History Main / HadToComeToPrisonToBeACrook

* Annie of Darkest timeline in ''Series/{{Community'': originally went crazy because she could not live with the guilt of Pierce's death and ended up being sent to an asylum, when Jeff manages to get her out, she has become completely insane and evil.

* Creator/StacyKeach is an [[InvertedTrope inversion]]. He was caught in the UK possessing cocaine during TheEighties and sentenced to prison. The warden there wound up being such a positive influence on his life that he's been on the straight and narrow since and based the character of Warden Pope in Series/PrisonBreak off that warden.

-> '''Lillian Marx''': [[SarcasmMode It's weird -- it's almost like prison puts you in a criminal mindset, as if spending all day and all night living with and talking to other criminals, completely immersed in their lifestyle and morals and way of thinking, makes you start to act like them.]]

** It's played darkly straight in ''Discworld/NightWatch'', where Vimes muses that Swing had missed the point of laws and the police -- he's meant to be taking criminals and turning them into honest men, but instead he's taking honest men and turning them into criminals.

[[folder:Web Original]]

* Jim Harper, aka The Guardian, took in a group of orphans known as The Newsboy Legion rather than let them be sentenced to Juvenile Hall for a petty crime, in part to specifically prevent this trope.

* The military suffers this as well, as collective punishments such as removing privileges or perks of the job (being allowed to drink during an exercise or deployment being a common target) from the entire group when so much as one troop breaks the rules or abuses it. The idea used to be effective when Pecking Rule was in effect and fear of other troops retaliating was enough to make people fear breaking the rules (the scene from ''Film/FullMetalJacket'' where Gomer Pyle gets beaten by soap after the donut incident being an infamous pop culture example), but these days those kinds of group "punishments" are strictly and fiercely frowned upon. [[TheArtifact The collective punishment still remains]], however, even though all it really does is offer an incentive to not bother trying to behave: what real incentive is there to follow the rules when it takes only one person screwing up to ruin it for everyone, and one person screwing up is so likely it's a ForegoneConclusion?

** ''VideoGame/Skyrim'': In Markarth, if you follow the CSI-themed questline to the end, you get framed for serial-killing and sentenced to prison for life. The only ways out are to either murder an imprisoned gang leader or help him with a messy and violent jailbreak that ends in revenge. Note that you can do both but it means you've just killed the only two people in Markarth trying to make serious changes for the city.

* [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19455_5-common-crime-fighting-tactics-statistics-say-dont-work_p2.html This]] article from Website/{{Cracked}} discusses how this trope plays out in RealLife. It cites research showing that punishing minor crimes with prison instead of, say, community service, backfires horribly, with the criminals 20% more likely to commit crimes once released. "It's weird -- it's almost like prison puts you in a criminal mindset, as if spending all day and all night living with and talking to other criminals, completely immersed in their lifestyle and morals and way of thinking, makes you start to act like them."

Basically, this is concept that Prison is "A College of Crime"; being in a dehumanizing "[[SocialDarwinism survival of the fittest]]" environment, having your reputation tarnished forever, and forced to live with the worst humanity can offer, will, just for the sake of survival, force you to rely on what you have learned inside; bad, violent or criminal behaviour.

Generally accepted to be TruthInTelevision (to an extent, anyway) and is one of the reasons for criminal recidivism (unemployment will force convicts to rely on what they have learned in prison to survive). One of the reasons many countries lean towards punishments other than jail for first time offenders, and put a focus on rehabilitation rather than punishment for people who are in jail.

* In ''FanFic/OriginStory'', Wonder Man says this almost verbatim regarding Alex Harris. She became a criminal after escaping custody and hospitalizing several Avengers because she was going to be sent to prison for life because she was wrongly seen as an psychologically unbalance superhuman.

* In ''Film/{{Caged}}'', a young woman is sent to prison having been an unknowing accessory to her husband's crime. By the end, she becomes a hardened convict and is on the road to becoming a professional criminal.

* ''Film/ShotCaller'': Jacob Harlon was originally convicted for two years after pleading guilty to a DUI manslaughter charge. He joins a skinhead gang in prison to survive, and is forced to get his hands dirty more than once, starting by smuggling drugs and later by murdering snitches and rival gang members. During one of these attacks in the middle of a prison riot, the act is caught on camera, and Jacob is given an additional nine years (85% mandatory) on top of his original sentence, and sent to the most secure section of the prison. Even after he leaves prison, he continues his activities for the gang on the outside, and [[spoiler:orchestrates events so that he becomes the leader of the entire gang after killing his predecessor for threatening his family.]]

* Discussed in ''Film/ConAir'' where Larkin and Malloy come to a head over their conflicting viewpoints, with Larkin believing the system is responsible for criminals while Malloy sees them as just animals. They inevitably do become FireForgedFriends in the end, effectively agreeing that some cons like Poe ''are'' victims of the system and others like Cyrus really are heartless, cruel bastards. Their very first interaction says it all:
--> '''Vince Larkin:''' Cyrus is a poster child for the criminally insane. He's a true product of the system.
--> '''Duncan Malloy:''' What's that supposed to mean? What are you, one of these sociology majors who thinks we're responsible for breeding these animals?
--> '''Vince Larkin:''' No, but I can point a few fingers if it would make you feel comfortable.

* This is the point of the novel and movie ''Film/IAmAFugitiveFromAChainGang'', based on the real life case of a man wrongly accused of a robbery and sent to the brutal Georgia prison system. After escaping — twice — he is forced into hiding, and in the film's memorable final scene, bids farewell to his former fiancee.

* On ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'', Junior Bunk Mahoney was a none-too-bright enforcer for his heroin-slinging family, and couldn't stop weeping when the squad brought him in. Fast forward a couple of years, and he's a gleeful sociopath who [[spoiler:shoots up the squadroom, injuring several main characters]].
* ''Series/{{Life}}'': When we meet Arthur Tins in season 1, he's a low-rate con artist whom Crews sends to prison. When we see him again in season 2 after he's escaped, he's a hardened criminal who murders one man, robs an armored car and takes a family hostage.

* When Earl went to prison in ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'', he meets a prisoner who's on his list for accidentally being sent to Juvey by him. When he gets out of prison, the public take one look at his shaved head, his prison tattoos and the tough guy persona he adopted inside to stay alive and decide he's a crook. So he lives up to their expectations by becoming one.

* Parodied on ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' when Tobias Funkë went to prison and accidentally killed the craziest guy in there. Tobias' psychoanalysis of the man broke his spirit and caused his suicide. Tobias gets a lot of street cred on the inside and his derogatory nickname "Dorothy" becomes a name to be feared.

* Subverted in the short lived series ''Sword Of Justice''. The main character was falsely imprisoned and uses his time there to pick up skills from other criminals. However, upon release, he uses those skills to secretly catch criminals who are normally above the law like the ones who framed him.
* This is the message of the ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU'' episode "Making A Rapist". A man wrongly convicted of rape is released after serving sixteen years in prison. After making friends with the woman formerly believed to be his victim, he's accused of her daughter's rape and murder. [[spoiler: It turns out he did do it, after years of rape and beatings by fellow prisoners. He became attracted to her daughter, then when she laughed him off, he (while drunk) flew into a rage.]] This episode is based on the case of Steve Avery, a man who was wrongly convicted on rape and attempted murder charges in 1985. After being exonerated in 2003, he was then arrested for murder in another case and convicted. Though he maintains he's innocent, the documentary on his case is named ''Making A Murderer'', implying the producers feel the same way (assuming he really did it).

--> '''Dunn''': When I went to prison, I was innocent. When I came out, I wasn't so innoncent no more.

** ''VideoGame/Skyrim'': In Markarth, if you follow the CSI-themed questline to the end, you get framed for serial-killing and sentenced to prison for life. The only ways out are to either murder an imprisoned gang leader, or help him with a messy and violent jailbreak that ends in revenge. Note that you can do both but it means you've just killed the only two people in Markarth trying to make serious changes for the city.

* In the ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation'' review of ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' Yahtzee jokes that [[YouAllMeetInACell the PC of each game was locked up]] for a minor adventure related crime before becoming a full blown adventurer as a result of their incarceration

* In ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'', this is how The Kingpin came to be — originally sent to prison for larcency, after one of his dad's scams went south and his bulk prevented him from following his father up a fire escape. Once he comes out, he's got 'connections', and uses what he's learned to begin building his criminal empire.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Dial Meg for Murder", [[ButtMonkey Meg]] falls in love with a convict, and goes to jail for harboring him after he escapes. When she comes out, she is a lot meaner and starts fighting back against everyone who mistreated her. By the end of the episode, Brian has to stop her from [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope robbing a convenience store at gunpoint]].
* Wasp, from ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'', gets falsely arrested as a Decepticon spy in the backstory (shown in a flashback episode). By the time he escapes over half a century later (Cybertronians are long-lived), he's almost [[Literature/LordOfTheRings Gollum-like]] in his insanity, and later becomes ''an actual Decepticon''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' plays with this. Recurring antagonist Sideshow Bob was already a criminal, but didn't start off trying to kill anybody, only framing Krusty for armed robbery so he can take over his show and make it better, since he was abused by Krusty on live air. But after Bart exposes him and gets him incarcerated, all Bob can think about is plotting a horrible revenge against Bart, and has ever since.

* Clyde Barrow started as a petty crook prior to meeting Bonnie Parker. He got arrested first for failure to return a rental car, and then for being caught with his brother Buck in a stolen truck of turkey. In 1930, he started a two year sentence at Eastham Prison Farm for robbery. In prison, Clyde was reportedly raped and beat another inmate to death. After he got out in February 1932, his crimes became more violent and more often involved murder. Some theorize that Bonnie and Clyde's crime spree from 1932 to May 1934 was not so much ForTheEvulz as it was Clyde seeking revenge against the Texas prison system.
* John Dillinger was 21 when in September 1924, he and a pool hall buddy named Ed Singleton robbed a Mooresville, Indiana grocer named Frank Morgan. Two days after the attack, Dillinger was arrested, and thinking the judge would be lenient enough to let him off if he plead guilty and apologized, he didn't bother to hire a lawyer. This was a big mistake, as the judge sentenced him to a 10-20 year sentence in Indiana's Pendleton Reformatory. It was in Pendleton that Dillinger met two of the partners who would be by his side during his infamous 1933-1934 bank robbery spree: Harry "Pete" Pierpont, and Homer Van Meter, both of whom were doing time for armed robberies (Van Meter for highway robbery on a train, Pierpont for bank robbery). All three of these guys were soon transferred to the Indiana State Penitentiary in Michigan City, where Dillinger met most of the other men who would be by his side, including Russell Clark, Charles Makley, and John "Red" Hamilton. They all taught him the art of bank robbery. When Dillinger was paroled in May 1933, he immediately started robbing banks in Indiana and Ohio for money that he used to pull off arrangements to smuggle guns into the prison to break out Makley, Pierpont, Clark, and Hamilton.

* Schooling has this issue, especially with the addition of technology. Due to the often widespread punishments when things go wrong in the schooling system, more and more privileges are lost for ''everyone''. This, of course, leads to many innocents joining the misbehavior for the reason that they retain their privileges, and [[IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure they'll still be punished even of they don't misbehave.]]

* Tragically, there ''were'' rare situations where this trope was inverted; sometimes, intelligent but under-educated criminals would be given a second chance in the form of a G.E.D. education while in prison, in hopes that learning a trade and gaining status as an educated member of society would give them incentive to make money with legitimate skills instead of the other illegitimate ones at crime college. Unfortunately, these systems have slowed to a '''crawl''', and there is a wait list that is far longer than the average sentence.

-->[[TearJerker Now let's go say a prayer for]] [[NotSoDifferent a boy who couldn't run as fast as I could.]]

* The main character of ''Film/{{Blow}}'' (based on reality) said this about himself.

->"''On the outside, I was an honest man, straight as an arrow. I [[TropeNamers had to come to prison to be a crook]].''"

!! Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Film]]

** Likewise in the Indonesian movie ''Film/TheRaid2Berandal'', where undercover cop Rama spends three years in prison establishing himself as a thug named Yuda and befriending Uco, the son of the local crime boss. The word 'berandal' basically means 'thug'.

* The whole point of ''Film/AProphet''.

* The idea of learning to commit more serious crimes is parodied in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', where the Ankh-Morpork Thieves' Guild, an entirely legal organisation, runs official classes in the city's main prison, the Tanty.
** It's played darkly straight in ''Night Watch'', where Vimes muses that Swing had missed the point of laws and the police- he's meant to be taking criminals and turning them into honest men, but instead he's taking honest men and turning them into criminals.

-->'''Helen:''' Oh, Jim. It was all going to be so different.
-->'''Jim:''' It is different. They've made it different. I've gotta go.
-->'''Helen:''' I can't let you go like this!
-->'''Jim:''' I've got to.
-->'''Helen:''' Can't you tell me where you're going? Will you write? Do you need any money? But you must, Jim. How will you live?
-->'''Jim:''' [whispers] ''I steal!''
* ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat'' tried to deliberately [[InvokedTrope invoke]] this trope, [[GetIntoJailFree getting himself sent to prison]] to learn the tricks of the trade from real criminal minds. Of course, he quickly realizes his mistake: [[spoiler:He won't find any criminal masterminds in prison, because they don't get caught.]]
* Discussed in the Literature/{{Spenser}} short story ''Surrogate'', regarding a man who was paid to rape a woman by her ex-husband, who met him while teaching a convict education program. Somewhat more ambivalent than many of the other examples.

* Happens to Jean Valjean at the beginning of ''Literature/LesMiserables''. After being released from a ''very'' long prison term for stealing a loaf of bread (which was "only" five years until he got it quadrupled for repeated escape attempts), he is unable to find work (because nobody was willing to hire a thief - at least not at a wage he could live on) and is forced to resort to stealing more valuable goods to survive. An [[ItWasAGift unexpected act of mercy]] from the first person he robs after starting down this path leads to him undergoing a HeelFaceTurn.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* The short-lived 1974 TV series ''Sword of Justice" has rich playboy Jack Cole framed for massive fraud and embezzlement and sent to jail for five years. Realizing he's not the first to get screwed over like this, Cole spends the time talking to his fellow inmates to learn all the tricks of theft ("They say this place is a college for criminals. Well, I want to go to school.") When he finally gets out, he uses those skills to take down other white-collar crooks.

[[folder:Theatre]]

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'', if you opt to go to prison after you get arrested, there's a random chance your Sneak and Security skills will go up as a result of [[HandWave learning some new techniques from your fellow inmates]]. When you get out, you'll quickly be given an invitation to the ThievesGuild (or in the case of murder, [[MurderInc Dark Brotherhood]]). which will make you into a more hardened and successful criminal. This can be especially notable if you went to jail for a crime as petty as ''stealing an apple''.

* In ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', Crono is falsely accused of kidnapping, thrown in jail, and sentenced to death on spurious grounds. Depending on the player's actions, the worst thing he's done before going to jail is stealing and eating an old man's lunch. Escaping execution for a bum rap has him murdering guards left and right.
** Although, if you go back to the castle after this has happened as soon as possible, you will find a group of guards discussing the behavior of the prison guards. They describe the guards as strange people brought in by [[spoiler:The Chancellor, foreshadowing him being the descendant of Yakra from 600 A.D.]]

* [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19455_5-common-crime-fighting-tactics-statistics-say-dont-work_p2.html This]] article from Website/{{Cracked}} discusses how this trope plays out in RealLife. It cites research showing that punishing minor crimes with prison instead of, say, community service, backfires horribly, with the criminals 20% more likely to commit crimes once released. "It's weird-it's almost like prison puts you in a criminal mindset, as if spending all day and all night living with and talking to other criminals, completely immersed in their lifestyle and morals and way of thinking, makes you start to act like them."

* This is a common criticism of the [[DrugsAreBad war on drugs]] in particular, or at least the approaches to it that involve prison sentences for the possession of illegal drugs. It is especially often applied to the US, whose prisons are regarded as especially likely to make hardened criminals and whose approach involves locking people up for so much as possessing soft drugs like marijuana for personal use.
** Sociologists have been trying to raise awareness of this, asking people to apply the concept of prison to other situations. For example: "If you had a child who was behaving poorly, would it help to take that child out of society, and place them in an environment where they are surrounded, 24/7, by other troublemakers?"
* A variation occurred in Ireland; in the wake of [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishQuestion the Easter Rising]], the British army interned large numbers of Irish people who had had little to nothing to do with it alongside the surviving rebels. The combination of unjust treatment and being placed in close proximity to dissidents meant that when internment was ended, the country had the makings of an enormous republican movement, which led to UsefulNotes/TheIrishRevolution.[[note]]The British learnt nothing from this; fifty or sixty years later they did exactly the same thing all over again in UsefulNotes/TheTroubles[[/note]]
** Much the same thing in Tsarist Russia, where Lenin, Trotsky, and other Bolshevik revolutionaries used the time they spent in prison camps to organize and plan the revolution.

This is the idea that throwing people in jail makes them into worse criminals than they were before. Thrown in for petty crimes? Perhaps they may learn how to get away with serious crimes. [[BetterLivingThroughEvil Turned to crime for monetary reasons]]? It's going to be even harder to [[JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife get a legitimate job with jail time on their record]]. [[FrameUp Falsely convicted of crimes]]? Perhaps once absolved, they may get away with actual crimes [[CryingWolf partly because of the impression left by the false conviction]]... or may [[ThenLetMeBeEvil be "broken" into the criminals people think they are]]. Not to mention what they might have to do [[BreakTheCutie simply to]] ''[[BreakTheCutie survive]]'' [[BreakTheCutie such a brutal environment]] (kind of like HeWhoFightsMonsters, but more like He Who ''Survives'' Monsters).

* We had to go prison to become [[http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/11/-sp-isis-the-inside-story Islamic State]].

* A variation occurred in Ireland; in the wake of [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishQuestion the Easter Rising]], the British army interned large numbers of Irish people who had had little to nothing to do with it alongside the surviving rebels. The combination of unjust treatment and being placed in close proximity to dissidents meant that when internment was ended, the country had the makings of an enormous republican movement, which led to UsefulNotes/TheIrishRevolution.

* In 1972, Stanford psychologist Phillip Zimbardo conducted an experiment to test if placing normal, emotionally healthy people in a prison-like setting increased their capacity for violence. Half the test subjects were assigned the role of guards, the other half were prisoners. The result both plays straight and inverts this trope: by the end of the first week of the study, both groups had become so hostile to each other that the experiment had to be cancelled. The experiment has been questioned, though, because subjects were not screened for whether they already had tendencies toward violence and Zimbardo himself participated (playing the warden)-a huge no-no for experimenters. These results cannot be replicated, as ethical rules today prevent it.
* We had to go prison to become [[http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/11/-sp-isis-the-inside-story Islamic State]]
* Schooling has this issue, especially with the addition of technology. Due to the often widespread punishments when things go wrong in the schooling system, more and more priviliges are lost for ''everyone''. This, of course, leads to many innocents joining the misbehavior for the reason that they retain their priviliges, and [[IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure they'll still be punished even of they don't misbehave.]]
* Tragically, there ''were'' rare situations where this trope was inverted; sometimes, intelligent but under-educated criminals would be given a second chance in the form of a G.E.D. education while in prison, in hopes that learning a trade and gaining status as an educated member of society would give them incentive to make money with legitimate skills instead of the other illegitimate ones at crime college. Unfortunately, these systems have slowed to a '''crawl''', and there is a waitlist that is far longer than the average sentence.

* This is the message of the ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU'' episode "Making A Rapist". A man wrongly convicted of rape is released after serving sixteen years in prison. After making friends with the woman formerly believed to be his victim, he's accused of her daughter's rape and murder. [[spoiler: It turns out he did do it, after years of rape and beatings by fellow prisoners. He became attracted to her daughter, then when she laughed him off, he (while drunk) flew into a rage.]] This episode is based on the case of Steve Avery, a man who was wrongly convicted on rape and murder charges in 1985. After being exonerated in 2003, he was then arrested for the same charges in another case and convicted. Though he maintains he's innocent, the documentary on his case is named ''Making A Murderer'', implying the producers feel the same way (assuming he really did it).

** Subverted in the short lived series ''Series/SwordOfJustice''. The main character was falsely imprisoned and uses his time there to pick up skills from other criminals. However, upon release, he uses those skills to secretly catch criminals who are normally above the law like the ones who framed him.
* This is the message of the ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU'' episode "Making A Rapist". A man wrongly convicted of rape is released after serving sixteen years in prison. After making friends with the woman formerly believed to be his victim, he's accused of her daughter's rape and murder. [[spoiler: It turns out he did do it, after years of rape and beatings by fellow prisoners. He became attracted to her daughter, then when she laughed him off, he (while drunk) flew into a rage.]]

** Interestingly, there are no straight examples involving characters that go to actual prison (most of whom were rather hardened before they went in), but the trope is played brutally straight for a group home. Good-natured [[HighSchoolHustler schemer]] Randy Wagstaff is branded a snitch and finds that his peers and the local gangsters are suddenly his mortal enemies. Despite police protection, his home is torched, his foster mother is badly burned, and he's at the mercy of social services. A remorseful detective tries deperately to find him a better option, but ultimately Randy has no choice but to go to a group home. The following season, the police go there to try to question him again, and we find that his cheery disposition has vanished without a trace, and he's casually assaulting other kids just to maintain cred.