Network: HBO
Episodes: 56 (hour)
Seasons: Six

TV show dates: July 12, 1997 — February 23, 2003
Series status: Cancelled/Ended

Performers include: Kirk Acevedo, Ernie Hudson, Terry Kinney, Rita Moreno, Harold Perrineau, J.K. Simmons, Lee Tergesen, Eamonn Walker, Dean Winters, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Edie Falco, George Morfogen, Lauren Velez, B.D. Wong, Zeljko Ivanek, Zakes Mokae, Christopher Meloni, Kathryn Erbe, Luis Guzman, David Lansbury, Eddie Malavarca, Mark Margolis, J.D. Williams, Bill Fagerbakke, Scott William Winters, Granville Adams, Tom Mardirosian, Craig Grant, and Evan Seinfeld

TV show description:
Narrated by former junkie and disabled prisoner Augustus Hill (Harold Perrineau Jr.), this harsh drama tells the rough story of what goes on inside the Oswald State Correctional Facility. Coarse language, drug use, violence, male frontal nudity, homosexuality, rape, ethnic and religious conflict are regular parts of the series.

Inmates include Muslim Kareem Said (Eamonn Walker), Latino Miguel Alvarez (Kirk Acevedo), first homeboy leader Jefferson Keane (Leon Robinson), homeboy leader Simon Adebisi (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Aryan Brotherhood leader Vernon Schillinger (J.K. Simmons), Mafia boss Nino Schibetta (Tony Musante), drunk-driver Tobias Beecher (Lee Tergesen), manipulative Ryan O’Reilly (Dean Winters), and death row’s Donald Groves (Sean Whitesell).

On the other side of the bars are Warden Leo Glynn (Ernie Hudson), unit manager Tim McManus (Terry Kinney), correctional officer Diane Wittlesey (Edie Falco), Dr. Gloria Nathan (Lauren Velez), and prison counselors Sister Peter Marie Reimondo (Rita Moreno) and Father Ray Mukada (B.D. Wong).