Prisoner is an Australian soap opera that is set in the Wentworth Detention Centre, a fictional women's prison.
Two new prisoners, Karen Travers and Lyn Warner, are inducted into Wentworth Detention Centre and have to adjust to the harsh regime and the tough women they meet there. Karen, convicted of stabbing her cheating husband to death in the shower, turns out to be an old flame of prison Doctor Greg Miller. Lynn has been convicted of kidnapping and burying a baby alive, and though she loudly protests her innocence, she is bullied by the other women, led by their 'Top Dog', murderess Bea Smith. Meanwhile, young inmate Sally Lee hangs herself in her cell while going through ...
Lynn withdraws her complaint, so Bea's release is approved. The prisoners hold a farwell party for Bea and Mum. Mum leaves her beloved garden in the hands of Lynn. Mum is released into the care of her daughter, Lorraine, and Bea gets a lift into town from Eddie. Meg and Bill are having problems with their teenage son Marty, who tells them he wants to move out and get a place with his girlfriend. With Bea gone, Franky siezes the opportunity to take over the press and announces she is now in charge. Greg tries to talk Karen into appealing against her sentence, realising her husband was abusing her. Lynn goes on hunger strike until her innocence is believed. Mum's daughter rejects her, saying she doesn't want her coming home with her, so Mum checks into a grotty bedsit in town. Bea spends her first night of freedom in luxury at a hotel. Next morning, she visits daughter Debbie's grave and picks up a package from her old cellmate, a ""present"" for her husband.
With Frankie's hold over the women growing, she attempts to show the screws who is in charge by getting the women to stay in the dinning room until she gives the order for them to leave. Prostitute Chrissie Latham tries to seduce Bill but he turns her down. Lizzie and Marilyn mess around with the wiring so that Eddie will be called in. Marilyn and Eddie climb up into the roof for a "Liaison". Bea's return sends Frankie over the edge and she starts a riot in the dinning room. Bea, Doreen and some other women are trapped in the laundry; Frankie, Lizzy, Chrissie and ...
Bill dies on the way to hospital and Rosie gives Birth to a boy. Meg is devastated as the police investigate into Bill's murder begins. The cops are not getting very far; meanwhile, Eddie tells Marilyn he saw who stabbed Bill. Bea and the girls learn from him that it was Chrissie who killed him. They attack and scalp Chrissie, and she is transferred away to another prison. Meg turns up for work, yells at everyone and is sent home by Erika Davidson until the funeral is passed, Mum collapses at the bedsit and her landlady goes through her belongings. After the funeral, ...
Mum recuperates from her collapse at her daughter's home but has to pretend to the children that she is an aunt as Lorraine told them their grandmother was dead. Frankie and Bea fight during a dance class in the Rec Room. Yates is caught smuggling the pill in for Marilyn. Suspected of being the one who supplied Sally Lee with drugs, she is reprimanded by Erica Davidson, and quits in disgust. Bea reads the girls tea Leaves and Lizzie pinches a bottle of surgical spirit from the infirmary. Mum can't deal with Lorraine any longer and walks out. After which Judith Anne ...
Lynn reveals she must be pregnant after being raped by her employer, Mr Bentley, the father of the baby she is supposed to have buried alive. Frankie bullies Lizzie into giving her some of her Buy-Up and later steals her false teeth when she refuses. Marilyn learns she is to be paroled in a few days. Eddie proposes to he but she turns him down, though she agrees to move in with him. Horrified by Lynne's story, Meg Jackson attitude softens again and she tells Erica Davidson she believes Lynn. Screw, Vera Bennet, is having trouble with her ailing mother but refuses to ...
Lizzie finds a stray cat in the garden and brings it into the prison. When it dies, she blames Frankie for killing it, but it turns out she did it accidentally herself by giving it water from the garden tainted with weed killer. Lizzie then tries to fake amnesia in order to get an early release but Meg Jackson sees right through it. Gary Doyle comes to visit Frankie again and gives her a copy of his plans for the farm. Later the other women deface the plans by scribbling all over them. Mum suggests Frankie work in the garden to keep her away from Bea Smith. Erica ...
Bea Smith and the other inmates find out about Frankie's plans to get paroled and live on a farm so they try to rile her into blowing her chances. Marilyn gets a job at a hotel but she is demoted after beauty consultant Helen Masters complains about her and then quits after being sexually harassed by her boss. She goes back on the game to buy Eddie a birthday present, prompting them to have a row and she walks out on him. Helen Masters is sent to Wentworth charged with manslaughter after her car is used in a hit-and-run. At first she is to be bailed but when she tries...
Marilyn's boyfriend Eddie is suspicious of where she got the money for his birthday gift: back "on the game" (prostitution)? The final straw is a visitor who is obviously a "workmate" from the street. Officials and inmates are puzzled when Helen Masters drops her application for bail. She uses the media to bring attention to the "innocent" women being incarcerated--including herself, of course. The Bentleys, the culprits responsible for Lyn's conviction, continue their libertine ways, but are finally exposed and arrested.
Helen Masters sets out to affect the quality of prison meals as part of her campaign to get a character witness for her trial, the prison doctor. Marilyn returns to prison, but Eddie is through. Vera's drinking almost gets her arrested in a pub, but the officer grants her professional courtesy and takes her home. Masters cons everybody--even her blackmailing assistant--and wins acquittal, trashing the prison officials and inmates in her first TV interview.
The inmates start realigning after Master's release; Frankie gains motivation from her brother to work on good behavior. Lyn, who has returned to her parents' home, runs away with Doug whom she had met while in prison. A detective, pretending to be attracted to Vera, interrogates Marilyn about her associates and their drug connections. Frankie, who can't read, gets a telegram saying her brother was injured and goes berserk when it's read to her, deciding to end it all.
Vera's attitude continues to become more punitive toward the inmates, bringing a reprimand from the governor. Lizzie's heart forces her to return to the prison, while Frankie and Doreen face life on the run with no money. Lyn faces the fact that Doug is still a criminal, and she reluctantly gets involved in a holdup.
Shot in the holdup, Doug dies and Lyn cannot run, so she calls the prison doctor who gets there just before the cops. She loses her baby. Doug gets sacked because of his involvement with Marilyn. Frankie and Doreen are still on the run. The new social worker visits Mum's granddaughter and explains how much Mum needs to see her. Karen's mother is planning to be remarried, and in her first prison visit is appalled at the news Karen might get a retrial, renewing the publicity.
Karen permits the prison doctor to contact her lawyer about a retrial, and Dr. Miller kisses her. Vera walks in on them and reports him. A new prisoner, who is reputed to be really tough, is admitted; she and Bea turn out to be old friends, dashing Vera's hopes. Lyn is returned to prison. Doreen and Frankie have disguised themselves as nuns to beg money on the street, but decide to find an older person whom they can rob and perhaps take over their home.
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