Top 250 Movies Like College Behind Bars
A list of the best movies similar to College Behind Bars. If you liked College Behind Bars then you may also like: Up the River, Vendetta, Night of the Kings, Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story, Rolling Man and many more great movies featured on this list.
Explore the transformative power of education through the eyes of a dozen incarcerated men and women trying to earn college degrees – and a chance at new beginnings – from one of the country’s most rigorous prison education programs.
Night of the Kings
A young man is sent to "La Maca," a prison in the middle of the Ivorian forest ruled by its inmates. As tradition goes with the rising of the red moon, he is designated by the Boss to be the new "Roman" and must tell a story to the other prisoners. Learning what fate awaits him, he begins to narrate the mystical life of the legendary outlaw named "Zama King" and has no choice but to make his story last until dawn.
Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story
Redemption tells the story of Stan "Tookie" Williams, founder of the Crips L.A. street gang. Story follows his fall into gang-banging, his prison term, and his work writing children's novels encouraging peace and anti-violence resolutions which earned him multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominations. After exhausting all forms of appeal, Tookie was executed by lethal injection.
Rolling Man
After serving time in prison for attempted murder of the man who caused his wife's death, hard-luck loser Lonnie comes home to find that all of his belongings have been sold and his two boys have been given to strangers to raise. He sets out across the country to find them and possibly to find himself.
Jail House Blues
A prisoner about to be pardoned puts it off until he can put on one last variety show for his fellow inmates.
Jailhouse Rock
After serving time for manslaughter, young Vince Everett becomes a teenage rock star.
K-11
Raymond Saxx Jr., a powerful record producer, wakes from a drug-induced blackout to find himself locked up and classified "K-11." Plunged into a nightmarish world ruled by a transsexual diva named Mousey, Raymond is truly a fish out of water. Complicating matters are a troubled young transgender named Butterfly, a predatory child molester and the ruthless Sheriff's Deputy, Lt. Johnson. Ray's struggle to contact the outside world and regain his freedom seems impossible, but he must learn to navigate this new power structure if he is ever going survive and be in control of his life again.
Against the Wall
In 1971, a warden at Attica Penitentiary is caught up in a hostage crisis when inmates take over the prison to demand better living conditions.
Brute Force
Timeworn Joe Collins and his fellow inmates live under the heavy thumb of the sadistic, power-tripping guard Captain Munsey. Only Collins' dreams of escape keep him going, but how can he possibly bust out of Munsey's chains?
Clemency
Years of carrying out death row executions have taken a toll on prison warden Bernadine Williams. As she prepares to execute another inmate, Bernadine must confront the psychological and emotional demons her job creates, ultimately connecting her to the man she is sanctioned to kill.
Run to Me
Alison Wynn is an amateur triathlete who convinces Dr. Laura Stevens, a controversial peak-performance trainer, to take her on as a client. Together they embark on a rigorous program combining cutting-edge physical training with experimental hypnotherapy in an effort to render Alison more competitive. Pushed to her limits and forced to explore the painful repressed memories of her mother's suicide, Dr. Stevens' punishing regimen helps Alison post impressive gains and break through her own glass ceiling; but at what cost? Alison's work and family life with her husband and daughter suffer but no sacrifice seems too great to satisfy Laura's escalating demands. In fact Laura will do whatever it takes to have Alison all to herself. As Alison runs directly into Laura's sinister psychological trap, it's up to Alison's daughter to help her mother see through the deception before they lose her forever.
The Green Mile
A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the cell block's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, recognizes Coffey's miraculous gift, he tries desperately to help stave off the condemned man's execution.
Corrective Measures
Set in San Tiburon, the world's most dangerous maximum-security penitentiary and home to the world's most treacherous superpowered criminals, where tensions among the inmates and staff heighten, leading to anarchy that engulfs the prison and order is turned upside down.
Midnight Express
Billy Hayes is caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of Turkey. The Turkish courts decide to make an example of him, sentencing him to more than 30 years in prison. Hayes has two opportunities for release: the appeals made by his lawyer, his family, and the American government, or the "Midnight Express".
Escape Plan
Ray Breslin is the world's foremost authority on structural security. After analyzing every high security prison and learning a vast array of survival skills so he can design escape-proof prisons, his skills are put to the test. He's framed and incarcerated in a master prison he designed himself. He needs to escape and find the person who put him behind bars.
Braddock: Missing in Action III
When Colonel James Braddock is told that his Asian wife and 12-year-old son are still alive in Communist Vietnam, he mounts a one-man assault to free them. Armed with the latest high-tech firepower, Braddock fights his way into the heart of the country and ends up battling his way out with several dozen abused Amerasian children in tow! Struggling to keep them alive while outmaneuvering a sadistic Vietnamese officer, Braddock ignites the jungle in a blazing cross-country race for freedom.
Chained Heat
Linda Blair plays Carol, a young woman who must serve 18 months in prison after driving drunk and killing a man. The prison turns out to be brimming with decadence, corruption and sleaze, where the other female inmates are sadistic crack-selling lesbian rapists and the guards and warden are no better.
Convicted Woman
A reporter and a lawyer investigate a women's prison and help an inmate who does not belong there.
Most Dangerous Man Alive
An escaped, but framed, prisoner escapes prison during a cobalt explosion and soon discovers he has grown a special power that makes his body impervious to everything. Learning this, he seeks vengeance on the bad guys who framed him for jail.
The Experiment
Das Experiment is a shocking psycho thriller about the potential for brutality that humans hide. Even more shocking is the fact that it’s based on an actual occurrence — a 1971 psychological experiment at Stanford University that was aborted prematurely when the experimenters lost control.
Doctor Faustus
Faustus is a scholar at the University of Wittenberg when he earns his doctorate degree. His insatiable appetite for knowledge and power leads him to employ necromancy to conjure Mephistopheles out of hell. He bargains away his soul to Lucifer in exchange for living 24 years during which Mephistopheles will be his slave. Faustus signs the pact in his own blood and Mephistopheles reveals the works of the devil to Faustus.
The Last Castle
A court-martialed general rallies together 1200 inmates to rise against the system that put him away.
Lock Up
Frank Leone is nearing the end of his prison term for a relatively minor crime. Just before he is paroled, however, Warden Drumgoole takes charge. Drumgoole was assigned to a hell-hole prison after his administration was publicly humiliated by Leone, and has now arrived on the scene to ensure that Leone never sees the light of day.
The Longest Yard
A football player-turned-convict organizes a team of inmates to play against a team of prison guards. His dilemma is that the warden asks him to throw the game in return for an early release, but he is also concerned about the inmates' lack of self-esteem.
Son of a Gun
Locked up for a minor crime, 19 year old JR quickly learns the harsh realities of prison life. Protection, if you can get it, is paramount. JR soon finds himself under the watchful eye of Australia's most notorious criminal, Brendan Lynch, but protection comes at a price.
Madea Goes to Jail
After a high-speed car chase, Madea winds up behind bars because her quick temper gets the best of her. Meanwhile, Assistant District Attorney Josh Hardaway lands a case that's too personal to handle: that of a young prostitute and former drug addict named Candace. When Candace winds up in jail, Madea takes the young woman under her protective wing.
Civil Brand
Forced to work under slave-like conditions in a "prison for profit" program, the inmates of a mostly-African-American female prison, Whitehead Correctional, try to take over the institution. At the core of the story is Frances, who finds herself in prison after being falsely convicted of murder, and who is told that her baby has been murdered, sparking her to lead her fellow inmates in the protest
Sugar Boxx
Sugar State Women’s Prison. An Everglades hellhole where innocent girls are forced to slave in the swamps by day then turn tricks for the warden by night. A prison camp where corruption, brutality, and sexual abuse are all part of the daily routine. But when reporter Valerie March goes undercover inside Sugar State, that’s when the powder keg really explodes! Follow Valerie through prison life - catfights, knife fights, rape, whippings, prostitution, and the “hot box” - before she and her fellow inmates take bloody, unforgettable revenge on their captors. Inspired by the great women-in-prison films of the past, SUGAR BOXX takes everything one step further. SUGAR BOXX has it all.
Higher Learning
Malik is an African-American student attending on a track scholarship; academics are not his strong suit, and he goes in thinking that his athletic abilities will earn him a free ride through college. Fudge, a "professional student" who has been at Columbus for six years so far, becomes friendly with Malik and challenges his views about race and politics in America.
I Want to Live!
Barbara Graham is a woman with dubious moral standards, often a guest in seedy bars. She has been sentenced for some petty crimes. Two men she knows murder an older woman. When they get caught they start to think that Barbara has helped the police arresting them. As a revenge they tell the police that Barbara is the murderer.
Last Dance
Upon taking a new job, young lawyer Rick Hayes is assigned to the clemency case of Cindy Liggett, a woman convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death. As Hayes investigates the background for her case, the two begin to form a deep friendship, while all the while the date for her execution draws nearer.
Love Beats Rhymes
A young woman dreams of making it big in the world of hip hop, but her parents demand that she finish her university degree. She dutifully agrees to complete her education, but her spoken word proves to have a powerful impact in the classroom.
Mean Machine
Disgraced ex-England football captain, Danny 'Mean Machine' Meehan, is thrown in jail for assaulting two police officers. He keeps his head down and has the opportunity to forget everything and change the lives of the prisoners. When these prisoners have the chance to put one over the evil guards during a prison football match, Danny takes the lead.
Murder in the First
Inspired by a true story. A petty criminal sent to Alcatraz in the 1930s is caught attempting to make an escape. As punishment he is put in solitary confinement. The maximum stay is supposed to be 19 days, but Henri spends years alone, cold and in complete darkness, only to emerge a madman and soon to be a murderer. The story follows a rookie lawyer attempting to prove that Alcatraz was to blame.
The Mustang
While participating in a rehabilitation program training wild mustangs, a convict at first struggles to connect with the horses and his fellow inmates, but he learns to confront his violent past as he soothes an especially feisty horse.
Prison
After Charles Forsyth was sent to the electric chair for a crime he didn't commit, he forever haunts the prison where he was executed. Flash forward several years when the prison is reopened, under the control of its new warden Eaton Sharpe, a former security guard who framed Charlie. When prisoners are ordered to break down the wall to the execution room, they unknowingly release the angry spirit of Charles Forsyth, a powerful being distributing his murderous rage to all, leading up to the Warden himself.
Go for Broke
Two men (Pras, Michael Goorjian) in drag purposely get arrested in order to recover their winning lottery-ticket from an inmate at a women's prison.
Shadow: Dead Riot
Evil voodoo-practicing serial killer Shadow gets executed for murdering pregnant women. Twenty years later the prison Shadow was put to death at has been turned into an experimental women's penitentiary. Tough and fiercely autonomous new inmate Solitaire has some kind of link with Shadow. When Shadow and his lethal shambling zombie minions are resurrected, it's up to Solitaire to stop them.
The Stanford Prison Experiment
This film is based on the actual events that took place in 1971 when Stanford professor Dr. Philip Zimbardo created what became one of the most shocking and famous social experiments of all time.
Division 19
In 2039, jails have been turned into online portals where the public gets to choose what prisoners eat, wear, watch and who they fight. So successful is Panopticon TV, it is about to be rolled out to a whole town, providing subscribers even more choice.
Run Like Hell
In the year of 2008, war and sickness have overtaken the planet. The deranged government declares single women a threat to the human race. Singles women are imprisoned. The corrupt warden is determined to keep the prisoners locked up.
Enlighten Thy Daughter
A remake of the 1917 picture of the same name. Ruth, the offspring of Stevens' hypocritical brother, is neglected by her parents in matters of sex education; as consequence, she trods the primrose path, ending up pregnant, then dead.
Route 666
Smith, a mob informer hiding out with the Witness Protection Program, decides to make a break for it and hide out in the Arizona desert. The Feds catch up with him and rescue him just before a group of hitmen can manage to silence him for good. In the course of getting Smith away from the mafia thugs, the pair of agents assigned to protect him turn onto an abandoned stretch of highway nicknamed 'Route 666' after the mysterious death of a prison chain gang. As the three continue on their way, they soon discover just what happened to the chain gang, and how the highway earned its name.
Screwed
The film is a semi-biographical story based on the experiences of former prison guard Ronnie Thompson who spent seven years working in some of the UK's most dangerous prisons. Based on Thompson's book of the same name, the project stars James D'Arcy (Master & Commander), Noel Clarke (Kidulthood), Frank Harper (The Football Factory), Jamie Foreman (Layer Cake), Andrew Shim (This Is England) and Kate Magowan (Stardust). The story revolves around former soldier Sam Norwood who takes a job as a prison officer when he returns from Iraq and becomes exposed to the underworld of prison culture - including corrupt guards and drug trafficking.
American Violence
A psychologist interviews a death row inmate to determine whether or not a stay of execution should be granted.
Becoming Orgasmic
This therapist-developed, doctor-approved program guides you through the proven, time-tested techniques thousands of women have used to achieve orgasm. This highly effective self-help program was specifically designed to empower women to overcome the barriers within themselves that prevent orgasm. The 83-minute program, which is both educational and highly explicit, can be used alone or with your partner. You'll get instructions for achieving orgasm -- from exploring your body and masturbation techniques to partner participation and intercourse. By exploring techniques for increasing sexual desire, learning how to relax and by examining how you see yourself, you'll grow to be your sexual best! America's top sex educators help you put more pleasure and excitement in your intimate relationships.
Jackson County Jail
A young woman stumbles into a nightmare land of hijacking and humiliation while driving cross-country from California to New York.
Macon County Jail
After she leaves her cheating husband, Susan Reed embarks on a cross-country road trip where she falls victim to a series of mishaps that land her behind bars in the redneck Macon County Jail. Once inside, she's subjected to endless acts of brutality from the guards and inmates alike. Things go from bad to worse when she's forced to defend herself against a rapist with tragic results. No longer truly "innocent," when the opportunity arises Susan flees with fellow prisoner Coley.
Maximum Security
Terrorists infiltrate Innsmouth, a new maximum security prison, and inmate Mace Richter, a former police officer, is the only one who can foil their plans.
One Day as a Lion
Jackie Powers will stop at nothing to prevent his son from following him into a life of crime. With his mob employer in pursuit, a chance encounter at a roadside diner charts a new path.
Life of the Party
When her husband suddenly dumps her, longtime dedicated housewife Deanna turns regret into re-set by going back to college... landing in the same class and school as her daughter, who's not entirely sold on the idea. Plunging headlong into the campus experience, the increasingly outspoken Deanna – now Dee Rock – embraces freedom, fun and frat boys on her own terms, finding her true self in a senior year no one ever expected.
House of Women
An innocent, pregnant prison inmate (Shirley Knight) becomes the bad warden's (Andrew Duggan) personal favorite.
Serving Life
SERVING LIFE documents an extraordinary hospice program where hardened criminals care for dying fellow inmates. Narrated and executive produced by Academy Award®-winner Forest Whitaker, the film takes viewers inside Louisiana's maximum security prison at Angola, where the average sentence is more than 90 years.
Lethal Love Triangle
Two students become engrossed with their handsome research subject until his true nature puts them in harm's way.
Against Their Will: Women in Prison
Behind prison walls, corruption, sex and power make criminals out of the guards and heroes out of the guarded. For more than a decade, the lawless guards inside a maximum security women's prison have reigned with impunity - rape, sex for money and illegal favors have become the norm until one woman decides to battle the system. Leading a group of inmates on a risky life-or-death struggle for justice, a ten year silence is finally broken, exposing the twisted truth to the world and enabling the prisoners the freedom to live without fear.
Irish Eyes
"Irish Eyes" explores the relationship between two Irish-American brothers in Boston born to immigrant parents and raised in a rough, working class Irish neighborhood. After watching their father being gunned down in front of their eyes as children, Thomas and Sean Phelan grow up building their lives on opposite ends of the law. Thomas, the studious and responsible brother, creates a better life for himself through education and hard, honest work. Eventually, he builds a successful career as a US Attorney. Sean, the more rebellious of the two, gets caught up in a life of crime and rises through the ranks to become the head of the Irish Mob.
Myra: The Making of a Monster
The documentary examines Myra Hindley's psyche, the nature of her relationship with Ian Brady, her background, and time in prison. When Moors murderer Myra Hindley died on 15 November, she was Britain's longest serving woman prisoner - spending 36 years in jail. Hindley was jailed for life in 1966 for murdering two children with her lover Ian Brady.
Shelter in Solitude
A death row prisoner (Peter Macon) with 10 days left to live forms an unlikely bond with a washed up country singer turned prison guard (Siobhan Fallon Hogan).
Furlough
In between caring for her mother, a young woman works part time at a prison. The rookie guard gets a chance to prove her mettle when she's tasked with accompanying a hell-raising inmate on an emergency furlough to visit her dying mother. But things soon spiral out of control, sending the pair on a hilarious, surprising, and ultimately touching road trip.
Dracula in a Women's Prison
Ten years after the horrific events of Werewolf in a Women's Prison, the penitentiary has a new warden with a thirst for blood. Young American Liz travels to the the third world country of Campuna to gather her sisters remains, who mysteriously passed in jail. However, anyone who dies in Campuna State Prison comes back to life under warden Drago better known as Count Dracula.
The Pot Carriers
New inmate Rainbow has just been imprisoned for a year for his part in a fight over his girlfriend Wendy. After being assigned to kitchen duty, he becomes involved in a food-trading racket. When the scheme is betrayed to the prison's governor, its prime mover is threatened with an extended sentence - unless Rainbow can come up with a way to save him.
Prison of Secrets
Lynn Schaffer is willfully irresponsible once too often, gets fired and refuses a plea-bargain with her employer. She's now convicted and because of this uncooperative attitude gets the maximum sentence, 10 years in a women's jail wing. Model husband Larry, who wasn't informed of her dumb schemes is left running her appeal, the household and spoiled daughter who now feels abandoned. Since most inmates are junkies or prostitutes, sergeant Ed Crang and fellow corrupt jailers can run a 'favors in kind exchange'. For rebels, it gets worse. Larry however has his own radio show, so it all hangs on gathering proof.
Untamed Youth
Sisters Jane and Penny are arrested for hitchhiking on their way to Los Angeles when they stop for a quick skinny dip in a rural town. Local agricultural magnate Tropp is a sponsor for a local prison work program and the women get put in the fields to work off their sentence. Tropp is dating the widowed judge in order to ensure a stable supply of cheap labor in order to undercut his competition. The prisoners suffer ill treatment, but the judge's son has signed on as a hired hand and begins to figure out the scam as he begins falling in love with Jane, and Penny dreams of making it big in showbiz.
A Warden's Ransom
The new female warden of a high-security prison faces challenges when an inmate puts up a bounty to anyone who can break him out of jail.
They All Come Out
A down on his luck young man stumbles into a gang of robbers who all get landed in prison. Will he be reformed, or is he ensnared into a life of crime?
Prisoners of the War on Drugs
From its beginning during the Reagan years through current times, the War on Drugs has left many victims stranded in the prison system. PRISONERS OF THE WAR ON DRUGS reveals life behind bars in the nation’s prisons. Each prisoner has his or her own story, but for most, the story is predictably similar; they have been criminalized for drugs or drug related offenses, locked up with easy access to substances, and given little opportunity for rehabilitation. This film provides an inside look at the prison system, its prisoners and a war on drugs we do not seem to be winning.
Toe Tag Parole: To Live and Die on Yard A
In 2000, a California State Prison inmate serving Life Without Parole (LWOP) approached the warden to request a dedicated yard for men serving life sentences that would break the code of violence dominating prison life. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) subsequently transformed Yard A at California State Prison into The Progressive Programming Facility, which inmates call The Honor Yard. The only one of its kind in the United States, this experimental prison yard is free of violence, racial tensions, gang activity and illegal drug and alcohol use.
American Jail
In this deeply personal film, director Roger Ross Williams sets out on a journey to understand the complex forces of racism and greed currently at work in America's prison system.
Scared Straight! 20 Years Later
Adults meet up with the people who changed their lives twenty years ago by confronting them about their lifestyles as teenagers.
The Prisoner
A cardinal is arrested for treason against the state. He is a popular hero of his people, for his resistance against the Nazis during the war and his resistance when his country again fell to a totalitarian conqueror. In prison, his interrogator is determined to extract a confession of guilt, and thus destroy his power over his people.
Nobody's Child
Fact-based drama about the life of Marie Balter, who spent most of her young life in mental institutions. At age 16, she first attempted suicide and the next 20 years she spent in and out of the institutions. At last, a caring doctor started treating her for extreme depression and panic disorder. Weened from strong medications she had taken all her life, at age 36, she emerged for the last time and started a rehabilitation program in the home of a volunteer married couple. There she met a fellow patient with whom she developed a romantic relationship. She also started a college degree. This followed with a long-term professional success in the field of mental health.
Inmates: A Love Story
Accountant Roy is sentenced to prison because he cooked up balances. He hopes that his companions, who profited from his cheat, will help him to a revision of his judgment. Meanwhile he has to adapt to a life in jail - which works out quite well, especially when he meets the self-conscious convicted thief Jane and falls in love. He starts to woo her. But then, while working in the prison's accounting department, he discovers that the prisoners' accounts are not properly kept. The director tries to keep him in her prison as long as possible.
The Detention Girls
A pretty young college student is arrested during a demonstration. She is taken to a notorious detention center, where she is subjected to sexual harassment by lesbian inmates and guards, and becomes the target of a sadistic, bullwhip-wielding warden.
Women of San Quentin
A young female prison guard finds out that her first assignment is to San Quentin, one of the toughest prisons in the country.
Scared Straight! Another Story
A group of young delinquents well on the road to careers in crime, are given a shock course in prison life. Brought face to face with hardened criminals many serving life sentences for rape and murder, they are suddenly confronted with the harsh realities of a top-security U.S. Penitentiary.
Gunfight at Comanche Creek
Comanche Creek, Colorado, 1875: Prisoner Jack Mason is broken out of jail by a gang of strangers. They use him in a robbery, then when the dead-or-alive reward is high enough, they shoot him and collect. The National Detective Agency, now knowing the gang's methods, arranges to have agent Bob Gifford jailed in Comanche Creek for train robbery. The gang takes the bait (not before Gifford catches the eye of lovely saloon-keeper Abbie). But how will the bait get off the hook?
Passage West
In 1863, having escaped from a rock-quarry prison in Salt Lake, six inmates led by convicted murderer Pete Black take over a small wagon train headed by preacher Jacob Karns. Tensions and hardships grow as the travelers continue to trek toward California across dry, desolate country.
Under Colorado Skies
Monte Hale has been working as a teller in a Texas bank during the summer to earn money for his medical college expenses during the upcoming year. He is about to leave to return to college when the bank is held up by two members of a notorious gang, headed by Marlowe, leaving Monte with the smoking gun of one of the bandits that killed the bank president. To avoid bringing disgrace on the family of his sweetheart, Julia Collins, by revealing that it was her brother Jeff, supposedly working in Denver, who induced him to open the back door of the bank to let the robbers in, Monte allows suspicion to rest on him until he can clear himself.
247 Degrees Fahrenheit
Four friends travel to a lakeside cabin for a carefree weekend, but the fun turns into a nightmare when 3 of them end up locked in a hot sauna. Every minute counts and every degree matters as they fight for their lives in the heat up to 247°F.
Bosco
Based on the true story of Quawntay “Bosco” Adams. Sentenced to 35 years for attempted possession of marijuana, Adams miraculously escaped from a Federal maximum-security prison while under 24-hour surveillance in solitary confinement with the help of an older woman he met through a lonely-hearts ad.
Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive
After overcoming traumatic events, Gloria Gaynor rebuilt her life by earning a degree in psychology and investing her own resources to produce the gospel record Testimony, which earned her second Grammy 40 years later.
Belly of the Beast
When a courageous young woman and a radical lawyer discover a pattern of illegal involuntary sterilizations in California’s women’s prison system, they take to the courtroom to wage a near-impossible battle against the Department of Corrections. With a growing team of investigators inside prison working with colleagues on the outside, they uncover a series of statewide crimes - from dangerously inadequate health care to sexual assault to coercive sterilizations - primarily targeting women of color. But no one believes them. This shocking legal drama captured over seven years features extraordinary access and intimate accounts from currently and formerly incarcerated women, demanding our attention to a shameful and ongoing legacy of eugenics and reproductive injustice in the United States.
Up the River
Daily life at men and women's prison units where baseball and the marching band are serious business. Two prisoners escape in order to help paroled Steve from being blackmailed by his girlfriend's ex-partner-in-crime.