Fox River Eight

Fox River State Penitentiary is a fictional level one maximum-security prison featured prominently in the first season (and briefly in the second season and fifth season) of the television series Prison Break as well as mentioned in the first season of the television series Breakout Kings. The real-life counterpart of the prison is the Joliet Correctional Center, originally known as the Illinois State Penitentiary, located in Joliet, Illinois.

Fox River State Penitentiary assumes many characteristics of its real-life counterpart, Joliet Prison. Its structure and layout are the same, with the exception of its three-tiered A-wing in contrast to the two tiers in Joliet Prison .

As shown in the episodes "Riots, Drills and the Devil (Part one and two)", the general prison population is divided into east and west cell blocks in A and B wings respectively. These two wings are completely segregated by the South wing, which holds the administration staff. In a subsequent episode, "The Old Head", it is revealed that the infirmary is located on the opposite end of the prison to the A wing. A storage room, which later became the correctional officers' break room, is located at the center of the prison, directly above the underground pipes.

Built in 1907, the prison has an extensive underground pipe system. In the episode "By the Skin and the Teeth", Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) explains to his cellmate, Fernando Sucre (Amaury Nolasco) that over the century the original lead pipes were replaced by copper pipes and then later, by industrial plastic pipes. The replacement pipes were laid over the older ones, because that was cheaper, and thus leaving a complex network of pipes beneath the prison.

During his eighteen years as the warden of Fox River State Penitentiary, Henry Pope (Stacy Keach) established the prison industries (PI) program to allow the prisoners to gain skills training in landscaping and various other industrial vocations. Armed with his belief in rehabilitation, Warden Pope also ran an award-winning educational program which helped the inmates gain high school equivalency diplomas and occasionally, bachelor's degrees.

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