James V. Dunn (Neville Brand), the prisoners' leader, meets the press outside the cell block and makes demands that they will no longer tolerate the brutal guards, substandard food, overcrowding, and barely livable conditions.

Actor Leo Gordon, who plays hardened convict Carney, had served five years in San Quentin State Prison for armed robbery.

He would work as an assistant to Siegel on four additional films including Private Hell 36 (1954), An Annapolis Story (1955), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Crime in the Streets (1956).

[1] “[A]though it never needs to take off its hat to any of its brash predecessors for lack of hard, cruel detail, Riot in Cell Block 11 maintains such a disciplined grip on reality that it acquires the authority of a documentary.”—Film critic Paul Beckley in the New York Herald, February 19, 1954.

He wrote, "The grim business of melodrama behind prison walls, so often depicted in standard, banal fashion in films, is given both tension and dignity in Riot in Cell Block 11, which erupted onto the Mayfair's screen yesterday.

Although it is explosive enough to satisfy the most rabid of the "cons versus 'screws'" school of moviegoer, it also makes a sincere and adult plea for a captive male society revolting against penal injustices.

"[11] The staff at Variety magazine also praised the film, writing, "The pros and cons of prison riots are stated articulately in the Richard Collins screen story, and producer Walter Wanger uses a realistic, almost documentary, style to make his point for needed reforms in the operation of penal institutions ... A standout performance is given by Emile Meyer, the warden who understands the prisoners’ problems.