The BEST episodes of Hard Time (2011)

Every episode of Hard Time (2011) ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Hard Time (2011)!

Ever wonder what life is like inside a maximum security prison? In this National Geographic series, producers lived within the prison walls, capturing the day to day life of inmates and correctional officers.

Last Updated: 9/17/2026Network: National GeographicStatus: Ended
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#1 - Revolving Door

Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/2/2012

The Clark County Detention Center (CCDC) receives scores of repeat offenders, most hooked on drugs and alcohol.

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#2 - Prisoner Protest

Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 8/9/2011

Hays State Prison is challenged by an inmate sit-in.

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#3 - The Convict Cycle

Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 8/16/2011

The Hays State Prison in Georgia is a disciplinary camp with closed security and is home to 1,500 inmates.

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#4 - The Outsiders

Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 8/23/2011

The Jackson and Coastal prisons, both in Georgia absorb a flood of new inmates.

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#5 - Mental Hell

Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/16/2012

The number of addicts and mentally ill people in prisons and jails is an issue throughout the country and Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas is no exception.

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#6 - Jail Mom

Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/4/2012

Meet the jail mom. Older, wiser, steeped in the ways of the convict, the jail mom's influence can be benevolent or vengeful, nurturing or violent.

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#7 - Running the Joint

Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/11/2012

At Las Vegas's main jail, Clark County Detention Center, inmates try as hard as possible to retain a sense of normalcy. And for many, that means keeping up their gang lifestyle. Well go inside one of CCDCs most difficult dormsan open housing unit filled with high-security inmates, repeat offenders, felons and gang members where life on the inside can be just as tough as life on the outside.

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#8 - Love Behind Bars

Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/17/2012

Life, lust, and love continue on even after arrest.

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#9 - Judgement Day

Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 9/25/2012

At the Clark County Detention Center (CCDC) in Las Vegas, inmates all have one thing in common: They are waiting for their day in court.

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#10 - Cellphone War

Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 8/2/2011

Officers battle a flood of contraband cellphones at Georgia's Smith State Prison, where access to a mobile device means power on the inside..

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#11 - Gangs Behind Bars

Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/9/2012

Las Vegas is a crossroads for the major gangs of California and the Southwest. And at the Clark County Detention Center, inmates and officers are constantly under pressure from gang activity.

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#12 - Misfits and Outcasts

Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 10/23/2012

Las Vegas, Nevada draws in people from all walks of life, and its jail is no different.

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#13 - Stress Box

Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 10/30/2012

Las Vegas can be full of vices - both legal and illegal. Break the law and you're hauled into the Clark County Detention Center.

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#14 - Inmates vs. Officers

Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 2/9/2013

Just like Sin City, the Clark County Detention Center never sleeps. It's a round the clock operation, where challenges come daily.

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#15 - Truth and Lies

Season 4 - Episode 12 - Aired 2/9/2013

For the officers that handle the inmates on a daily basis at Last Vegas's Clark County Detention Center it can be hard to tell who is lying and who is telling the truth.

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#16 - Come On Vacation, Leave On Probation

Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 8/28/2012

Get picked up on the Vegas strip and you'll end up in Clark County Detention Center -- the jail where many of the inmates arrive drunk or high.

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#17 - The Ropes

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/2/2009

Follow new inmates as they learn the ropes and face the hurdles that come with entering Hays State Prison, one of the toughest facilities in the state of Georgia.

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#18 - Against the Wall

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/22/2011

Enter the locked-down world of Ohio's intake prison. For the newly convicted, the Correctional Reception Center (CRC) in Orient, Ohio, is their last view of the free world. More than 14,000 inmates are sized up each year at CRC and moved on to serve out their sentences. From robbers to murders and rapists, CRC sees it all. And while most follow the rules and do their time peacefully, some inmates come in with their own agenda, ready to make trouble.

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#19 - Tools of Control

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/9/2009

Step inside Hays State Prison where a war is underway between inmates and officers.National Geographic follows inmates and prison officials as they struggle to set the rules inside these walls.

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#20 - Changes Behind Bars

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/16/2009

Step into the extreme world of a state correctional system, where transformation often occurs and starts physically, sometimes in the form of an illegal prison tattoo, sometimes becoming what some call "the female gender" behind bars.

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#21 - Breakout

Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 3/30/2009

Follow the intense manhunt for two escaped convicts from Hays State Prison as inmates go into lockdown, tactical squads assemble and K-9 units scour the countryside looking for clues.

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#22 - Breaking Point

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 3/23/2009

Go inside Hi-Max - the most extreme prison environment allowed in Georgia - and at the other end of the spectrum "shock incarceration," an intense boot camp for non-violent first-time offenders.

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#23 - The Hustle

Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 2/1/2011

Go inside the underground prison economy at Ohio's Ross Correctional Institution and see inmates try their hands at different money-making strategies. A "jailhouse thief" brings his street ways within jailhouse walls, brutally robbing inmates and selling their possessions. A drug dealer on a 27-year sentence for attempted murder struggles to stay "clean" after getting caught up selling contraband at the orientation prison.

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#24 - Prison City

Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 2/1/2011

Ross Correctional Institution is a gated city. Every inmate must make a choice: Use his sentence to prepare for a life on the outside, or fall prey to the convict mentality which on the inside is called getting institutionalized.

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#25 - Breaking the Rules

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/8/2011

A high-stakes game of cat and mouse plays out at Ross Correctional Institution in Ohio. On one side, you have the inmates: men who've spent a lifetime breaking the rules and outwitting the system. On the other is a team of officers who monitor every corner of the prison and work to catch the offenders red-handed. There are rule breakers: a drug hustler trying to run his game behind bars, an old-school inmate, a jailhouse lawyer subverting the system and a lone wolf with one too many strikes.