History Main / WardensAreEvil

** The warden in "Imprisoned", voiced by Creator/GeorgeTakei, is a BadBoss who throws subordinates overboard, delights in crushing the spirits of those in his custody, and on top of it all is a DirtyCoward.

* ''WesternAnimation/ArcaneLeagueOfLegends'': The Warden of the Stillwater Prison is a loathsome man who is indifferent to the fact that some of his prisoners haven't even been sentenced for any crime and has them beaten regularly as a matter of course.

* {{Averted|Trope}}, or at least {{downplayed|Trope}}, in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice.'' This continuity has Comicbook/AmandaWaller as the warden of Belle Reve, and while she's just as cold and ruthless as ever we never see her doing anything outright villainous. The closest we get is her activating the new prisoners' shock collars for a few seconds to show how they work.

-> ''"Put your trust in the Lord. Your ass belongs to me. Welcome to Shawshank."''

* In ''Manga/Reborn2004'', the [[spoiler: Vindice]] are revealed to be this, as they [[spoiler: The former Arcobaleno who survived the removal of their pacifiers who can use the Flame of the night. Wanting revenge against Checkerface, they indiscriminately attack every representative of the war. Their treatment of their prisoners are questionable, as the worst inmates will be stored in PeopleJars.]]

* ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'': ''[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho142TheDemonsOfRedLodge The Demons of Red Lodge]]'': Governor Chaplain in "Doing Time" who runs her prison with an iron fist. She never grants parole, and anyone who applies for it is automatically sentenced to a period in solitary confinement, determined by her whim. During a visit by a TV crew, she [[TrickedIntoEscaping allows some prisoners to try to escape]], she can be seen stopping them, and finally attempts to blow up the prison, and everyone in it, to give her a crisis she can be seen managing to win the presidential election.

* Ranko, featured in a ''ComicBook/{{Diabolik}}'' story, torments his prisoners while also selling them guns, knives and other illegal goods. Diabolik actually takes advantage of it: when one of the prisoners kills someone who befriended Diabolik in the process of breaking out, Diabolik's revenge is to ''drug the convict into walking back to the jail'', with Ranko shown anticipating all the tortments he'll inflict on him for getting him in trouble with the riot he caused to break out.

* Gregory Wolfe, warden of Iron Heights Penitentiary in ''ComicBook/TheFlash''. He's a menacing figure with the power to induce painful muscle spasms in others, he doesn't hesitate to use it on anyone, even the Flash himself. He is violently opposed to the idea that criminals can or should be rehabilitated or redeemed -- he just wants to ensure that they're ''punished''. Prisoners are starved and beaten regularly by his heavily armored guards. Oh, and it's stated he was an AmoralAttorney before he became warden; the only person he failed to convict was mysteriously murdered two days after the trial. During Joshua Williamson's run, the Central City police department try to get him busted, but it's nigh-impossible getting any criminal out from under his thumb, let alone find one willing to testify. [[spoiler:Eventually, however, he does get busted, and in a nice dose of irony, imprisoned right next to Captain Cold.]]

* A variation: An arc of ''ComicBook/PowerGirl'' involved a superpowered man (parents immigrated from Qurac but he was born in America) that had been arrested and put under maximum security restraints and constant ''24''-style interrogation without the capacity to even contact (let alone go visit) his dying father (or any kind of representatives for his defense). He had been put under arrest with the hope that he would break out and create a precedent for superpowered terrorists in order to speed up a MutantDraftBoard proposal.

* ''Comicbook/Rocket2017:'' The warden of the prison Rocket gets sent to is deliberately one of these. Rocket notes the private security company who own the prison deliberately hire the nastiest person they can get. All part of the service.
* {{Subverted}} by Maxon, appearing in one ''ComicBook/TexWiller'' story: he has no problem beating up the inmates and make their lives into living hells, but they have to be creating discipline problems for that, as made clear in his EstablishingCharacterMoment (he beats up his new inmate Jim Lowell, AKA [[GetIntoJailFree Tex faking being a murderer to infiltrate a gang]], but that's after 'Lowell' went out of his way to provoke him into a fistfight, and doesn't give him anymore trouble after he 'learned his lesson').

* Downplayed in ''Film/Alien3''. Superintendent Andrews is something of a jerkass, but given the unique circumstance of Fury 161 is hardly in a position to abuse his power. He's running a former PenalColony that's been shut down except for a scratch crew of three staff and 25 inmates who've chosen to stay. There's no way off the planet without a spacecraft and Andrew's authority is accepted only to ensure they get supplies, with the inmates actually taking their orders from another inmate who runs their cult. Everything works fine until Ripley and the alien shows up.

* In ''Film/BruteForce1947'', the beleaguered warden is is a decent man under pressure to improve discipline. However, his chief of security, Capt. Munsey, is a sadist who manipulates prisoners to inform on one another and create trouble so he can inflict punishment.
* In ''Film/{{Chicago}}'', Matron "Mama" Morton is they type of evil, that is corrupt to the core. Her motto (and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFp2ke920og introductory song]]) is "When you're good to Mama, Mama's good to you."
* This trope is averted by, [[CrapsackWorld of all things,]] ''Film/AClockworkOrange.'' Even though Alex is beaten by the police and mistreated by the state, the prison he stays in is actually quite comfortable and gives him livable conditions. The prison governor and the LargeHam chief guard have a very negative view of the criminals they oversee, believing that mistreating them in prison is perfectly just given the nature of their crimes, but the alternative for the film is the inhumane Ludovico treatment, which is far, far worse. In fact, the Governor and chief Guard are the only ones that [[VillainProtagonist Alex]] ''can't'' manipulate, since they see through his sociopathic behavior and deal with him appropriately, and unlike almost every other authority figure in the film, they're neither self-serving or hypocritical.
* ''Film/ConvictedWoman'' has Chief Matron Bracket, who runs Curtiss House as a HellholePrison and makes no effort to improve its conditions, actively covers things up, including reporting an inmate's suicide as pneumonia, uses harsh punishments and allows inmates to bully and extort others. She is replaced by a social worker when a scandal erupts, who shuts down the solitary confinement wing, establishes education programs and improves the facility overall.

* ''Film/TheCriminal'': Barrows is a sadistic bastard who turns a blind eye to the majority of the wrongdoing in the prison so long as his record remains intact. He is complicit in the assault on Kelly by preventing the other warders to intervene.
* ''Film/DeathRace'': Warden Hennessey of Terminal Island Prison is a cold-hearted bitch which [[BoxedCrook shanghais Jensen Ames]] ([[FrameUp in more ways than one]]) into taking part of the titular DeadlyGame (and plans to either keep him racing forever or [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness kill him as soon as his usefulness as the season's Frankenstein is over]]-[[TheCakeIsALie not that she had a plan to have]] ''[[TheCakeIsALie anybody]]'' [[TheCakeIsALie win]]). The {{Prequel}} movies also [[RetCon retroactively]] show that she had some amount of SmallNameBigEgo-she says on the first movie that ''she'' was the creator of Death Race, but in reality it was the [[MegaCorp corporation]] she works for, [[IKnowYouKnowIKnow and they knew]] she would take credit [[GladIThoughtOfIt around anybody who could buy it]].

* ''Film/TheLastCastle'': James Gandolfini 's Warden Winter is an excessively brutal, excessively petty bastard. Doling out rules about prisoners not being able to act like soldiers anymore? OK, tough, but understandable. Using a number of brutal methods to break prisoners' wills (''especially'' when {{Determinator}} BadassGeneral Eugene Irwin arrives), and ordering prison guards to shoot prisoners in the head with 12-gauge rubber bullets (which is ''highly'' lethal) if they somehow manage to piss him off (which is unfortunately often)? Firmly cements him in this trope.

* ''Film/LoganLucky'': Perhaps not exactly evil, but the warden of Munroe Prison is petty, vicious and spiteful: even kicking Joe when he is on the floor.

* In''Film/TheManWhoCameBack'', the philosophy of the warden of the prison Paxton is sent to is "Prisoners are not human. They are livestock".

* ''Film/{{Newsies}}'': Warden Snyder, the head of the New York "refuge", where boys and young men convicted of crimes are sent to be "re-socialized" and turned into productive members of society. In reality Snyder pockets most of the money intended to be used for the boys' upkeep, leaving them living in basically a poorhouse. He also seems to use his charges as his personal servants.

* ''Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou'': The Sheriff. He he goes for overkill tactics while hunting for the protagonists ''like burning down a barn with them inside'', he insists that he answers to a higher law than man's (so he will just keep coming to matter what), and the moment he makes it clear that he will see them all hang even if they are now [[ThePardon innocent]] (and he will kill Tommy for no reason other than him just being there alongside the fugitives), he crosses the MoralEventHorizon ''hard''. That he is a SatanicArchetype doesn't helps any.

* On ''Film/RunawayTrain'', there's Warden Rankin, who holds a brutal vendetta against Manny. Granted, Manny is mentioned (and then shown) to be an escape artist (who had escaped before) and a violent thug, but Rankin himself is a RabidCop that welded Manny's solitary confinement cell shut (and felt content to have managed to keep him inside for three years before the court forced him to cut it open), arranged for other prisoners to try (unsuccessfully) to kill Manny, and violently strong-arms a train technician to tell him where the runaway train is so he can give it chase personally.
* In ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption'', Warden Norton is skimming money off of the price he charges for prisoners to work for various buinesses/public works/etc., [[spoiler:and is willing to kill to protect his profits. When Andy reveals the corruption the warden commits suicide.]] Byron Hadley, the captain of the guard, is just as bad, insulting the prisoners with every breath and issuing brutal (and sometimes deadly) beatings as a matter of course.
* ''Film/TheSignOfFourSherlockHolmesGreatestCase'': Major Sholto is the warden of the prison where Jonathan Small is being held. He makes a deal with Small that he and Captain Morstan will retrieve Small's hidden loot, then arrange Small's release and split the loot with him. Instead Sholto murders Marston, steals the loot, and leaves Small to rot in the HellholePrison.
* In ''Film/StarredUp'', Deputy Governor Haynes believes there is no point in attempting rehabilitate prisoners. With the aid of two warders, he delivers Eric a savage beating, and then attempts to murder him and make it look like a suicide. He is also in league with prison kingpin Dennis Spencer and smuggles in contraband for him.

** The Watch's own lock-up is a subversion. The jailer there is Fred Colon, who is devious enough to prevent any breakout or smuggling attempts, and amiable enough that no-one really bothers. Colon will make sure you get clean sheets, decent meals and possibly even tea and a biscuit. However, you will ''not'' get a JailBake in, you won't be able to fool him with a fake gastric infection, and he, uniquely in jail history, keeps his keys in a metal box in his bottom desk drawer where no pets can get to them.

* In ''Literature/EscapeFromFurnace'' Warden Cross sees the inmates as a hivemind, starving them all out as the punishment of one person's actions, or sending them to solitary confinement in a literal hole in the ground. He could not care less if said inmates are killed by his guard dogs or by each other. Even in his first introduction, Alex notes that he couldn't stare Warden Cross in the eye, that there was some darkness that refused to let him do it. Later it's revealed [[spoiler: Cross is actually a century old Nazi who drags inmates away in the night to surgically transform them into his guards in order to make a new master race.]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': [[TheGhost The unseen warden]] of the prison space station that Davros is kept on in "Resurrection of the Daleks" is supposedly a real tyrant who even the staff of the station are afraid of. However, he is killed when the Daleks storm the station without ever appearing onscreen.

* On ''Series/{{Gotham}}'' Detective Jim Gordon is framed for murder and sent to prison. Unfortunately for Gordon the warden is a friend of the former corrupt police commissioner whose career Gordon ended. As soon as the publicity from the case has died down, the warden has Gordon transferred from protective custody to general population which is a death sentence for Gordon. Gordon is soon the victim of brutal beatings and the warden orders his guards not to intervene.

* ''Series/MrRobot:'' [[spoiler: Ray is an interesting example. On the surface, he is the complete opposite of this trope: kindly, charming and friendly to the inmates, good at peacefully dissolving disputes and eager to help others work through their problems. Unfortunately, he's also running an illegal website specialising in weapons, drugs and human trafficking, and orders two inmates to be brutally beaten for looking into his business. He later undergoes a HeelRealisation and allows Elliot to turn him in.]]
* An episode of ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' has Jessica visiting a women's prison where the discovery of a body leads to a series of events that uncovers significant corruption throughout the prison which goes all the way to the top. [[spoiler: In a subversion of the trope, the warden is revealed as possibly the only member of the staff who is ''not'' in on it, and in fact she is sincerely advocating for beneficial reforms]].

* Mackay in ''Series/{{Porridge}}'' could come across as the verbal version, utterly contemptuous of the prisoners and convinced they could never go straight. On the other hand, the well-meaning Barrowclough's attempts to help the prisoners usually just led to them manipulating him. The episode "Disturbing the Peace" has Mackay temporarily [[TyrantTakesTheHelm replaced by a Mr Wainwright]], who much more fitted the sadistic bully version. The prisoners stage a PrisonRiot in protest, and then make Wainwright look entirely ineffectual by ending it the moment Barrowclough asks them politely. At the end, the prisoners respond to Mackay's return by singing "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow", which he actually seems to be quite touched by (although he hides it).

* The WebVideo/BronyDAndD campaign ''Welcome to the Show'' opens with the characters being tormented by a Warden which persists in their dreams after they escape.

* Classic ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' Adventure 8 ''Prison Planet''. The warden is a lying, hypocritical crook who orders cruel punishments for minor offenses, violates prisoners' rights in order to make his quotas and takes out his anger at his superiors on prisoners by arbitrarily denying parole.

* ''VideoGame/ANNOMutationem'': The MiniBoss of the [[ShipLevel Walter Raleigh]] is the warden overseeing the prison cells sporting a large mechanical suit. The Warden presents his BadBoss status by tossing one of his lackeys into a death-trap before leaving him for dead.

** He returns in the "Blood of the Dead" return-to-Alcatraz map, and here we learn that Brutus was originally the actual Warden of the actual Alcatraz, and this Trope held through just as strongly in life. He participated in a bit of demonic worship in his spare time, and ended up [[MyDeathIsOnlyTheBeginning sacrificing himself]] in order to be reincarnated as the ruler of his own Hell dimension.
* Zet the Arc Warden in ''VideoGame/{{Dota 2}}'' is a subversion. In the original Dota, he's amongst the Scourge, and when he's ported to the sequel, subsequently, he's amongst the Dire, which has some DarkIsNotEvil elements. However, he's less abusive and more concerned on bringing back those he kept from his prison: The very Ancients all heroes fought over, Radiant and Dire, he kept them from destroying the world. So he's basically trying to keep the world together by trying to re-imprison two wildly destructive above-godlike being.

* [[HellholePrison Durgesh Prison]] in ''VideoGame/FarCry4'' is run by Yuma Lau, the malicious foster sister of [[TheCaligula Pagan Min]] and one of his three governors in charge of Kyrat. A sadistic DragonLady obsessed with the mythology of Kyrat with a fondness for ColdBloodedTorture, MindRape, and [[spoiler:actual rape]], she's even more depraved than Pagan himself, and plans to usurp him. She's the only enforcer of Pagan's who you absolutely have to kill, and boy, will you want to.

--> '''Warden''': Enough talking! The prison camp is full with prisoners from Beijing. And we must lose some ''dead'' weight.\\

* ''VideoGame/PathOfExile'' has Brutus, Lord Incarcerator. As the warden of Axiom Prison he was legendary for his cruelty, and the prospect of being sentenced to his care was considered to be little better than a death sentence. When he grew old and infirm he let the thaumaturgist Shavronne experiment on him, turning him into a hulking monster and the mid-boss of Act 1.

** Maiev Shadowsong is a downplayed version- when you control her, she's chasing after Illidan, who was her prisoner for ten millenia, but there's no evidence that she mistreated him (and given that in the previous game, you freed him by killing her troops, her anger is understandable). She turns into a KnightTemplar over the course of the campaign, willing to sacrifice her own allies in order to motivate the others to hunt him down.

** The warden in the two-parter Episode "The Boiling Rock" would rather die (and have prisoners killed as well) than tarnish his prison's record of zero escapes. Also, he tortures a prisoner into revealing escape plans. Though interestingly, he gets some PetTheDog moments with [[spoiler:his niece, Mai]].

* ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': PlayedWith Wriothesley. He is ''expected'' to be scary, but when the Traveler meets him he is nothing but hospitable. [[spoiler: ''Then'' it seems like he's actually a terrifying MagnificentBastard who is willing to [[DisproportionateRetribution kill Freminent and Lynette for breaking prision rules by trying to go into the restricted zone]]. Finally it gets subverted ''again'' when it's revealed he actually ''is'' a hospitable nice guy, and he was just bluffing. Wriothesley is willing to take very extreme measures, but he is actually pretty relaxed about things as long as they don't cross his lines (and even in those cases, he shows a lot of restraint)]].

* ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': PlayedWith Wriothesley. He is ''expected'' to be scary, but when the Traveler meets him he is nothing but hospitable. [[spoiler: ''Then'' it seems like he's actually a terrifying MagnificentBastard who is willing to [[DisproportionateRetribution kill Freminent and Lynette for breaking prision rules by trying to go into the restricted zone]]. Finally it gets subverted ''again'' when it's revealed he actually ''is'' a hospitable nice guy, and he was just bluffing. Wriothesley is willing to take very extreme measures, but he is actually pretty relaxed about things as long as they don't cross his lines; but even in those cases he shows a lot of restraint]].

* ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': PlayedWith Wriothesley. He is ''expected'' to be scary, but when the Traveler meets him he is nothing but hospitable. [[spoiler: ''Then'' it seems like he's actually a terrifying MagnificentBastard who is willing to [[DisproportionateRetribution kill Freminent and Lynette for breaking prision rules by trying to go into the restricted zone]]. Finally it gets subverted ''again'' when it's revealed he actually ''is'' a hospitable nice guy, and he was just bluffing. Wriothesley is willing to take very extreme measures, but he is actually pretty relaxed about things as long as they don't cross his lines]].

* ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': PlayedWith Wriothesley. He is ''expected'' to be scary, but when the Traveler meets him he is nothing but hospitable. [[spoiler: ''Then'' it seems like he's actually a terrifying MagnificentBastard who is willing to [[DisproportionateRetribution kill Freminent and Lynette for breaking prision rules by trying to go into the restricted zone]]. Then it gets subverted again when it's revealed he actually ''is'' a hospitable nice guy, and he was just bluffing]].

* Edwin James, the warden of ''Series/{{Alcatraz}}''. He has been shown to resort to psychological torture in order to learn crucial information about prisoners, such as manipulating Ernest Cobb's attempts to be placed in solitary confinement or threatening to leave Kit Nelson in a small dark room until Nelson admits the truth about his first crime (although [[AssholeVictim Kit Nelson really had it coming]], having been sent to Alcatraz for being a child killer). His deputy Tiller is corrupt and more open in his cruelty towards the inmates.

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': In "[[Recap/CSINYS08E08 Crossroads]]," the warden of a juvenile detention center conspires with a family court judge, giving him kickbacks for sending as many youths to the center as possible. The scheme lands a teenage sports phenom there for stealing a pack of gum. The boy ends up killing the judge, after which he tells detectives, "You know what happens to good kids when they get sent here? They end up as bad as the rest of 'em."

* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries'':

* The ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "[[Recap/TheAdventuresOfBatmanAndRobinE17LockUp Lock-Up]]"{ has Lyle Bolton, head of security at Arkham Asylum (pictured above). He decides to end Arkham's CardboardPrison status by brutally torturing the inmates (for one, he manages to [[HorrifyingTheHorror terrify the Scarecrow]] to the point he lies Bolton is treating them all well when questioned by Bruce Wayne and an oversight committee, and (off-screen) escaped Arkham and [[NeverGoingBackToPrison tried his damnedest to not get caught alive]], considering what waited for him ''if'' he returned, [[NiceJobFixingItVillain which is why Wayne is performing this review]]). When he gets caught, he gives us the page image by becoming [[TheJailer the vigilante Lock-Up]] and [[StartMyOwn creating his own prison]] to house not only criminals but the political leaders who opposed his methods. By the end of the episode, he's confined to his own cell at Arkham. Unlike most situations, however, he's ''happy'' about it, as this means he can keep a close eye on all the other inmates.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' has Lyle Bolton, head of security at Arkham Asylum (pictured above). He decides to end Arkham's CardboardPrison status by brutally torturing the inmates (for one, he manages to [[HorrifyingTheHorror terrify the Scarecrow]] to the point he lies Bolton is treating them all well when questioned by Bruce Wayne and an oversight committee, and (off-screen) escaped Arkham and [[NeverGoingBackToPrison tried his damnedest to not get caught alive]], considering what waited for him ''if'' he returned, [[NiceJobFixingItVillain which is why Wayne is performing this review]]). When he gets caught, he gives us the page image by becoming [[TheJailer the vigilante Lock-Up]] and [[StartMyOwn creating his own prison]] to house not only criminals but the political leaders who opposed his methods. By the end of the episode, he's confined to his own cell at Arkham. Unlike most situations, however, he's ''happy'' about it, as this means he can keep a close eye on all the other inmates.

* While not officially a warden, Commander Mckinsey is one in all but official name. He is the leader of the 444th "Spare" Squadron, a penal fighter squadron in ''VideoGame/AceCombat7''. He commands his squadron with an utter disdain for his subordinates (who are all convicted criminals). He leads the squadron with such condescending contempt, he takes credit for all the work they do while receiving medals for them, he sends the squadron out on dangerous and borderline suicide missions on a regular basis, and he is more than happy to throw anybody into solitary confinement for even the slightest bit of disobedience. Even the squadron's MissionControl and flying prison guard, AWACS Bandog doesn't like him.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Superjail}}'': The Warden isn't exactly ''evil'', but he is a textbook example of a PsychopathicManchild.

* Averted in ''Series/{{Oz}}''. Prison warden Leo Glynn is tough and takes no crap, but is, in general, a fair and understanding person who never abuses his power.

* ''LightNovel/HeavyObject'': The unnamed warden of the [[HellholePrison Château de Rouge]] heads a prison full of nothing but innocents who somehow got on a noble's bad side. He not only finds this entirely natural but takes inordinate pleasure in manipulating them to serve his personal interests. In particular he notes that Mariage obeyed him so unquestioningly because she was a virgin and knew it was the only way to [[PrisonRape stay one]].

* ''VideoGame/Uncharted4AThiefsEnd'': Vargas, the warden of a Panamanian prison that Nathan and Samuel Drake and their ally Rafe Adler are staying in, is a greedy, corrupt FatBastard who's willing to break any number of the rules he's supposed to abide by- [[DirtyCop taking bribes]], [[PoliceBrutality beating up the inmates]], and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking showing Nate a vacant prison tower he wants him to explore for pirate treasure]]. Despite this, he's mostly on Nate's side, given that [[IdleRich Rafe's]] bribing him to help them in their search for the pirate colony of Libertalia, but to him, Rafe's money is not enough- he wants a cut of Libertalia's treasure too. Eventually, after finding Nate unearthed a St. Dismas cross in the tower that he never informed Vargas about, the enraged warden contemplates shooting him- only for Rafe to successfully negotiate with him in exchange for 25% of the gold. This done, when it appears as though Bargas is threatening revenge on the Americans if they try cheating him again, Rafe [[KickTheSonOfABitch stabs him to death]]- but that backfires too, because Vargas fires his gun into the air before he dies, alerting the rest of the guard, and forcing the Drakes and Rafe to attempt escape- which ends with Sam getting shot and [[spoiler:seemingly]] dying.

** The warden in the two-parter Episode "The Boiling Rock" would rather die (and have prisoners killed as well) than tarnish his prison's record of zero escapes. [[KickTheSonOfABitch Also, he tortures a prisoner into revealing escape plans]]. Though interestingly, he gets some PetTheDog moments with [[spoiler:his niece, Mai]].

* Edwin James, the warden of ''Series/{{Alcatraz}}''. He has been shown to resort to psychological torture in order to learn crucial information about prisoners, such as manipulating Ernest Cobb's attempts to be placed in solitary confinement or threatening to leave Kit Nelson in a small dark room until Nelson admits the truth about his first crime (although [[KickTheSonOfABitch Kit Nelson really had it coming]], having been sent to Alcatraz for being a child killer). His deputy Tiller is corrupt and more open in his cruelty towards the inmates.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': While he really means well for the world, Chief Warden of [[TheAlcatraz Impel Down]] Magellan qualifies. He has stated (and demonstrated) that he has the authority to punish or kill any prisoner there as he sees fit, and along with being a PoisonousPerson, it's the reason he's so feared there. He's not without limits, though; his former colleague Shiryu is far worse, brutally massacring the prisoners for the fun of it. This disgusted Magellan so much that he ordered Shiryu to be imprisoned.

* One of the final villains of ''{{Series/TheWalkingDead|2010}}'' is the unnamed Warden who runs the Commonwealth's secret concentration camps which mostly consist of political dissidents and enemies of Governor Pamela Milton. He refuses to allow anybody to go by their names to dehumanize them, forces even pregnant women to participate in slave labor, happily kills any escapees, abuses his troops under his command, and finally decides to massacre dozens of people, including the aforementioned pregnant woman, for standing up to him. [[spoiler:He's luckily thwarted by the prisoners' remaining friends who escaped capture, and by his own men who turn on him.]]