The show’s fictional "Fox River State Penitentiary" was actually the Old Joliet Prison , a maximum-security facility that operated from 1858 until its closure in 2002. When the production crew arrived in 2005, the prison had only been shut down for three years, leaving its decaying cellblocks and heavy iron gates perfectly intact for the screen.
Many pivotal scenes, including those in the prison yard, the infirmary, and Lincoln Burrows’ cell, were shot directly on location. was prison break filmed in a real prison