History Main / TheOldConvict

->[[Creator/MorganFreeman Freeman]] plays "Red" Redding, a lifer who knows the ropes at Maine's "Shawshank State Prison."

->[[MorganFreeman Freeman]] plays "Red" Redding, a lifer who knows the ropes at Maine's "Shawshank State Prison."

* In ''NewspaperComics/TheWizardOfId'', the Spook has been in the King's dungeons so long, not even Turnkey, the guard assigned to watch him, can remember what he did to be sent there. (When asked, Spook says he [[DisproportionateRetribution called the King a "fink".]]

* Over the course of the film ''Film/{{Life}}'' (Eddie Murphy & Martin Lawrence) the two characters become this over the course of decades of incarceration.

* Doyle in ''TheLydianOption'' describes himself as the "welcoming committee" - a human who introduces new human prisoners to life in the alien prison and shows them the ropes.

[[quoteright:300:[[TheShawshankRedemption http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/redding1_6320.jpg]]]]

* Ian Starshine fills this role at the gladiator camp in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick''; his reference to being nicknamed "Red" is a ShoutOut to ''TheShawshankRedemption''. He's not as reliable as typical examples of this trope, though.

If the central characters decide to break out, the Old Convict probably won't go with them, realising he no longer knows how to survive in the outside world. He may die at the hands of the authorities or vicious fellow inmates (maybe in an attack actually aimed at the hero), inspiring the heroes to either escape or seek vengeance.

* When Earl is in jail in ''MyNameIsEarl'' and looks for a gang to join, he finds that the Old Con gang aren't any more adapted to survival inside the prison than anyone else.

* ''{{Porridge}}'':

* D.B. Cooper, alias Charles Westmoreland, in ''PrisonBreak''. He is introduced as Fox River's longest-serving inmate (thirty-two years) and he tells Scofield that he has sixty more years left on his sentence.

* Babe Fraser in ''The Stars' Tennis Balls'' by StephenFry. As this novel is a re-imagining of ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'', this should not come as a surprise.

* General Jan Dodonna in ''[[XWingSeries The Krytos Trap]]'' serves this purpose for the captured Corran Horn in Ysanne Isard's [[TheAlcatraz Lusankya prison]]. Though he doesn't go not because he doesn't know what to do, but because he's the highest-ranking Rebel prisoner, knows they can't get the other Rebels out, and also knows that if he escapes without them she'll have them killed.

* OlderThanRadio: Abbe Faria in ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'' by Creator/AlexandreDumas (and its various film and television adaptations). He teaches Dantes everything he will need to know for his new life on the outside, tells him where a firtune is hidden, and his death provides Dantes with his means of escape.

* Pop in the original version of ''TheLongestYard'', called Skitchy in the remake, who remains in prison far past his original sentence for having struck a guard who later became the warden. Crewe asks him if hitting the warden was worth an extra 20 years -- Pops/Skitchy hesitates momentarily and says [[spoiler:it absolutely was]].
** The equivalent character in the British remake ''Mean Machine'' is Doc, who teaches Meehan everything he knows about the prison's goings-on.

[[folder:Manga]]
* Anchan in ''Manga/RainbowNishaRokubouNoShichinin'', relatively speaking. He's just a teenager, but he's been in prison longer than the others, and he functions as a mentor figure.
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* 'Low Key' Lyesmith in ''Literature/AmericanGods'' by NeilGaiman. Like many other examples, there is more to Lyesmith than meets the eye.

* Coach in ''DeathRace''. His sentence was actually over years ago, but he stays in prison because he has nowhere else to go.
* English from ''EscapeFromAlcatraz''; a black inmate serving two life sentences for killing two white men in self-defense.

* Fergus Wilks (David Kelly) in ''{{Greenfingers}}''. Fergus is the one who introduces Colin to gardening.

* Slammer in ''{{Micmacs}}'', who introduces himself by saying that he's been in prison for 3/4ths of his life. He uses his status as an old-time prisoner to distract some drug dealers long enough for Bazil to steal their heroin.

* Curly in ''ComicBook/HardTime'' is the oldest lifer in State. Coincidentally, his cellmate is the youngest -- 15-year-old school shooter Ethan Harrow. Curly went into prison in his early 20s, and by now is your typical crotchety old man, having come to terms with the fact that he'll never be free again. [[spoiler:His long-lost granddaughter managed to get him out on appeal.]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Claudette, Chapman's bunkmate in the Netflix original series ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'', although she has no interest in showing Chapman or any other younger prisoners the ropes.
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* ''Series/PrisonerCellBlockH'' had Lizzie Birdsworth, an elderly, chain-smoking, alcoholic recidivist prisoner, who provided much of the series comic relief. At the series start, Lizzie had already served twenty years in prison. When she is eventually released, she finds she cannot cope with life on the outside and commits a series of crimes to get hersel re-incarcerated.

* The VillainOfTheWeek of one episode of ''Series/LoisAndClark'' was a bank robber who had been in prison since the 1930's recession. After he breaks out a guard mentions an workplace legend that they built the prison around him.

* In many states in America, especially California, a growing and aging prison population is a serious problem, due to various "tough on crime" measures such as minimum sentences, three strikes and a very low rate of parole. A large number of inmates who were sentenced to life terms in TheEighties are now in their fifties and sixties, with all the health problems that come with that, and, since the prison system has an obligation to provide inmates with healthcare, they're becoming more and more expensive. It's estimated that a lifer sentenced when he's 37 could cost the prison system up to four million dollars if he lives the next forty years.