from the same director, goes back to the same system of vertical cells and is on Netflix as well.

Miracle in Cell No. 7 (2019). A man with an intellectual disability is jailed over the death of a commander’s child and taken from his own daughter. He has to show he did not do it. Aras Bulut İynemli leads this Turkish drama. Netflix tags it a tearjerker, so plan accordingly.

Jigra (2024). Ankur is on death row abroad for something he did not do. His sister Satya makes up her mind to get him out, whatever it takes. Alia Bhatt and Vedang Raina star and Vasan Bala directs. This is the one to pick if you came looking for a prison escape film, or a Hindi one.

Two more from India were in the catalogue: Vadh 2 (2026, Hindi), about a guard and an inmate whose bond unravels after a crime inside a prison, and Sorga Vaasal (2024, Tamil with Hindi audio), about an ordinary man trying to survive a corrupt and brutal jail. Our list of Hindi movies on Netflix has more.

Prison series

Orange Is the New Black. An old crime finally lands a well-off New Yorker in a women’s prison, and she has to work out fast who is on her side. Jenji Kohan created it and Taylor Schilling leads the cast. All seven seasons are there, and Netflix files it under both drama and comedy.

Black Warrant. A principled new officer starts work at Tihar Jail, sees how corrupt the place is, and promises himself he will put things right. It is in Hindi, runs to seven episodes, and Netflix lists it as based on a book. Zahan Kapoor leads; Vikramaditya Motwane and Satyanshu Singh created it.

Prison Cell 211. A human rights lawyer is caught in a prison riot and pretends to be an inmate to stay alive. It is a Mexican series of six episodes with Diego Calva Hernández in the lead.

In the Mud. A fatal accident ties five women prisoners together. The prison around them is corrupt and split between rival groups, and that puts all five in danger. This Argentinian series from Sebastián Ortega has two seasons.

Locked Up. A young woman who trusted her boyfriend too much embezzles money for him and goes to prison for it. She has to toughen up quickly. It is Spanish, with Najwa Nimri and Maggie Civantos, and Netflix lists two seasons.

Prison Playbook. A star baseball pitcher is about to make his major league debut when he is sent to prison, and has to learn how the place works. Netflix tags the Korean series witty as well as gritty, which makes it the lighter choice among these dramas.

For an outright comedy, there is Hard Cell, a British mockumentary in six episodes about the governor of a women’s prison, created by and starring Catherine Tate.

Prison documentaries

13TH (2016). Ava DuVernay’s documentary asks how African Americans came to be treated as criminals in such numbers and why the US prison population grew so fast, and puts the question to academics, campaigners and politicians. It is the place to begin if your question is how the system got this way.

Daughters (2024). Four girls get ready to see their fathers again at a special dance held in a Washington DC jail. Natalie Rae and Angela Patton direct. On the page we opened it was rated 13+, the mildest rating in the table.

Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons. Reporters check themselves in as prisoners in some of the most dangerous jails on earth and report from the inside. Paul Connolly and Raphael Rowe are the names on the page, and there are seven seasons.

Unlocked: A Jail Experiment. A sheriff runs an experiment that gives incarcerated men more say over life inside a correctional facility. Netflix lists two seasons.

Time: The Kalief Browder Story (2017). Six episodes on Kalief Browder, a Black teenager from the Bronx who spent three years in jail without being convicted of a crime.

Jailbreak: Love on the Run (2024). A corrections officer in Alabama falls for a prisoner who is waiting to be tried for murder, and gives up everything to get him out.

There is plenty more in the same vein. I Am a Killer has six seasons of death row inmates giving their own accounts. Jailbirds and Girls Incarcerated follow women and teenage girls in American facilities, and Happy Jail goes inside the jail in the Philippines that became famous for a Michael Jackson dance video. The Quilters is a short film about inmates of a maximum-security prison in Missouri who make quilts for children in foster care.

What has gone from our earlier list

The Fear of 13 and The Stanford Prison Experiment still have pages on Netflix, and each page said the title was not available to watch where we were. Shot Caller and Wentworth had no page at all. Prison Break, the series many people think of first, had a page but could not be watched either.

Any of them may be in your country’s catalogue, so search before you give up.

Where to start

• One film: The Shawshank Redemption. If it is not in your catalogue, The Platform is a Netflix original and should be.
• Something to live with for weeks: Orange Is the New Black, for the simple reason that there are seven seasons of it.
• A short series: Black Warrant or Prison Cell 211. Both are done in seven episodes or fewer.
• A documentary: 13TH for the argument, Daughters if you would rather watch something gentler.

If it is the crime more than the cell that interests you, see our list of gangster movies on Netflix.

Quick answers

Is The Shawshank Redemption on Netflix?

It was in the catalogue we looked at. It is a licensed film, so it will not be in every country. Open its Netflix page to see.

What is a good prison documentary on Netflix?

13TH if you want the big picture in one film, and Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons if you want a series with seven seasons to get through.

Is there a prison series on Netflix?

Yes. Orange Is the New Black, with seven seasons, is the longest of the dramas. Black Warrant, Prison Cell 211, In the Mud, Locked Up and Prison Playbook were all there too.

Which prison titles on Netflix are based on a true story?

The documentaries, to begin with: Time: The Kalief Browder Story and Jailbreak: Love on the Run both follow real cases. Among the dramas, Netflix lists Orange Is the New Black as based on real life, and the limited series When They See Us as based on the true story of five Harlem teenagers falsely accused of an attack in Central Park.

Is Prison Break on Netflix?

Not where we looked. Netflix has a page for it, and the page said it was not available to watch in our country.