THIS ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATED FEATURE FILM captures a rare look at the men behind bars in the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The prison is home to Mafia bosses, Columbian drug lords and bank robbers, most serving life sentences. The film explores the psychological effect of long-term incarceration on inmates where rehabilitation and parole have all but been abandoned.

Filmed over a two-month period without restrictions, Director Alan Raymond elicited candid conversations with inmates about their crimes and life stories. Warden Pat Cohane also shared exclusive footage videotaped by the prison SORT Team extracting inmates from their cells for non-compliant behavior.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons never again granted this exclusive access to a federal penitentiary to any other documentary filmmaker.

DOING TIME: LIFE INSIDE THE BIG HOUSE (HBO AMERICA UNDERCOVER 1990) stands as an exceptional portrait of one of America’s most restricted penal colonies.

• Academy Award Nomination for Best Documentary Feature (1990)

• News and Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing (1990)