Was Prison Break Filmed In A Real Prison [better] -

Here is where the legend gets confusing. While the interiors were a set, the exteriors of Fox River were 100% real.

When Prison Break began pre-production in 2004, Joliet Prison had been closed for two years. It was a perfect ghost town for Hollywood: was prison break filmed in a real prison

Joliet, Illinois (approximately 40 miles southwest of Chicago). Here is where the legend gets confusing

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. It was a perfect ghost town for Hollywood:

So, while Michael Scofield never walked across a real cell block floor, the ghost of Fox River is very real. It sits in Joliet, Illinois, a limestone monument to the art of making fiction feel terrifyingly true.