FRONTLINE

News and Public Affairs Series / 32 Seasons

FRONTLINE explores and illuminates the critical issues of our times - from business and health to social issues, politics and war.

Watch Latest: S2025 E5

1h 24m

"I Could Tell No Person"

5m

Ten years later, Nick Merrill still can't discuss the details of the National Security Letter he received from the FBI. If he could, Merrill says, people would be shocked by the implications for their online privacy.

“United States of Secrets” - Trailer

2m 56s

How did the government come to spy on millions of Americans? In FRONTLINE’s “United States of Secrets,” a two-part series from Michael Kirk and Martin Smith premiering May 13 and 20, FRONTLINE tells the inside story of the U.S. government’s massive and controversial secret surveillance program—and the lengths they went to trying to keep it hidden from the public.

“United States of Secrets (Part Two)” - Trailer

31s

How did the government come to spy on millions of Americans? In FRONTLINE’s “United States of Secrets,” a two-part series from Michael Kirk and Martin Smith premiering May 13 and 20, FRONTLINE tells the inside story of the U.S. government’s massive and controversial secret surveillance program—and the lengths they went to trying to keep it hidden from the public.

“Prison State” - Preview

31s

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 effort to reverse the trend. “Prison State” premieres Tuesday, April 29 on PBS and at pbs.org/frontline.

Flooding in Solitary

2m 53s

It was once believed solitary confinement would reform misbehaving prisoners, turns out it may push them to the brink of insanity. In Solitary Nation, premiering Tuesday, April 22 on PBS and at pbs.org/FRONTLINE, FRONTLINE takes you inside Maine's maximum security prison, where a new warden is trying to move inmates out of solitary, which isn't as easy as you might suspect.

"They Had to Do Something"

45s

Former warden Gary Henman on why the lockdown at Marion federal prison was necessary to protect the staff and even the inmates. The staff was demoralized after the murders of two prison guards and needed new tools to help maintain control.

Fishing in Solitary

58s

Even in solitary, inmates find ways to smuggle contraband from cell to cell. In Solitary Nation, premiering Tuesday, April 22 on PBS and at pbs.org/FRONTLINE, FRONTLINE brings viewers inside Maine's maximum security prison, where a new warden is trying to reduce the number of prisoners in solitary.

"It Only Takes One Rotten Apple"

1m 12s

Former warden Gary Henman on his strategy at Marion to keep the worst inmates in isolation. "We would take these so called rotten apples, put them together. If they spoiled each other, at least to allowed the other facilities to be safe, secure," he said.

"Solitary Nation" - Preview

31s

About 80,000 Americans are held in solitary confinement on any given day. In “Solitary Nation,” premiering Tuesday, April 22 on PBS and at pbs.org/frontline, 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.

"Anybody Can Have TB"

3m 47s

At just 12-years-old, Nokubheka has already lost her mother to TB. Now she has been diagnosed with strain of the disease herself. "I think anybody can have TB," she tells FRONTLINE. "It is not choosy.”

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