Top 250 Movies Like Prisoners' Wives

In Arizona in the late 1800s, infamous outlaw Ben Wade and his vicious gang of thieves and murderers have plagued the Southern Railroad. When Wade is captured, Civil War veteran Dan Evans, struggling to survive on his drought-plagued ranch, volunteers to deliver him alive to the "3:10 to Yuma", a train that will take the killer to trial.

This fact-based prison drama tells the tale of a band of prisoners living in the innovative 2,600-acre prison at Chino, California. The place takes a humanistic approach to reform and there are no armed guards, no lockups and no uniforms. The underlying philosophy is that if these things are not there, the prisoners will not want to escape, and will instead accept their punishment. A new inmate arrives and soon accustoms himself to the new idea. The story includes the Oscar nominated song Unchained Melody.

The Unwritten Code is an offbeat, better-than-average Columbia wartime "B" picture. Though Ann Savage and Tom Neal are top-billed, the central character is supporting-actor Roland Varno. He plays a Nazi spy who sneaks into the U.S., hoping to release hundreds of German prisoners. He fails, but not until plenty of bullets have been spent. The most interesting aspect of The Unwritten Code is the casting of Savage and Neal as the "good" characters: in 1945, these two cult favorites would play the decidedly unsavory protagonists of the film noir classic Detour.

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.

A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and then leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist. After the heist, events take a crazy turn.

A crusading psychiatrist battles a sadistic female warden to improve conditions at a women's prison.

Two men want to escape from East Germany (under Communist rule) but they will only go if they can take their families with them. Based on a true story.

Escaped convict Sam Gillen single-handedly takes on ruthless developers who are determined to evict a widow with two young children.

John Rambo is released from prison by the government for a top-secret covert mission to the last place on Earth he'd want to return - the jungles of Vietnam.

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.

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.

A prisoner about to be pardoned puts it off until he can put on one last variety show for his fellow inmates.

Based on the true story of teenager James Burns who goes from a suburban street gang to a maximum-security prison cell surrounded by hardened criminals. He turns his life around in prison thanks to the unexpected friendship he forms with a convicted murderer who becomes his mentor.

Milly and Louis, and their recently-widowed mom, Charlene, move to a new neighborhood. Once there, they all deal with a variety of personal problems, but Milly finds a friend in Eric, her autistic next door neighbor. Eric has a fascination with flight, and as the story progresses, he exerts an enthralling force of change on all those around him.

The new warden of a small prison farm in Arkansas tries to clean it up of corruption after initially posing as an inmate.

An African American male is imprisoned and placed in solitary confinement after being found guilty of murdering his wife, as he's haunted by internal demons and his dead wife, and pushed to the breaking point by an abusive female guard.

A series of stories about the lives and loves of nine men in a Prisoner of War Camp over five years. Location shooting in the British occupied part of Germany adds believability. The main story is of Hasek (Redgrave) a Czech soldier who needs to keep his identity a secret from the Nazis, to do this he poses as a dead English Officer and corresponds with the man's wife. Upon liberation they meet and decide to continue their lives together. The other inmates' stories are revealed episodically.

When Laura Harris's kidnapped son returns after eleven devastating years, what she thinks will be a dream come true turns out to be a family nightmare.

Convicted killers David Sweat and Richard Matt seduce bored, restless, small town mom Joyce Mitchell who aids and abets their audacious jailbreak.

A divorced woman finds sexual liberation through online dating.

South Africa, 1978. Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee, two white political activists from the African National Congress imprisoned by the apartheid regime, put a plan in motion to escape from the infamous Pretoria Prison.

After security expert Ray Breslin is hired to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a Hong Kong tech mogul from a formidable Latvian prison, Breslin's girlfriend is also captured. Now he and his team must pull off a deadly rescue mission to confront their sadistic foe and save the hostages before time runs out.

Ex-Army officer Jameson takes a job a prison guard at San Quentin. Joe, the brother of his new girlfriend May, is sentenced to the prison for robbery. When Jameson tries to separate lawbreakers from hardened criminals, badguy Hansen tries to stir up trouble by telling Joe about Jameson's interest in his sister.

Panic arises among Allied POWs aboard a Japanese freighter when they learn that the ship is actually a decoy target for American submarines on night patrol. The prisoners unite and attack their Japanese captors just as an American sub surfaces and, not knowing the prisoners are aboard, prepares to torpedo the ship.

Monroe and 'Joker' Johnson are two prisoners who despise each other. But after their prison transport crashes, they manage to escapechained to each other.

After her fiance is falsely imprisoned, a pregnant African-American woman sets out to clear his name and prove his innocence.

A prisoner in a state-of-the-art penitentiary begins to question the purpose of the emotion-controlling drugs he's testing for a pharmaceutical genius.

Amid the bitter divisiveness of the Civil War, Confederate Capt. Robert Adams (Julian Adams) feels the rift within his soul. Steadfastly loyal to the South, Adams also holds an unshakable love for his Northerner wife, Eveline McCord (Gwendolyn Edwards). Based on the true story of Robert Adams and produced by his descendents, this stirring historical drama -- a film festival favorite -- delves into the themes of honor, patriotism and love.

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.

Prequel to the first Missing In Action, set in the early 1980s it shows the capture of Colonel Braddock during the Vietnam war in the 1970s, and his captivity with other American POWs in a brutal prison camp, and his plans to escape.

Six female prisoners are given a weekend furlough to prepare them for their upcoming parole. While out, they all have miscellaneous sexual experiences, some good, some bad. One returns to her pimp even though he beats her, one overcomes her frigidity, one gets gang raped, two join in a threesome, and one goes back to her criminal lover shortly before the police show up.

Sam Connor kidnaps his young daughters, April and May, sells them to strangers, and accidentally kills his wife when she attempts to intervene. Sixteen years later, April is an out of control outlaw who has come into a life of drugs and crime, while May has grown into a straight laced, refined woman. The plot thickens when April avenges her mother's death by killing her father, and May is sent to jail as the prime suspect. Fortunately, Detective Arman, instantly taken with May, fights for her innocence and tries to get her out before she is taken down by other hostile prisoners.

Two drifters bum around, visit earthy women and discuss opening a car wash in Pittsburgh.

Sought by police and criminals, a small-time huckster makes a deal with a TV newsman for protection.

A chronicle of Nelson Mandela's life journey from his childhood in a rural village through to his inauguration as the first democratically elected president of South Africa.

Eddie Macon is running from a nightmare... running to a dream... running for his life and his time is running out. He's escaped a Texas prison for the second time (risking life imprisonment if caught) to make it back to his wife and son. Relentlessly pursued by ruthless truant officer, Carl Marzack, who feels he must prove he can still 'get his man' by returning Macon to jail at any cost.

Imprisoned Harry Lomart is a vicious, brute of a man and yet he is prepared to do his long jail term as he is confident that on his release his beautiful wife Pat will be waiting for him, but a visit from Pat brings him his worst nightmare.

Clive Owen stars as a prison inmate who goes into an experimental "open" prison where the inmates walk around freely and get job training for their impending releases. While there, he discovers he has a talent for growing flowers. His talent is recognized by a gardening guru who encourages him and four other inmates to enter a national gardening competition

Based on the true story of the 1981 hunger strike in a British prison, in which IRA prisoner Bobby Sands led a protest against the treatment of IRA prisoners as criminals rather than as prisoners of war. The film focuses on the mothers of two of the strikers, and their struggle to save the lives of their sons.

Two prisoners escape with the help of their jailer to search for a treasure that is supposedly buried with a dead millionaire.

A shackled murderer and marijuana offender escape from a Georgia chain gang.

Anna learns in prison that her mother has passed away in Seattle. Prison officials grants Anna a three day furlough to attend her mother's funeral. Anna embarks on a long trip to Seattle. Hoon is a Korean immigrant who works as a gigolo. Hoon is now on the run from a wealthy client's furious husband. These two seemingly lost souls are about to share three memorable days together.

Inspired by the true events of the infamous 1983 prison breakout of 38 IRA prisoners from HMP Maze, which was to become the biggest prison escape in Europe since World War II.

In early nineteenth-century France Jean Valjean, an ex-convict who failed to report to parole, is relentlessly pursued over a twenty-year period by Javert, an obsessive policeman.

Emperor Spengo sees Marge Nelson and using a giant magnet, kidnaps her and her husband Dick, hoping to make Marge his before blowing up the Earth. The Emperor and other inhabitants of his planet are somewhat less than bright, and Dick begins reliving episodes of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers in order to rescue Marge, save the Earth, and restore the rightful emperor to the throne.

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.

A group of English, American, Dutch and Australian women creates a vocal orchestra while being imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp on Sumatra during World War II.

An insurance man wishing for a more exciting life becomes wrapped up in the affairs of an imprisoned embezzler, his model girlfriend, and a violent private investigator.

Elijah has been bounced from group home to group home throughout his turbulent young life. What has sustained him is his art. After a promised scholarship is taken away, Elijah ends up in a fight that result in the death of another boy. Now, sentenced to a minimum of fifteen years, the young man must find a way to keep his soul alive behind bars or turn into a hardened bitter criminal.

The beginning of the end of the apartheid era in South Africa is seen through the perspectives of three female friends: Sophie, who is of English descent; Aninka, who is an Afrikaner; and Thoko, who is black.

Seventeen years after slaughtering all but one member of a family, a vicious serial killer known only as "The Sandman" awaits execution. But first, his jailers allow a minister to visit the killer to give him last rites, unaware that the minister is a voodoo priest and an ally of the condemned prisoner. The priest places a hex on the Sandman so that when he is executed, his soul migrates into a new body made of sand. To sever his ties with his former life and achieve absolute power, the sandman must find and kill a man named Griffin, the sole survivor of the last family murdered by the killer

Prisoners battle each other -- and the police -- when they escape the Colorado State Penitentiary.

Julie Thompson, a young conservative Christian woman, is truly tested by God and gives birth to a child conceived in rape. This decision leads her on a journey that forces her to explore and redefine her relationships with God, her family, friends and even her rapist Mike Connor, as she struggles to forgive the man who violated her by boldly visiting him in prison and forging an unlikely bond.

The story of a pair of children born within moments of India gaining independence from England, growing up in the country that is nothing like their parent's generation. A Canadian-British film adaptation of Salman Rushdie's novel of the same name.

Borneo, 1941, during World War II. When the Japanese occupy the island, American writer Agnes Newton Keith is separated from her husband and imprisoned with her son in a prison camp run by the enigmatic Colonel Suga.

After healing the leg of the murderer John Wilkes Booth, responsible for the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, perpetrated on April 14, 1865, during a performance at Ford's Theatre in Washington; Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, considered part of the atrocious conspiracy, is sentenced to life imprisonment and sent to the sinister Shark Island Prison.

Francis Ryan, living high-and-free-wheeling life as the wife of gangster "Smiley" Ryan, spends some time behind bars as a result of her husband's activities, and, when she gets out, realizes she has been a bad example for her kid-sister, Jennie White, and five of her friends. With the aid of her old boyfriend, she manages to divert them from their juvenile-delinquent path leading to disaster for each.

Victoria marries David, the man of her dreams. After a number of years and two children, the marriage turns out not to be what she had expected. Then she discovers her faith, and everything turns out for the best. In several scenes Victoria has visions of love and marriage throughout history: she appears in the Stone Age, with a tribe of Amazonians, in the Middle Ages and in the Roman era.

Set in the rustic Midwestern town of One Fall, the film tells the story of a man, James (Marcus Dean Fuller), who miraculously survived a horrific fall from a spectacular 200 foot-high cliff and was never heard from again. However, three years after vanishing James chooses to return to his hometown of One Fall -- but he returns a changed man. For an incomprehensible reason James has developed supernatural healing abilities since the fall. He must decide whether to use his abilities to help the ones he once turned his back on, or to continue running from his mysterious past.

In 1897, veteran bounty hunter Max Borlund is deep into Mexico where he encounters professional gambler and outlaw Joe Cribbens — a sworn enemy he sent to prison years before. Max is on a mission to find and return Rachel Kidd, the wife of a wealthy businessman, who as the story is told to Max, has been abducted by Buffalo Soldier Elijah Jones. Max is ultimately faced with a showdown to save honor.

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.

A group of women involved in the Women's Liberation Movement hatched a plan to invade the stage and disrupt the live broadcast at the 1970 Miss World competition in London, resulting in overnight fame for the newly-formed organization. When the show resumed, the results caused an uproar and turned the Western ideal of beauty on its head.

A cowboy whose sister has been murdered by a gang of vicious outlaws seeks his revenge. But a venerable old lawman is about to teach the vigilante a lesson about taking the law into one's own hands.

Sheila is a newspaper reporter who returns to her home town in order to write an article about the progress of the liberation of the women. Arriving at the town she is very surprised to see that her sister and also her mother agree very much with the feministic arguments.

In the midst of the Mariel boat lift -- a hurried exodus of refugees from Cuba going to America -- an immigration clerk accidentally presumes that dissident Juan Raul Perez and Dorita Evita Perez are married. United by their last name and a mutual resolve to emigrate, Dorita and Juan agree to play along. But it gets complicated when the two begin falling for each other just as Juan reunites with his wife, Carmela, whom he hasn't seen in decades.

Wolfgang is traveling in outer space when a monster, which he sees as a beautiful woman, appears in his spaceship and makes love with him. Then the ship is forced to land on a planet which is a penal colony. Here he meets Miranda who falls in love with him. A group of prisoners uses him and his spaceship to fly away from the planet. But the monster which is by now inside Wolfgang arouses and only Miranda's love can save him.

Having had a one night stand with an obsessive prison inmate, the college professor teaching his prison literary soon lives the nightmare of her decision.

The true story of Jimmy Boyle, who was reputed to be Scotland's most violent man.

Alison Campbell was sentenced to seven years after trying to smuggle drugs into Canada. This hard-hitting film tells the story of how she survived the prison system,and sacrificed herself to protect her inmates and saved her own sanity.

There's something very odd about Romano, a notorious gangster serving time in the federal pen. For one thing, Romano doesn't sound much like himself. For another, he always seems to be hiding something. Detective Lee suspects that something's amiss, and he's probably right!

A group of prisoners, led by an armed robber and a gangster, attempt to escape from the infamous Alcatraz Island.

A lawyer fights a losing battle against the courts to overturn the death sentence for a convicted female robber/murderer despite demands from the woman that her death sentence be carried out.

An innocent, pregnant prison inmate (Shirley Knight) becomes the bad warden's (Andrew Duggan) personal favorite.

Maggie and her husband Richard are both college professors and have a daughter, 17-year-old Jenny. Their marriage is falling apart, and when Richard admits to having an affair with a student at the college they both work at.

Eight-year-old Zoran is the hero of this story set in Skopje during the German occupation of the city in World War II. Through his eyes, we experience all the cruelty, poverty and suffering of wartime. A love affair between his Macedonian mother and a German officer will help his family get through the hard times…

Former chain gang convict Ed Martin converts to Christianity in prison in 1944 and forms the HopeAglow Prison Ministries.

A nightmare come to life, the Spiker is a massive pink-eyed albino and a maniac killing machine whose physical endurance borders on the fantastic. He escapes from an asylum and returns to the small town he terrorized years before, where he slashed his victims to pieces with railroad spikes and buried the bodies under the train tracks outside of town. When a group of local teens decide to camp out at an abandoned house, they are attacked by the Spiker and discover a web of terrible secrets hidden there.

In an underground prison an inmate escapes during a riot. One year later, a group of friends set out to locate an old hermit shack. They're worst nightmares are revealed when they spawn an evil darkness within the escaped prisoner.

Allied prisoners tunnel out of a stalag, then return to avenge fellow escapees executed by the Nazis.

Melanie is married to Tom, a controlling, cold and self-centered man who happens to be a prison warden. He finds her to be a liability to his career aspirations and secretly plans to have her kidnapped and killed, by Jack, a dangerous inmate.

Will Taylor has nightmares. He dreams of watching his father and aunt being murdered when he was only four years old. Will lives with his troubled uncle Joe Mitchell because his mother remains catatonic from the attack. Joe, who has his own problems with his girlfriend Sarah, has raised Will since the bank robbery that killed his wife and brother-in-law. Back in 1990 the whole town of Canyon Hills had to be moved because a new dam was built to prevent chronic flooding. The original town is now at the bottom of the lake. Will finds out that the stolen bank money was never found and begins diving to recover it and his past. Enter Carl Bennett, the bank robber turned murderer. Just released from prison, he is heading for Canyon Hills to recover the money he left behind. Who will get to it first?

Faith of My Fathers is based on the story of Lieutenant Commander John McCain's experiences as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half years during the Vietnam War, interleaved with his memories of growing up in a heritage rich with military service.

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.

The true story of the infamous prison break of Gary Tison and Randy Greenwalt from the Arizona State prison in Florence, in the summer of 1978.

When a female guard becomes a prisoner of his mind, a male inmate struggles to keep the truth from escaping.

How, in 1945, after the end of World War II and the fall of the Nazi regime, the defeated were atrociously mistreated, especially those ethnic Germans who had lived peacefully for centuries in Germany's neighboring countries, such as Czechoslovakia and Poland. A heartbreaking story of revenge against innocent civilians, the story of acts as cruel as the Nazi occupation during the war years.

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.

Twenty-five years after the biggest riot in British penal history, this film brings together the ringleaders of the trouble with the prison guards they battled with over three weeks of anarchy that brought Strangeways to its knees. For the first time, these events are told through unparalleled access to the people at the heart of the riot - ex-inmates, prison officers and the governor himself - createing a compelling story of the struggle for power between the authorities and the hardcore prisoners who ultimately took their protest onto the prison roof. The stand-off that followed is documented until the final moments, when the siege was ended in a dramatic takedown in front of rolling news cameras.

Dylan Burke attempts to move on from his former life as a criminal with his true love Maria. He soon realizes that his past will continue to haunt him, when he learns the new local prison warden, Daniel Calvin, has not forgiven him for an old crime.

During WWII an American soldier sent to Norway to help with the escape of a scientist working on the atomic bomb for the Germans. Before they can escape they are captured and sent to a POW prison camp in an alpine castle. Cook must find a way to escape with the scientist before the Gestapo discover the Norwegian's true identity and convinces the other prisoners to build a two person glider in which they plan to escape.

During the winter of 1943, the German army halted the American advance in the mountains of Italy; back-and-forth combat decimates Joe Peterson's platoon. On leave in Naples, Joe meets WAC lieutenant Eleanor MacKay; initially cool, she begins to melt during a bombing raid. Their romance develops despite Joe's periodic returns to the front. But whether he'll come back in the end becomes more than doubtful...

Female prisoners train dogs to aid people with disabilities in a program started by a nun (Laura Dern).

The true story of Dwight Worker, an American who was caught smuggling drugs in Mexico, and sentenced to fortress-like Lecumberri prison where he endured brutal conditions. With the help of his wife, Barbara, he escaped the prison by disguising himself as a woman. He was the first prisoner to escape Lecumberri since Pancho Villa.

After a violent storm, Ali awakens on a deserted beach, sick and disoriented. They'll be looking for him and he must keep moving. Ivan, a local Cuban, takes Ali to the apartment of his sister Manuela, a dancer in Havana. At first, she is apprehensive to take in this tormented stranger, but she relents as she feels drawn to this mysterious person who has shown up on her door step. Ali is haunted by nightmares, which bring him to the horror of the interrogation room at Guantanamo, and by startling visions linking his past and his present life. But are these nightmares flash backs to his experiences in the prison or just dreams of a tortured soul?

Based on the custody case involving Elizabeth Morgan and the subsequent Elizabeth Morgan Act.

The story of the Anabaptist movement and two of its first leaders, Michael and Margaretha Sattler.

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.

A laconic ex-hired gun in the Old West teams up with three scrappy female prisoners abandoned in the desert, two orphaned children, an army deserter, and a group of cantankerous animals, all of whom try to outsmart and outshoot a ratty gang of desperadoes trying to retrieve their boss' girlfriend and the saddle-tramp's secret cargo.

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.

Filmmaker Marshall Curry explores the inner workings of the Earth Liberation Front, a revolutionary movement devoted to crippling facilities involved in deforestation, while simultaneously offering a profile of Oregon ELF member Daniel McGowan, who was brought up on terrorism charges for his involvement with the radical group.