History Main / TheAlcatraz

* Impel Down in ''Manga/OnePiece'', seen above as the page picture. It probably takes the cake as ''the'' worst prison in fiction. The only exit is also the entrance, as it is surrounded entirely by water. Since many inmates have eaten Devil Fruits, which give people super powers but robs them of the ability to swim, this automatically places SuperDrowningSkills onto them. If one escapes, unless they can navigate past the battleships and water infested with whirlpools and sea monsters, water currents lead directly to one of two highly-guarded government fortresses, and even then only if they permit entry. It has six levels, each progressively worse than the last to house progressively dangerous criminals, and is filled with things just waiting to kill the unlucky prisoners, including the staff.

** Level 2 is the "Wild Beast Hell", where the cells are kept unlocked but the halls patrolled by ravenous creatures that feed off the prisoners kept within if they don't stay in their cells. Such creatures include manticores, basilisks, and a sphinx as the boss. Dozens of prisoners are packed in somewhat small cells, so their only choices are to be killed by disease or be hunted.

** Level 4, the "[[EvilIsBurningHot Hell of Scorching Flames]]", is even hotter than Level 3 (in fact, it's the heat from this level that keeps the above one hot), as a gigantic "Lake of Blood" is kept boiling hot at all times, which prisoners are dropped into regularly. Other prisoners are used to keep wood on the fire at all times, where they face the risk of getting into a fight and being thrown into the "Lake".
** Level 5, the "[[EvilIsDeathlyCold Hell of Freezing Cold]]", is the [[JustForPun polar]] opposite of the previous level, with below freezing temperatures and wolves that are so vicious, they actually preyed upon Level 2's beasts when they were initially introduced there, forcing their relocation. The prisoners kept here have given up on escape and rebellion completely, as they all stay locked in their freezing cells waiting to die.
*** [[MoodWhiplash Level 5.5: DRAG REVUE!]]: Unknown to even the Warden and his staff, there is a hidden "Paradise" level, tunneled out by a former prisoner and connected via secret passages. Prisoners lucky enough to be invited can live in relative luxury and safety, supplied by stealing from the rest of the complex. Prior to Luffy's infiltration, it is ruled by Emporio Ivankov, who has the ability to, among other things, [[GenderBender gender bend]] people. As of the TimeSkip, [[spoiler:Ivankov and the bulk of the prisoners he had recruited have returned to his homeland, and Straw Hats ally Bentham, better known as former Baroque Works agent Mr. 2 Bon Clay, has taken over.]]
** The generally unknown Level 6, the "Eternal Hell". Every (non-political) prisoner within is either a Lifer or on Death Row who caused incidents so serious the World Government sought to erase them from history. Among its inmates are Shilew (mentioned below), a former ArcVillain [[spoiler:Crocodile]], and the target of Luffy's intrusion into the place: [[spoiler:Portgas D. Ace]]. Aside from the perpetual abandonment from the world, nothing else actually goes on here, mainly because you can't do much to such badasses.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Crimestrikers}}'', the Quarry is an underground maximum security facility built to hold [[WorldOfFunnyAnimals Creaturia]]'s worst criminals. Of course, even the toughest prison on the planet isn't perfect, and the story begins with the BigBad engineering a mass escape.

* The ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' has Revel's End, the prison where the [[TheAlliance Lord's Alliance]] keeps any prisoners that would be inconvenient to keep in their own prisons. Strangely, despite the High Magic nature of the Forgotten Realms setting, it's one of the most normal prisons on this list. The warden is a mage with the ghost of an old companion in her head, and it is located at the northernmost end of the Sword Coast, but other than that, it's simply a normal prison where they keep prisoners for a few years until they have served their sentence, then they are shipped back to civilization.

** ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'': The titular prison is an interesting example: Inmates are dumped into the Gotham Slums that were converted into a massive prison, and allowed to do anything they want if they don't try to escape. If they do, the guards are authorized to kill them. While most Batman media usually uses CardboardPrison for the Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Penitentiary, Arkham City averts this. The only person to escape it was Black Mask, and he was recaptured and the security was reinforced. Since the criminals are free to do whatever they want, it becomes a hellhole where villains, especially the Joker, Two-Face and the Penguin are fighting each other for territory, and it seems that some villains don't even want to leave.

** ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'': The titular prison is an interesting example: Inmates are dumped into the Gotham Slums that were converted into a massive prison, and allowed to do anything they want if they don't try to escape. If they do, the guards are authorized to kill them. While most Batman media usually uses CardboardPrison for the Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Penitentiary, Arkham City averts this, the only person to escape it was Black Mask, and he was recaptured and the security was reinforced, since the criminals are free to do whatever they want, it becomes a hellhole where villains, especially the Joker, Two-Face and the Penguin are fighting each other for territory, and it seems that some villains don't even want to leave.

* Australia was [[SentencedToDownUnder a penal (prison) colony for Britain]] for the greater part of the 19th century, and well beyond swimming distance to someplace better, and certainty prohibitively far from England, which was the point. In turn, Tasmania was the penal colony for Australia--that is, if after being transported to Australia from Britain and committed another serious offence, you'd go to Tasmania. The same, generally speaking, was true of Queensland; Brisbane is sufficiently far from the rest of Australian civilization to tell you why. And for those the British government was ''really'' angry at, there was Norfolk Island: After a failed rebellion there, some of the rebels were sentenced to hang, but had to have the sentences confirmed in Sydney. When some of the condemned found out that they would be spared, they wept and cursed their fate, while those who were to die rejoiced that at least they would not be on [[PlaceWorseThanDeath Norfolk Island]] any longer.

* The titular title-featured ''Manga/DeadmanWonderland'' is Japan's only ''privately-owned'' correctional facility. Setting aside for a moment how insane that premise is, the place is really damn hard to escape. First of all, anyone who's on death row isn't executed on a particular day. Rather, they're fitted with collars that slowly inject a poison that will kill them after 3 days if they don't get the antidote regularly. So, most convicts can't even think about ''escape'' so much as survival, and escape is still forced away by death-traps and extremely bloodthirsty guards. Things are even worse if you're found to be a [[BloodyMurder Deadman]]. If that's the case, they lock you in a ''hidden'' cell block that most people don't know exists, and keep you under surveillance by robots and extremely bloodthirsty guards with weapons that cancel your powers. A massive escape attempt midway through the series doesn't really have any illusions about getting any more than ''one'' person out. The point is to get info about the place's insanity to be seen by the government.

* Australia was [[SentencedToDownUnder a penal (prison) colony for Britain]] for the greater part of the 19th century, and well beyond swimming distance to someplace better, and certainty prohibitively far from England, which was the point. In turn, Tasmania was the penal colony for Australia--that is, if after being transported to Australia from Britain and committed another serious offence, you'd go to Tasmania. The same, generally speaking, was true of Queensland; Brisbane is sufficiently far from the rest of Australian civilization to tell you why. And for those the British government was ''really'' angry at, there was Norfolk Island: After a failed rebellion there, some of the rebels were sentenced to hang, but had to have the sentences confirmed in Sydney. When some of the condemned found out that they would be spared, they wept and cursed their fate, while those who were to die rejoiced that at least they would not be on Norfolk Island any longer.

* Australia was a penal (prison) colony for Britain for the greater part of the 19th century, and well beyond swimming distance to someplace better, and certainty prohibitively far from England, which was the point. In turn, Tasmania was the penal colony for Australia--that is, if after being transported to Australia from Britain and committed another serious offence, you'd go to Tasmania. The same, generally speaking, was true of Queensland; Brisbane is sufficiently far from the rest of Australian civilization to tell you why. And for those the British government was ''really'' angry at, there was Norfolk Island: After a failed rebellion there, some of the rebels were sentenced to hang, but had to have the sentences confirmed in Sydney. When some of the condemned found out that they would be spared, they wept and cursed their fate, while those who were to die rejoiced that at least they would not be on Norfolk Island any longer.

* Check-Point 19 where Gustave is held awaiting trial in ''Film/TheGrandBudapestHotel''.

* While somewhat more famous in Britain, Colditz Castle was another 'inescapable' WWII POW camp. The population was composed entirely of [[DreamTeam men who had already escaped from other prisons]] and 15 managed to escape even here (there was a 16th who got out, but he wasn't heard from again).

* ''Franchise/LupinIII'': The real life trope namer appears in titular anime film ''Anime/LupinIIIAlcatrazConnection'' where it plays an important factor in the story.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' has [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Tartarus]], a prison designed to contain supervillains. It has a rather impressive track record, considering that this is a world without any conveniently available PowerNullifier, [[HellholePrison but it certainly violates a long list of human rights and Geneva conventions]]. Its most high-profile prisoner, [[BigBad All For One]] is kept immobilized with his brainwaves and heart rate monitored at all times. His cell is bare, except for the guns that will automatically kill him if his heart rate ever increases or he so much as ''considers'' escaping. All For One admits that even ''he'' couldn't break in or out of here on his own. [[spoiler:So he stages a simultaneous and coordinated mass-break out ''and'' break-in thanks to his PsychicLink with Shigaraki after transfering the All for One Quirk to him, launching the latter with Shigaraki and the Near High-Ends to distract the guards into forcing a lockdown before cutting the power and then releasing his main body and all the high-profile criminals to run amock inside the prison to enact the former. The result is as swift as it is brutal.]]

** The Slab in Franchise/TheDCU. How secure was it? It was designed by Shiloh Norman, the greatest escape artist in history, to be escape proof. This man escaped from a black hole, but specifically designed the Slab to be too much even for him. The Joker organized a mass breakout in the Joker's Last Laugh event.

** The paralell series ''ComicBook/StarWarsMarvel2015'' has Sunspot Prison, which is built and maintained by the Rebellion to keep Imperial [=POWs=]. It's a space station kept in low orbit around a sun, barely far enough out to not be disintegrated. No one actually manages to escape, since the storyline set there revolves around an insane former rebel agent who, following a personal encounter with Palpatine, figures that people who work for the empire don't deserve to live.

** In fact, Sonic ''talks'' so much about escaping this inescapable prison, that the other cons and guards think he's kidding. The "cuff" is an anklet permanently attached to both Sonic and Shadow. If either of them attempts to move beyond 30 mph, they get a debilitating shock. This is their paticular anti-escape measure; each prisoner has some kind of clothing or procedure that negates their talents/powers. Cells are self-explanatory, fences are the electric variety, and the jungle presents its own problems. Guard Robos are expendable MechaMooks that can restrain and electrocute prisoners. Mephiles is the utter bastard of a Head Warden who keeps the prisoners distracted with fear of each other. He is fond of severely punishing anyone who attempts to escape, which serves as a deterrent for the rest. The ocean is the final obstacle of Prison Island. There are no convenient boats to steal and it's too far to swim or fly over. Shadow's attempt was stopped by the ocean, and he survived in the jungle for three weeks afterwards.

* The prison camp in ''Film/TheBridgeOnTheRiverKwai'' was allegedly inescapable due to its remote location deep in the Burmese jungle. Naturally, this was proved incorrect.

* ''Film/EscapePlan'': The Tomb is designed to be completely escape proof — the prisoners are drugged before being brought in, blindfolded when moved about, and are allowed no contact with or even visual access to the outside world; the cells are elevated and transparent, and surrounded almost completely by surveillance; the guards are masked and work in scrambled shifts so that the prisoners can't plan around their shifts; all the doors have magnetic locks in case of emergency; and to top it all off, the Tomb itself is [[spoiler:built inside an oil tanker anchored in the middle of the ocean.]]

* The titular location from ''Film/IslandOfFire'' is a government facility where convicts are stripped of their humanity, put through massive trauma and excessive suffering to the point where they forgot their past lives, and then trained into killing machines and performing covert assasination assignments for their superiors.
* In ''Film/Life1999'', after being given [[TitleDrop Life]] for a crime they din't commit, Ray and Claude are told by the warden that Parchman Farm has no need for fences or walls because any inmate trying to cross the gun line will be shot by a sharpshooter.

* ''Film/TheMatrix'' is a particularely ingenious example, as it's a prison that's supposed to be inescapable due to [[EpiphanicPrison no one realizing that it's a prison to begin with]] (except for the resistance).

* ''Literature/AdventureHunters'': There is an infamous prison reserved for the worst of criminals that is located at the bottom of an ocean. The only way in or out is a ship that leaves once it delivers the newest inmate. [[spoiler:This is the ultmate fate of Ryvas; life imprisonment for breaking the NuclearWeaponsTaboo.]]

* ''Literature/TheBordersOfInfinity'': Miles has to organize an escape from the "escape proof" Dagoola IV Top Security Prison Camp #3. The "camp" is a masterpiece of psychological warfare, quite possibly the most terrifying prison in existence while still meeting the future equivalent of the Geneva Conventions. It's just a giant dome over an open space on a remote planet, with no resources, no buildings and '''no guards''', just ten thousand prisoners. The captors drop the legally required amount of food in a huge pile out in the open, ensuring that prisoners riot and fight to get it. Pretty soon, most of the prisoners are all in armed tribes too busy fighting each other over supplies to organize an escape, and the rest are too starved or demoralized to do anything. Miles is sent to enact a two-prisoner rescue thus proving that [[spoiler:it ''was'' escape-proof... just not rescue-proof. Miles plans ahead. For Miles, Plan B is ''always'' RefugeInAudacity, so instead of rescuing two prisoners, he rescues ''all of them'']].

** The early ''Literature/XWingSeries'' features the Lusankya facility, an inescapable Imperial prison with a sinister reputation and an unknown location. Several times Rebels have escaped from lesser prisons and returned to service, only to subsequently be revealed as {{Manchurian Agent}}s -- and only afterward are they able to remember their time in Lusankya that led to their programming. At the start of the novels, veteran Rogue Squadron pilot Tycho Celchu is in legal purgatory after escaping from another Imperial prison ''but'' also remembering his time in Lusankya, breaking the mold and leaving everyone unsure whether or not he's an unwitting Imperial asset. Later on, another Rogue is captured and sent to Lusankya, and during his escape uncovers its great secret: [[spoiler:it's actually the Super Star Destroyer ''Lusankya'', buried beneath the cityscape of Coruscant, with a prison block disguised as a cave system where the use of artifiical gravity means that any prisoners trying to escape "up" towards the surface are actually headed deeper into the bowels of starship. After Corran Horn escapes, the ''Lusankya'' violently breaks free of Coruscant and enters service as a proper warship, but its prisoners are scattered to other facilities -- the director of Imperial Intelligence later admits that Corran's escape "defiled" it in her eyes.]]

* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': The prison Nate is in "The Jailhouse Job". Eliot repeatedly describes it as state-of-the-art and escape proof. Naturally, Nate immediately starts planning a GreatEscape from the inside.

* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' has Sherrinford from "The Final Problem".

* The ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' has Revel's End, the prison where the [[TheAlliance Lord's Alliance]] keeps any prisoners that would be inconvenient to keep in their own prisons. Strangely, despite the High Magic nature of the Forgotten Realms setting, it's one of the most normal prisons on this list. The warden is a mage with the ghost of an old companion in her head, and it is located at the nothernmost end of the Sword Coast, but other than that, it's simply a normal prison where they keep prisoners for a few years until they have served their sentence, then they are shipped back to civilization.

** ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight''has Iron Heights, which was meant to combine this with HellHolePrison. Basically the idea of it being escape proof was due to the fact it was an airship, a zeppelin to be more precise. Least in theory it would have been escape proof had Killer Croc not gotten loose and caused it to crash in Gotham Bay.

** An actual map in the ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'' "Uprising" map pack. You play as four Prohibition gangsters who planned to fly out of Alcatraz itself with a makeshift plane. They actually could do it, except that this is a zombies map, and of course, zombies are rampaging everywhere. [[spoiler:The main protagonists were [[PlotTwist actually already dead]], because they killed one of their own before they started the plan outright, and the other three were sent to the electric chair as a result. They're not in the real world in fact, but in a purgatory of some sort. Unless Albert, one of the gangsters, kills the other three at the climax of the easter egg, they will continue the cycle of death and rebirth, ''[[FateWorseThanDeath over and over again]].'']]

** "''The Gallows''" from [[VideoGame/DragonAgeII the second game]] swings between being one of these and a CardboardPrison. For the first half of the game, the Mage Underground performs numerous prison breaks, with sympathetic Templars either aiding or chosing to turn a blind eye. By Act III however it becomes a full on Alcatraz as the Templars crack down on sympathisers, the Mage Underground is completely obliterated and the [[FateWorseThanDeath Right of Tranquility]] performed on Mages for the slightest infractions.

* During the events of ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'', James gets to visit the remains of the Toluca Prison localed beneath the Silent Hill Historial Society.

* ''Videogame/SunlessSea'': Wisdom Prison. An enormous prison complex in the middle of the eponymous Sunless Sea, atop a huge conglomeration of irregular giant lilypads. Not only does it have regular old prison guards, but it's also surrounded completely by enormous, carnivorous toads with [[ExtraEyes way too many eyes]] called Knot-Oracles. And for anyone who escapes ''those'', they'll have to face the zee itself as well, which is already full of nasty monsters no matter where the place. And the nation that owns the prison has some of the best spies in the entire Neath, so chances are if you escape you'll be watched. If you want to get someone out of there, you'll have to either pass an impossibly difficult Veils challenge (AKA you're such a master of stealth you can sneak up on a sea monster with a gigantic dreadnought), trade it for one of the rarest secrets you could ever hope to find, or pay a bribe big enough to buy another ship.

** While they have vast ammounts of resources and high-tech technology, and they made surprising feats of containing dangerous anomalies that can destroy the world, they still have many containment breaches where their prisoners tried to escape but were recaptured, and they have cases where anomalies escaped their facilities and went back to the wild, or were stolen by other groups.

* ''TabletopGame/TechInfantry'' has the Federation (and later Imperial) Prison in the R45 systiem is a DeathWorld and prison planet from which escape (or even survival) is almost impossible. Orbital forts and warships in orbit to prevent rescue, powerful magical incantations and a natural anti-magic field to prevent magical teleportation escapes, and a toxic ecosystem overrun by insane stranded Bugs make it a not at all nice place to be sentenced.

** Then there's prison 42: a prison designed by ComicBook/AntMan, [[Comicbook/FantasticFour Reed Richards]], and Comicbook/IronMan later in the series. This prison is based off the Negative Zone prison mentioned in the Comic Books section, and much more like a more traditional alcatrez. The only entrance is through the Baxter Building, and that entrence is key card and hand scanner protected. Each cell is protected by a transparent forcefield, and since the prison is in the negative zone, they can lock the door if anyone tries to break out (nobody has yet). It used to be patrolled by hundreds of Ultron robots, but after their destruction in the war against Kang, it currently is under SHIELD control with hundreds of armed agents patrolling at all times. 42 was ultimately retired when the Annihilus revealed himself and nearly destroyed the prison, endangering prisoners, guards, and the outside world.

* Belle Reve in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' is a supermax facility located in the Louisana bayou, and built to house most, if not all, of the strongest and deadliest of super villains. The only thing keeping all the inmates at bay are special collars designed to negate their individual powers, and shock them into submission if they break the rules. Then somebody figured out having the baddest villains under the same roof was a plus, so the evil cabal known as the "Light" engineers a failed escape attempt, (by having ice-based villains purposly caught and brought to Belle Reve to freeze the walls solid and smash through them,) that allows one of their agents to be put in charge of the facility. Despite all the major villains being unable to escape, Edward Nygma, aka "The Riddler", is the only one that manages to break out during the ice-villains' attempt, after being harrassed for so long, and called a loser and second-rate criminal.

** ADX manges to have an even more extreme "ultramax" inside a supermax: Range 13, a small block of zero-human-contact cells. Thomas Silverstein, whose 1983 murder of a prison guard at USP Marion prison inspired the design of ADX, served his three life sentences on Range 13 before dying in 2019.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Island,_County_Cork Spike Island]] was this when it was used as a prison. In 1985, a riot occured culminating in the prisoners burning down one of the prison blocks. Of course, they were all rounded up, as getting off the island without a boat was impossible.

** Six months after Morris and the Anglins, John Paul Scott and Darl Lee Parker also made a break for it. Parker broke an ankle and was captured shortly afterwards, but Scott actually managed to swim to shore. He was too frozen and exhausted to continue his escape afterwards and was apprehended. The Escape from Alcatraz triathlon has the competitors swimming the same route Scott took for its first portion.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBadGuys'' has a prison known only by its security level: Super Ultra Crazy Max ([[FunWithAcronyms S.U.C.M.]]), where the gang is sent in the film's third act after being framed for a crime they didn't commit. It's located on an island off the coast of Los Angeles, has dedicated prisoner transport vans and ships, and is said to be impossible to escape. [[spoiler:Diane, aka the Crimson Paw, easily breaking in, freeing the gang, and getting them out demonstrates just how skilled she is.]]

* ''Film/{{Alien 3}}'': Fiorina-161, also known as "[[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Fury]]", is inescapable because [[PenalColony the entire planet is the prison]] - basically a place where everybody ships off their bad people to fend for themselves.

* At least three of these are seen in ''Franchise/TheChroniclesOfRiddick'' series. The second movie, simply called ''Film/TheChroniclesOfRiddick'', has Crematoria, where the prisoners stay in their underground prison because the sunrise sets the atmosphere on fire. Riddick [[OutrunTheFireball outruns it]]. ''VideoGame/EscapeFromButcherBay'' is set in the virtually inescapable Butcher Bay prison (see the videogame section below for more details). A flash animation on one of the official websites featured Ursa Luna Slam City, which Riddick also escaped from.

* In ''Literature/AdventureHunters'' there is an infamous prison reserved for the worst of criminals that is located at the bottom of an ocean. The only way in or out is a ship that leaves once it delivers the newest inmate. [[spoiler:This is the ultmate fate of Ryvas; life imprisonment for breaking the NuclearWeaponsTaboo.]]

* In ''Literature/TheBordersOfInfinity'', Miles has to organize an escape from the "escape proof" Dagoola IV Top Security Prison Camp #3. The "camp" is a masterpiece of psychological warfare, quite possibly the most terrifying prison in existence while still meeting the future equivalent of the Geneva Conventions. It's just a giant dome over an open space on a remote planet, with no resources, no buildings and '''no guards''', just ten thousand prisoners. The captors drop the legally required amount of food in a huge pile out in the open, ensuring that prisoners riot and fight to get it. Pretty soon, most of the prisoners are all in armed tribes too busy fighting each other over supplies to organize an escape, and the rest are too starved or demoralized to do anything. Miles is sent to enact a two-prisoner rescue thus proving that [[spoiler:it ''was'' escape-proof... just not rescue-proof. Miles plans ahead. For Miles, Plan B is ''always'' RefugeInAudacity, so instead of rescuing two prisoners, he rescues ''all of them'']].

* The Chateau d'If from ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'' where Edmond Dantes was sent after being betrayed by Fernand Mondego. Prisons such as these back in medieval and renaissance times were for people who were too politically important to simply execute or have murdered, as maintaining the prison and feeding the prisoners cost serious money.
* In ''Literature/ColdDays'', the fourteenth book of ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', it is revealed that [[spoiler:Demonreach]] is a prison designed to hold extremely dangerous magical beings and {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. How dangerous are these beings? Well, remember the Skinwalker from ''Turn Coat''? the thing that almost drove Harry insane just from Seeing it? [[spoiler:Demonreach has six of them... in the minimum security wing.]]
* The title prison in the ''Literature/EscapeFromFurnace'' series by Alexander Gordon Smith, a hellhole where [[BodyHorror skinless mutant dogs, a demonic warden, humongous sociopathic guards known as 'Blacksuits', and 'wheezers', humanoid things with gas masks sewn into their faces]] roam. The really, really, horrible part of it is that Furnace Penitentiary is for kids and kids only, ''for the rest of their lives''. Or maybe the really horrible part is that the wheezers randomly abduct kids and take them to who-knows-where. There is nothing comedic about it.
** [[spoiler:It's even worse when you learn that the abducted prisoners taken are brainwashed and mutated into new Blacksuits.]]
* Subverted in the ''Literature/ForgottenRealms'' novel, ''The City of Ravens'', where the protagonist, despite what powerful magic and magical artifacts he possessed, really ''couldn't'' get out of the prison. It took the hiding warlord who got him imprisoned in the first place to get him out and she was able to do so because she was [[HiddenInPlainSight hiding as the city's mayor]].
* The Warden Diamond from the Creator/JackChalker series ''The Four Lords of the Diamond'' is a solar system with four habitable planets infested by a microrganism that kills anyone who tries to leave, making for one huge, seemingly inescapable prison colony.
* Azkaban from Creator/JKRowling's ''Literature/HarryPotter'' combines the "rock in the middle of the sea" with guardian creatures called Dementors who [[EmotionEater suck all happy feelings out of you]], mentally breaking the prisoners down before they can escape. It's stated that Azkaban has high iron walls but doesn't need them, since the Dementors imprison inmates in their own minds. Nonetheless, the following people managed to escape:

* Camp Green Lake in ''Literature/{{Holes}}''. Mr. Sir even points out that there are no towers, fences, or barbed wire. The kids are free to run off anytime they want, but there's no way they'd last more than three days. They would die either from thirst or the hostile fauna. Even the guns most of the staff carry on them aren't for keeping the kids in line, they're for killing any stray scorpions or yellow-spotted lizards that enter the camp.
* The prison planet Hades in the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' series. She escapes. With ''500,000'' other prisoners. Although to be fair, the guards thought she was dead, and she "smuggled in" two spaceships plus enough weaponry for a small army.
* In the book ''I Want To Go Home!'' by Creator/GordonKorman, Camp [[DesertedIsland Algonkian Island]] is nicknamed Alcatraz, and the two protagonists spend the entire summer trying to get off the island.
* ''{{Literature/Incarceron}}'' has only two possible exits, and will kill you itself before you get anywhere near either.
* La Dolorosa in ''Literature/KushielsLegacy''.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}: The Book of D'ni'', Veovis escapes not once, but TWICE from the inescapable Prison Ages, the second of which was written explicitly as a TailorMadePrison, by four different writers, checked and altered by the highest of the high council, and the book burned after he was linked through.
* ''{{Literature/Papillon}}'' takes place in the French Guiana PenalColony and after many escape attempts he is eventually shipped off to inescapable Devil's Island. One of the "Islands of Salvation", Devil's Island is notorious for not having any bars or cells--you're welcome to throw yourself into the water since the rocky cliffs and powerful currents make escape all but impossible. [[spoiler:Eventually Papillon and his friend Sylvain create rafts out of sacks of coconuts, find a place where the fall is safest, and learn to identify the brief window of opportunity when the tide surge will take them away from the island rather than slamming them into rocks. They successfully escape]].
* Stoneveldt in the Literature/{{Parker}} novel ''Breakout'' has this reputation. Parker is told multiple times that no one has ever escaped from there. The title of the novel may tell you what Parker proceeds to start planning.
* Xintan Prison from ''[[Literature/MatthewReilly The Six Sacred Stones]]'' is situated atop twin mountain peaks, where the only way out is a single train line. The main prison is on one peak, with a torture wing on the other peak, and the only way out is a train line into the main prison. Naturally, the mountains are too steep to ski down and they have helicopters ready to chase down anyone stupid enough to parachute. Naturally, it's inescapable until the heroes try it.

* Tarasov prison for Moroi and dhampir criminals and mental patients in ''Literature/VampireAcademy''. Prisoners are held in an exhausted state to prevent escape. The prison moves from Alaska in the summer to other places with abundant sunlight in the winter, so that potential vampire escapees would be exposed to sunlight. Nobody ever escaped [[spoiler:until Rose, Lissa, and Eddie Castile broke Victor Dashkov out]].
* ''[[Literature/TakeshiKovacs Woken Furies]]'' has Rila Crags, an infamous prison used by the Harlan family to inter political enemies. According to legend, only one person ever succeeded in breaking in and getting out again. The protagonists end up having to plan their own break-in in order to rescue a prisoner.

* In ''Literature/DisAcedia'' the titular setting ''is'' the Alcatraz. Dis is an another dimension that functions as an inescapable Hell plane with even more horrible pocket dimensions and worlds inside of it and guarded by Lazarus' monstrous Divs along with countless other horrors, traps, and monsters locking in its inmates.
* On the ''LetsPlay/DreamSMP'', we have a demonstration of how one can make a nigh-inescapable prison in Minecraft -- Pandora's Vault, a practically inescapable facility Awesamdude made for Dream to imprison the latter's enemies. A list of the (known) layers of security:

** The prison is an island in the middle of elder guardian infested waters, which give prisoners mining fatigue. It takes prisoners ''nine hours'' to mine a single block with their fists.

* Every place LetsPlay/{{Ivorycello}} is imprisoned is considered inescapable, and yet she manages an escape everytime. Many of the prisons take inspiration from Pandora's Vault[[note]]while Ivory's videos wouldn't be canon to the Dream SMP, it could be vice versa as she references Sam as Pandora's warden on multiple occasions[[/note]], and expand upon its ideas even further:

* Several facilities of the ''Website/SCPFoundation'' function as prisons designed to protect the world from the dangers of supernatural and hide it from the public to protect the {{Masquerade}}, prisoners can be monsters, humans with powers or curses, {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, {{Reality Warper}}s and abstract paranormal events, those places are also laboratories where the supernatural is studied with many unethical experiments.

* In one of the most terrifying {{Lets Play}}s out there, ''LetsPlay/TheTerribleSecretOfAnimalCrossing'', the town to which the hero is sent to is not an adorable land of fuzzy morons. It is in fact an inescapable prison [[spoiler:that slowly turns humans into animals, who are then used as replacement parts for the insane warden]]. And it's awesome!
* The unnamed prison within Hell in ''Literature/VoidDomain''. A massive structure built out of magic-resistant material, guards that aren't afraid to kill, cells where prisoners are chained to the wall and never let loose. The prisoners aren't even fed, though as they're demons, feeding isn't strictly necessary.
* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'':
** The Red and Black Sections of ARC (the Arkham Research Consortium) are used as uncrackable prisons to hold people and things too dangerous to ever let loose. When Fey, Carmilla, and Bladedancer go to ARC (knowing from a seer that the day will be a good day to try to help Carmilla's friend Merry break out), they find out why: a villain has set timers so that a horrific supervillain will be able to escape on that day. So the horrific supervillain doesn't actually escape, and Merry only gets away with the help of the head of Red Section!
** Plus Roxbury C, the Massachusetts facility for supervillains, set 70 feet underground in solid bedrock and magically warded. It had never been cracked at the start of "Ayla and the Boston Brawl". Roxbury C's [[TemptingFate "inescapable"]] status was, naturally, a lead-up to the inevitable -- [[spoiler:there were a million ways to keep prisoners from escaping, but one too few protections against an unauthorized party getting ''in'', as they found out in "Ayla and the Birthday Brawl".]]
* The Birdcage in ''Literature/{{Worm}}''. It's a prison fitted into a mountain where a hole in a wall creates a deadly vacuum. It is designed to have people go in and never come out. So far, it has been successful. As there are no guards in the Birdcage, it's basically run entirely by the supervillains contained within, and so while supplies are sent in, it's also a HellholePrison. [[spoiler: Surprisingly, the Birdcage remains unbroken throughout the story... while some villains do get out of it in the end, that's only because they were ''let out'' in order to [[GodzillaThreshold get their help against a world-ending threat]].]]

** Both ''Series/JessicaJones'' and ''Series/LukeCage'' make discuss The Raft, as mentioned in the film section above. It's never seen, but Luke mentions that he sent his brother, the BigBad season 1 of his show, there. Jessica also considers sending her mother there. It's treated very seriously.
** ''Series/MsMarvel'' and ''Series/SheHulk'' gives us the Damage Control Supermax Prison, also designed to house enhanced individuals. There are implications that a few of SHIELD's detainees have been transferred there since SHIELD officially collapsed. It does not have a stellar track record.

* The ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'' LightNovels go the extra mile and use ''the'' Alcatraz as the setting of the "Alice in Jails" arc.

* Tarrafal (aka Chão Bom in the Sixties and Seventies) in UsefulNotes/CapeVerde was a combination of this and PenalColony for [[UsefulNotes/AntonioDeOliveiraSalazar Portuguese New State]] political prisoners and colonial independence fighters. Located 350 miles off the West African coast in the Atlantic Ocean where escape was impossible. It was also infamous for the overall bad conditions of the place, as well as the ''frigideira'' ("frying pan"), an isolation unit made entirely of zink in which - due to being completely closed as well as the climate being tropical - many prisoners died of heat stroke.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}: The Book of D'ni'', Veovis escapes not once, but TWICE from the inescapable Prison Ages, the second of which was written explicitly for him, by four different writers, checked and altered by the highest of the high council, and the book burned after he was linked through.

* In ''FanFic/{{Glass}}'' the island as a whole is this for everyone trapped there, but much of Seto's time is occupied with a truly inescapable room that he can only get out of through mutual trust.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' has the Nest of Maggots, a prison where Shinigami who are deemed too dangerous to be free are imprisoned. No zanpakutos are allowed, so all personnel are required to have sufficient hand-to-hand abilities to suppress any prisoner. Most prisoners are allowed to walk freely through the main chamber, while a rare few like Kurotsuchi Mayuri can also be chained in locked cells.

* Several facilities of the ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' function as prisons designed to protect the world from the dangers of supernatural and hide it from the public to protect the {{Masquerade}}, prisoners can be monsters, humans with powers or curses, {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, {{Reality Warper}}s and abstract paranormal events, those places are also laboratories where the supernatural is studied with many unethical experiments.

* ''Literature/Technomancer'' by MK Gibson: Flotsam Prison in the second novel is the worst prison in a world full of them. It is built in the middle of an island out of garbage, populated with the worst criminals demonkind has to offer, and is run by a nightmarish sadist.

* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': There are repeated mentions of the Fridge, SHIELD's maximum security prison/storage facility, which is implied to be one of these. Eventually, it's revealed that it's a massive tower with no ground-level exits, only one entrance/exit on the roof accessible by helipad, and the door is reinforced to such an extent that the machine gun on a gunship fails to penetrate.

** The third one was introduced in ''Cataclysm'' - Tol Barad. A rather large facility (it makes up three instances) it was the original ExtranormalPrison built on an island with the same name, and used to contain the most violent prisoners in the Eastern Kingdoms, as well as Demons and Mages. It was attacked by the Old Horde in the First and Second Wars, and the resulting breakout turned the island into a [[PlaceWorseThanDeath living nightmare.]] Only the northern island is even remotely habitable, with what's left of the original prison guard contingent [[TheRemnant (Baradin's Wardens)]] maintaining a tenuous perimeter while fending off attacks from a vanguard of the New Horde [[ElitesAreMoreGlamorous (Hellscream's Reach)]]. The southern island, which had all the cell-blocks, is a death trap. Which the players have to clear out. The most dangerous cell-block is a 25-man raid known as Baradin Hold, with three of the most powerful lesser demons in known existence trapped within, and whom the players have to stop from breaking out. One is a [[FluffyTheTerrible demonic dog-like creature]], one is a [[HornyDevils Shivarra]] with [[AxCrazy serious anger-management issues]], and the third is an OmnicidalManiac of a Pitlord.