oz, the novel

i've only seen a few minutes of hbo's oz (so far: it's in the queue), but stone city by mitchell smith is at least a literary cousin of the series.

set in a formidable state prison, a college professor convicted of a hit-and-run-while-drunk homicide gets tangled up in investigating the murder of a couple of other convicts, pressured by both the official and unofficial prison authorities.

the plot itself isn't particularly deep or complicated, but the setting and characters are incredibly rich.