Thirteen prisons banned this show.
It took 5 hours in the makeup chair to apply Michael Scofield's tattoo to Wentworth Miller's body. In scenes where Michael wears a short-sleeved shirt, only portions that would have been visible were applied. This accordingly explains why he often wears a long-sleeved shirt.
Wentworth Miller was a last minute casting choice. He started filming about a week after auditioning/being cast.
The character of Charles Westmorland/D.B. Cooper is based on an actual person (D.B. Cooper) who, in 1971, after hijacking an airliner, extorted $200,000 from its owner, Northwest Orient, and leaped off the airborne plane with 21 pounds of $20 bills strapped to his body. He was never found. The theory is that he was killed because his parachute didn't deploy.
Stacy Keach (the Prison Warden) spent six months in a British prison and modeled his character after the man in charge at that institution.