Crime and Punishment in America
The series is the first documentary offering a comprehensive examination of how the intertwined forces of law, power, race, and class have both shaped and reflected the American experience over four centuries. It explores the architecture of justice — prisons, police, courts — and the profound moral and social questions beneath them.
Told through a deeply human lens, each episode is grounded in the stories of individuals — incarcerated people, victims and family members who’ve been affected, prison guards and wardens, police officers, reformers, lawyers, judges, outlaws, and journalists — whose lives were shaped by the policies and politics of their time. From the public hangings in Colonial America to Franklin D. Roosevelt and J. Edgar Hoover’s war on crime, from Jesse James to John Dillinger, Lucky Luciano to Frank Costello, from early television police procedurals to modern day true crime, from Jim Crow chain gangs to the silent corridors of today’s supermax prison facilities, the series illuminates both the visible and invisible legacies of punishment in American life.
The entire documentary will air over four consecutive nights on PBS beginning November 16, 2026 and stream on all PBS digital platforms for a period of four weeks. A first look clip from the film is available here.
Directed by Lynn Novick (The Vietnam War, Hemingway, College Behind Bars, The U.S. and the Holocaust), executive produced by Ken Burns and Sam Pollard, produced by Lucas Frank, Vanessa González-Block, Lynn Novick, and Prisca Pointdujour. Samuel L. Jackson, Laura Linney, Bobby Cannavale, Matthew Rhys, Michael Stuhlbarg, David Hyde Pierce, and BD Wong provide voices.
Free and open to the public. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis and may be limited. For more information call 702.507.3964 or visit www.vegaspbs.org
