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Fox River State Penitentiary

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Fox River State Penitentiary


First Appearance: 1x1
Last Appearance: 2x18
Location: Joilet, IL, US
Role:

Fox River State Penitentiary is an adult correctional facillty, located in Joliet, Illinois in Chicago. It plays host to the main characters of the show, as they were imprisoned here. The Penitentiary (commonly called Fox River) is a level one maximum-security prison featured. The Penitentiary, was a mediocre institution. Its negative side: It was a racially dived centre and a a penitentiary with alot of accused inmate abuse from guards; With many other negative attributes, such as many prisoners were extremely prone to violence, many causing it, but a lot more on the other side of it. Its positive attributes are, with out a doubt, its rehabilitation facilitates, the program was set-up by previous warden Henry Pope.

Contents

[edit] Reputation and incidents

[edit] Rehabilitation program

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

[edit] Riots

The two notable riots which occurred during the incarceration of the Michael Scofield were the race riot in the episode Allen and the lockdown riot in the episodes Riots, Drills and the Devil (Part one and two).

Days before the race riot, the tension between white and black inmates rose as they both prepared discreetly for the inevitable fight. The white supremacists led by T-Bag, a member of the Alliance for Purity, gathered weapons including shanks and a screw which Michael had loosened from the bleachers that had been claimed by T-Bag. The fight broke out during a head count which resulted in many injuries and deaths. The riot was stopped when the guards eventually regained control and Warden Pope initated a lockdown for the following 48 hours.

Soon after, due to the schedule of escape plan, Michael was forced to shut off the air conditioner on the "hottest day in April"[1] in order to cause chaos among the other inmates and in so doing, forcing the guards to put the A-wing in lockdown. T-Bag continuously complained about the heat and eventually caused C.O. Geary (Matt DeCaro) to toss his drink in his face and initiated a lockdown. However, T-Bag and his followers refused to return to their cells, resulting in the guards retreating back behind the gates. They started pulling on the bars and later, gained access to the control room which allowed them to free the other prisoners, causing a full-scale riot. The riot was stopped after the Governor of Illinois, Frank Tancredi (John Heard) intervened and sent special units to regain control of the facility.

[edit] Escapes

A few years prior to Michael's arrest in flashback episode Brother's Keeper, Fox River had undergone renovations and the company he worked for as a structural engineer had been delegated the task of re-fitting the prison, which allowed him access to all of the blueprints for the facility.

After Michael's brother, Lincoln Burrows was framed for the murder of Terrence Steadman, brother of then-Vice President Caroline Reynolds, he was convicted and placed on death row at Fox River. Michael eventually developed an escape plan to break his brother out of prison. He committed an armed robbery, then allowed himself to be arrested, pleading no contest to the charges but requesting to a imprisoned at a facility close by - Fox River State Penitentiary. Prior to his arrest, Michael had extensive tattoo work done over his upper body which included the plans for the prison and various other codes (hidden in the artwork, so as not to arouse suspicion). Once inside, he enlisted the aid of several inmates who would prove useful to the escape.

Though the escape attempt suffered a number of setbacks and a number of other inmates forced their way into the escape plan, they eventually successfully escaped over the prison walls. Michael, Lincoln, and the six other escapees would come to be known as "The Fox River Eight" in the second season. They consisted of the following inmates:

Additionally, two other inmates, Charles Westmoreland (Muse Watson) and Manche Sanchez (Joseph Nunez) were involved in the escape plan, though Sanchez was captured, and Westmoreland died of injuries sustained earlier.

The escape of eight felons led to the dismissal of Brad Bellick (Wade Williams) and the resignation of Warden Henry Pope. Dr. Sara Tancredi (Sarah Wayne Callies) was arrested and faced possible charges in aiding the escape, though she was later bailed out by her father, the Governor Frank Tancredi.

Pope was succeeded as Warden of Fox River soon after by Ed Pavelka, a much more hard-line individual who vowed not to make the same percieved mistakes as his predecessor.

[edit] Prisoners

Prisoners of the Penitentiary includes:

[edit] Staff

Below are a list of staff in Fox River

[edit] Locations

[edit] Behind the Scenes

The real-life representation of the prison is Joliet Prison.


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