Coming in April on FRONTLINE

This April, FRONTLINE presents two new, raw, explosive films that explore America’s fixation on incarceration.

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With extraordinary access, award-winning producer and director Dan Edge (Inside Japan’s Nuclear Meltdown, Kill/Capture, The Wounded Platoon) takes you to the epicenter of the raging debate about prison reform.

Also don’t miss an encore presentation of one of our most-talked-about films of 2014.

Here’s a closer look at our April lineup:

April 8: Secret State of North Korea (Encore Presentation)

FRONTLINE’s Secret State of North Korea delivers a rare and revelatory glimpse at life under Kim Jong-un, drawing on stunning undercover footage smuggled from inside the country, as well as interviews with defectors who are working to try to chisel away at the regime’s influence in surprising ways.

April 22: Solitary Nation

About 80,000 Americans are held in solitary confinement on any given day. In Solitary Nation, FRONTLINE deeply examines the use and impact of this controversial practice—and takes an unprecedented look at life inside solitary at a maximum security prison in Maine.

“People think the solitude is what drives prisoners crazy, but it’s actually the noise,” Edge says. “It’s so loud and awful and it never stops.”

• Explore FRONTLINE’s earlier reporting on solitary confinement here.

April 29: Prison State

There are roughly 2.3 million people behind bars in the U.S., with a disproportionate number coming from a few city neighborhoods. More than two years in the making, Prison State takes an intimate look at the cycle of incarceration in America, and one state’s — Kentucky — effort to reverse the trend.

“We’re locking up people that we’re angry at; we ought to be using this space for people that we’re afraid of, people that are going to hurt us,” Louisville, Ky. Director of Corrections Mark Bolton tells FRONTLINE.

For air times, check your local PBS listings.