Eleanor Parker was required to have her blonde hair buzzed off to the scalp for her role as a female convict.
In an early example of product placement, Snickers, Mason Mints, and Life-Savers are clearly visible when Harper opens the drawer in her room.
In order to do research for the film, Virginia Kellogg pulled some strings to incarcerate herself in a woman's prison. What she wrote once she was out was not so much a screenplay, but a kind of almanac of everything she witnessed while in prison. Warner Bros. then got their screenwriters to make a screenplay out of it.
iScreen Director's Playhouse/i broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on August 2, 1951 with Eleanor Parker reprising her film role.
Originally titled iThe Big Cage/i, an early version of the script was intended as a Bette Davis/Joan Crawford vehicle.