On April 14, 1971, a handful of prisoners attacked the guards at Kingston Penitentiary and seized control. The inmates held the guards hostage for four intense days, making headlines around the world and drawing international attention to the dehumanizing realities of incarceration when several inmates appeared on camera and described the overcrowding, inadequate rehabilitation programs, harsh punishment, and extreme isolation they endured. As negotiations between the leaders of the inmates and a citizens' committee of journalists and lawyers entered the a third day, tensions inside the prison erupted when gangs of angry, disenfranchised convicts turned their rage towards the weakest prisoners. As heavily armed soldiers prepared to regain control of the prison through a full military assault, the inmates finally gave up the fight.

Murder on the Inside tells the story of a prison in crisis set against the backdrop of a pivotal time in history when the...