ZDF Enterprises

Filmed over several years, “Hard Time” goes behind the scenes of U.S. maximum-security prisons and immerses viewers into the brutal reality of life inside. Prisoners, guards, wardens, families – these are stories of despair and hope, truth and consequence that revolve around a massive stone-and-barbed-wire castle. A complete and balanced portrait of life behind bars, and a gripping introduction to a violent, dangerous society that’s a world of its own, with it own hierarchies, economy and rules.