It tells the story of Emanuelle, who is sent to Santa Catarina Women's Penitentiary for drugs and prostitution, where she meets the warden and the other inmates.

Under a false identity, journalist Emanuelle (Laura Gemser) pretends to be a drug dealer to get herself sent to prison in order to investigate and document the brutality and abuses that inmates are subjected to.

Emanuelle is helped by Dr. Moran (Gabriele Tinti) and some prisoners, and is able to report her findings, after which the perpetrators are arrested.

Violence in a Women's Prison was directed by Bruno Mattei who is credited as Vincent Dawn or Gilbert Roussel in some prints.

[5][6] Allmovie gave the film a rating of one star out of five, noting that "Mattei doesn't skimp on the nastiness, presenting a three-way catfight on a floor full of feces, Gemser nibbled by rats in solitary confinement, a homosexual who is sodomized to death after his straight cellmates are aroused by a striptease, and various rapes, tortures, and vomit scenes.