In El Paso, Texas, Michael Kidd and his two friends Kevin Crandall and Marcus Thompson decide to fund their drug habits by robbing homes.

Andrew Thomas Heim of Pittsburgh is serving 4–10 years in prison for battery and assault. In prison, he recruits five other inmates to form a plan of escape.

In March 2007, Darryl Norris is paroled after serving eight years of his 15-year sentence for two counts of armed robbery. On April 15, 2008, Norris and an accomplice named Robert rob a J&A store, where Robert shoots and kills a store clerk.

In South Los Angeles, truck driver Jaime Jones slips and falls at work, suffering a herniated disc in his lower back, forcing him to quit. Facing foreclosure on his home, Jones turns to bank robbery to pay his bills and becomes known as the "Neck Brace Bandit".

Robert Nielsen escapes from a Florida prison, where he has been serving a 25 year sentence for an armed robbery he committed when he was 16.

Whilst serving a 60-year sentence for a crime he says he didn't commit, Russell Kerr plots with a fellow inmate an elaborate escap

Albert Paul ends up being arrested for murder and spends the next twenty years pulling off daring prison breaks only to get captured following every attempt.

Jimmy Maxwell's volatile nature sees him being a menace to authorities every time they manage to corner him after he escapes from prison.

Bank robber Steven Ray Milam is called the Handsome Guy Bandit as he makes a costly mistake forcing him to leave his family and go on the run.

Peter Gibbs faces a long stretch in prison for a string of robberies but he refuses to go down without a fight.