Prison in Film History

(Top picture is from The Big House (1930). The bottom picture is from Shawshank Redemption (1999).)

This article briefly describes David Gothier Jr.'s book, "American Prison Film Since 1930: From The Big House to The Shawshank Redemption". The book gives a historical analysis on well known prison films. Gothier believes that prison films have their own separate genre, which has been falsely compared to western, horror, and gangster films.
The article goes on to say that

"the prison movie is perhaps the only pure-bred genre that yields so many other genres within its original framework: gangster prison films (The Big House), film noir prison films (Brute Force), western prison films (There Was a Crooked Man), sports prison films (The Longest Yard), science fiction prison films (Escape from New York), the POW film (Stalag 17), even musicals (Chicago)."

The base of the book deconstructs in great detail twelve films, including Shawshank Redemption, based on the rules of the prison genre.