Every Friday night, former inmates and prisoners’ loved ones get together at KPFT, a listener sponsored community radio in downtown Houston, to create The Prison Show, a radio program that caters to prisoners and the families they've left behind. The show keeps prisoners connected with the outside world and allows families to call in and leave messages for prisoners who are listening. In addition, the radio produces a show with live coverage whenever there is an execution in Texas, airing an interview with the condemned prisoner as the State of Texas kills him. Since 1980, the show has unveiled the tentacular reach of the United States’ penal system, whose grip goes far beyond prisons, and from which it is impossible to escape.