Riot begins with Quincy (Jack Klugman) and Sam (Robert Ito) being sent to a prison to look into the death of an inmate who may have been killed by a violent guard. As they are investigating the death, other prisoners seize the opportunity to initiate a riot in protest of the inhumane treatment they have suffered and Sam is taken hostage during the chaos. Quincy is then faced with trying to negotiate the secure release of his friend while also trying to determine the exact cause of death of the inmate.
I didn't find this to be a particularly appealing episode for many reasons. First off, the plot has a lot of similarities to the Quincy Season 4 episode House of No Return where there is criminal activity inside a detention facility and a suspicious death, so it was lacking in originality in my opinion. I also found it pretty unbelievable that despite there being suspicion of a murder inside the prison to the point where police and the coroner were called in to investigate that the prison wouldn't have been put on lockdown or something rather than giving the prisoners enough leeway to stage a riot and take civilians hostage in the process. All of this coupled with some corny dialogue just make for an episode that was difficult for me to take seriously.
While there is a murder mystery featured here, even with that and some intense action during the riot this just comes across as a very drab and unremarkable episode as 90% of the scenes take place in the prison, so don't expect to see any beautiful California landscape shots as you watch this one.