People are dying in prison so, rather than a sudden government inspection or closing it down and investigating the causes, or even examining the bodies, someone decided that the best approach would be to send in an undercover policemen posing as an inmate. That's how much the police force cares about the people it puts away. It can't bare to see them come to harm. It would rather risk the life of one of its own, knowing full well that if discovered he will surely be horridly killed.
But this is just what the audience knows from near the start. The real plot is described below (and spoiled): Once upon a time, in the 1980s, a brilliant doctor figured out a way of preserving donated organs at fridge/room temperatures for ages in some weird pink jelly stuff. But rather than write up his findings in Nature, the Lancet or the New England Journal, he just sat on this for years. Exactly which organisation funded his research and then did not care that he did not disclose what he was up to to anyone remains a mystery. Perhaps it was the Pablo Escobar Heart Foundation, or the FARC Guerilla Gorilla to Human Transplant Institute. Then, in 1990 or thereabouts, some rich guy approached this doctor (who was now working in a prison), somehow knowing he was an expert in organ transplant, asking him for an organ. Because organ regulations and murder investigations in the US were quite weak in those days, no one realised that a prisoner was mysteriously murdered and had also had his liver removed. So this doctor realised he could make loads of money knocking off prisoners and doing this again and again.
There is also fun with Van Damme - no guard reverse round house kick - fighting, and disappearing ninja bad guys who like to stand in risky positions (like in front of an open furnace they just opened up for no reason), and fickle prisoners that keep changing their minds about murdering someone.
But this is just what the audience knows from near the start. The real plot is described below (and spoiled): Once upon a time, in the 1980s, a brilliant doctor figured out a way of preserving donated organs at fridge/room temperatures for ages in some weird pink jelly stuff. But rather than write up his findings in Nature, the Lancet or the New England Journal, he just sat on this for years. Exactly which organisation funded his research and then did not care that he did not disclose what he was up to to anyone remains a mystery. Perhaps it was the Pablo Escobar Heart Foundation, or the FARC Guerilla Gorilla to Human Transplant Institute. Then, in 1990 or thereabouts, some rich guy approached this doctor (who was now working in a prison), somehow knowing he was an expert in organ transplant, asking him for an organ. Because organ regulations and murder investigations in the US were quite weak in those days, no one realised that a prisoner was mysteriously murdered and had also had his liver removed. So this doctor realised he could make loads of money knocking off prisoners and doing this again and again.
There is also fun with Van Damme - no guard reverse round house kick - fighting, and disappearing ninja bad guys who like to stand in risky positions (like in front of an open furnace they just opened up for no reason), and fickle prisoners that keep changing their minds about murdering someone.