SERIES The chilling set of 'Prison Break' is the real thing

Walking around the defunct prison is an unsettling experience.
By AMY AMATANGELO
WASHINGTON POST
Remain calm.
That's what I told myself as T-Bag gave me my own private tour of the Joliet Correctional Center in Illinois.
After an almost four-month hiatus, Fox's hit series "Prison Break" returns Monday night. And on a recent bright and chilly day, Robert Knepper, who plays Fox River's most menacing inmate, has graciously volunteered to show me around the real-life former prison where the conspiracy drama is filmed.
Sure, Knepper's whole demeanor is different from that of his character. There's no sinister smile. No nefarious tilt of the head. No lackadaisical swagger. No malevolently lilting Southern accent. In fact, Knepper is quite a charming man. But still, it's hard to shake the feeling that it's T-Bag I'm spending quality time with.
Here on the set, things are hush-hush with all the actors speaking in vague "if-and-when-we-escape" caveats. A scene in the outdoor yard has C-Note (Rockmond Dunbar) warning Michael (Wentworth Miller) that he's got "to handle things." What those "things" are and how close the prisoners are to escaping are kept tightly under wraps.
Creepy setting
Viewers may have heard that "Prison Break" -- a series about a man who got himself sent to prison so he could help his innocent brother escape from death row -- films at a defunct penitentiary. But it's beyond chilling to actually be on the set.
There's barbed wire at every point of exit. The cells, which were shared by two inmates, are smaller than a lot of people's closets. All of the open spaces are tightly enclosed, creating a false sense of being free. This is a place where notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy was confined.
There are "some rooms you walk into where you're just overwhelmingly sad," said Sarah Wayne Callies, who plays Dr. Sara Tancredi. "There's the emotional residue. Then there's just the reality of standing in the middle of a yard and realizing this is where people come to lose hope."
"I really thought it was a beautiful piece of property," said Muse Watson, who plays kindly inmate Westmoreland. "I thought, what a wonderful place to raise horses. But the longer I stayed here and the feeling I got from this place, I thought, this is not a place to raise horses. There's a karma here that's just so bad."
A human touch
As my tour ends, Knepper points to a serene mural a previous inmate had painted -- a work of art that belies the decrepit surroundings. It's one of the first things he saw when he came to Joliet Correctional Center.
"I thought, that's perfect, that's real, that's human," Knepper said. "That's like a T-Bag kind of thing."
It is these small details that bring the series to life. "The prison is the main character on the show," Miller said. "It gives us a certain integrity and authenticity that you can't really put a price on, and it reminds you what the stakes are."