Maximum security - the toughest classification in the Australian prison system - exerts a powerful fascination. Housing the nation's worst criminals, the so-called 'intractables', these facilities are settings of violence and despair. Just how rough are these jails within jails, and what's it like to be incarcerated in them?

From the brutal regime of colonial Norfolk Island to the sterile cruelty of Jika Jika and Katingal, James Morton, bestselling author of Gangland Australia and Shotgun and Standover, takes us through the history of these sinister places of punishment, which have been home to notorious figures like Mark 'Chopper' Read, Brenden Abbott and Russell 'Mad Dog' Cox.

Maximum Security is a gripping and informed account of the infamous criminals, gang wars, riots, corruption, great escapes, brutal bashings and murders - and occasional act of kindness and heroism - that go on in these hidden worlds behind bars.