Ok, my turn.
Prison is a grim topic, but there have been some great movies. Here is this website's take on the 25 best:
https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/the_25_best_prison_movies_of_all_time/s1__30075968#slide_1
My personal favorite of all time is "Shawshank Redemption." I would probably consider that a top 10 movie of all time actually.
Others I have thought were excellent were "Bad Boys", "Escape from Alcatraz", and "American Me."
Some of these movies I would not necessarily consider prison movies. "American History X" has a segment of the movie that takes place in prison, but it's not anything cloe to the whole movie. For me, the prison portion really needs to be at minimum half of the movie and probably more like 2/3 or 3/4 at least. Having a few prison scenes doesn't make a movie a "prison movie."
What are your favorite prison movies?
There are quite a few on that list that I like.
I'm a huge fan of James Cagney and here are a couple of his that I will add:
Each Dawn I Die
https://www.imdb.com/video/vi3255568153/?ref_=tt_vi_i_1 (https://www.imdb.com/video/vi3255568153/?ref_=tt_vi_i_1)
The Mayor of Hell
https://www.imdb.com/video/vi4282105625?playlistId=tt0024314&ref_=tt_pr_ov_vi (https://www.imdb.com/video/vi4282105625?playlistId=tt0024314&ref_=tt_pr_ov_vi)
Sorry I am late to this, but we were visiting the grandkids and prison was furthest from my mind.
As Lou said, many good movies on that list and I probably would vote Shawshank as #1. I never tire o watching all or parts of the movie.
There were a few on the list, I do not think I have seen and even one or two that I never even heard of. I would assume the list wasn't a countdown, just a list of movies (at least I hope so).
If I did have to make a list of my top 10
1-Shawshank
2-Green Mile
3-Cool Hand Luke
4-Bridge on the River Kwai
5-Stalag 17
6-Oh Brother, Where For Art Thou
7-each Dawn I die
8-Midnight Express
9-The Great Escape
10-Don't know if this would be a real prison movie, but The Count of Monter Cristo
And just a shout out to Papilion--(Steve McQueen/Dustin Hoffman version)