Former inmates, guards, wardens, journalists and historians all contribute to this History Channel series, a survey of prison life in the United States. The first episode charts the history of Alcatraz, an island in San Francisco Bay which became a maxi mum security for 1930s gangsters. Then the development of the penitentary system is reviewed through the history of ’Sing Sing’ - Ossining State Prison in New York. Both episodes produced and directed by Robert Kirk; narrated by Paul Sorvino. C losed captioned.