History Main / WardensAreEvil

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Beetlejuice}}'': Little Miss Warden, the warden of Neither-Neither-Land, the Neitherworld's jail system: a [[CrapsaccharineWorld Candyland-like environment]] where prisoners are [[{{Brainwashed}} "rehabilitated"]] into cute, sweet, playful creatures. Her prisoners are forced to [[WorkingOnTheChainGang work on the "daisy chain gang."]] Those who try to escape are sent to a ScaryJackInTheBox, where Jack plays videos for brainwashing.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': The warden at the prison that Wilson Fisk is incarcerated at until his release in season 3 is implied to have been bought off by Fisk after he took over the prison from Dutton in season 2. He's responsible for letting Jasper Evans out of prison after Evans shanks Fisk. Fisk later has him dispatch inmates and guards on his payroll to start a riot in an attempt to kill Matt when he comes by the prison asking questions about Fisk's stay.

* Mostly averted by the Chaplains of Piranesi in ''VideoGame/SunlessSkies''. Piranesi is a prison full of AlienGeometries that won't let prisoners reach the exit until they have [[CharacterDevelopment sufficiently changed themselves as a person]]. Three of the four Chaplains are doing what they can to help prisoners change enough to get out. The fourth is played straight: the first time he talks to you alone he complains about how the other Chaplains disapprove of his habit of beating the prisoners. [[spoiler:The Chaplain who's been around the longest says that the evil Chaplain used to be an honorable man, until he wound up in Piranesi and turned his honor to cruelty to satisfy the requirement that he change enough to escape.]]

* ''Series/MacGyver1985'': In "Jack in the Box", the warden of a prison farm is a CorruptHick in cahoots with the local sheriff to jail people on trumped-up charges where they are used as a slave labour force to search an abandoned mine for hidden millions of dollars.

* ''WesternAnimation/StormHawks'': Mr. Moss is the Cyclonian warden of a high-security prison located on Terra Zartacla. He's also a FatBastard [[CorruptHick with a noticeable Southern accent]] who wields an energy whip and takes sadistic glee in hunting escaped prisoners.

* ''Manga/{{Dokuro}}'' has Kawashima Junta, chief prison guard.

* ''Anime/AngelsOfDeath'': Cathy, in both her official position as a prison guard and her job as the jailer of the Tower, she sadistically tortures her prisoners for sexual thrill.

* In ''Film/BootCamp'', Dr. Hail is a zealot whose belief in his system blinds him to the harm he is doing to the teens. Logan, the head of security at Camp serenity, is a DangerousDeserter who uses SexualExtortion on the girls and, if that doesn't work, resorts to rape.

* Warden Drumgoole (played with [[LargeHam gleeful]] [[SmugSnake smugness]] by Creator/DonaldSutherland) in the Creator/SylvesterStallone prison film ''Film/LockUp'' has a grudge against Stallone's character Frank Leone for getting him demoted by succesfully escaping a prevous prison he was responsible for ([[KickTheDog because he refused Leone the chance to see his dying friend, even with armed escort]]). Frank just wants to sit out his remaining time and reunite with his wife after his release, but the warden would like nothing better than to see him in prison for life or on the electric chair. He tries to provoke Frank throughout the entire film so that he'll lash out and turn himself into a lifer, even [[spoiler:murdering Frank's best friend and pulling a BatmanGambit on Leone to make him try to escape, involving threatening his wife with rape]].

** Hugo Strange from ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity''. [[spoiler:He intentionally shipped weapons into the prison so he would be allowed to enact "Protocol 10", which turns out to mean [[KillThemAll killing every single inmate in the prison.]]]]

* ''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 (''[[UpToEleven 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/TheArcher'': Bob, though he first puts on an air of "tough but fair" turns out to be a sadistic, corrupt asshole, having girls send to his camp for money and abusing his son. He also ruthlessly hunts down escapees.

* On ''Film/RunawayTrain'', we have 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.

* 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.

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' the prison ship ''Purgatory'' is run by Warden Kuril, a corrupt mercenary who extorts planetary governments to keep convicts off their worlds, sells convicts to people who want to mete out "personal justice" and, inevitably, [[TooDumbToLive tries to double-cross Shepard]]. He is also one of the few turians shown without any [[FacialMarkings face paint]], hinting he was going to stab Shepard and his squad the moment he could from the start as the term "barefaced" means "untrustworthy".

* In ''VideoGame/SecretAgentClank'' The warden of the prison Ratchet gets sent to regularly and on purpose puts Ratchet in danger with the other inmates and taunts him as well.

* It is the [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown (justified)]] fear of PoliceBrutality and possibility of a LawmanGoneBad or LawfulStupid PrinciplesZealot that make most Warden and Head of Security players in ''VideoGame/SpaceStation13'' inherently subject to this trope, and paranoia ensues every time a Warden is seen straying from the brig control desk.
* Warden Montag in ''VideoGame/{{Strife}}''. [[LargeHam "Shackles or chains, I want you to hang around!"]]

* Most of the wardens in ''VideoGame/{{Furi}}'' are extremely subject to AlternativeCharacterInterpretation. Not so the first one you face, The Chain; he's a sadistic torturer looking forward to making you suffer in your cell for the rest of eternity (and since you have ResurrectiveImmortality, that means killing you painfully over and over again). He's nothing less than delighted when you escape, as that's the perfect excuse for him to "hurt you, real bad."

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* Averted in ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations'': Prosecutor's Path. The warden, Patricia Roland, is uncannily kind to the inmates, referring to them as her "family" and the prison as their "home." Her {{Leitmotif}} is even called "Hugs and Kisses"! [[spoiler:This is DoubleSubverted after all when she's unmasked as the killer of the previous case's culprit, who she was manipulated into believing was a subordinate of a notorious assassin already in her custody and bent on revenge. In cases 4 and 5, the skeletons ''really'' get dragged out of her closet when it's revealed that, years earlier, she ran an OrphanageOfFear and was directly and willfully involved in a presidential assassination.]]
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'': 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.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' gave us Osi Sobeck, the Separatist warden of a huge prison known as the Citadel. In addition to being a BadBoss who has his own droid guards destroyed if they even say the word "escape," he also [[ColdBloodedTorture tortures]] Jedi Master Even Piell for information, and executes a captured Clone Trooper in an effort to make Obi-Wan talk.

* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': The Dominator is perhaps one of the most frightening examples that Western Animation has given us. He is undoubtedly a heartless, soulless monster [[PsychoForHire who enjoys too much of his work]], as he tortures the intruders with [[ElectricTorture electricity]] and tortures the kidnapped children with audio-frequency, turning them into [[SlaveMooks mind-controlled slaves]]. He's also a mass murderer.

* ''Al Capone Does My Shirts'': Warden Williams is a tyrant who [[DisproportionateRetribution threatens to fire Moose's father just because Moose said something rude]]. A slight subversion in that his victims aren't prisoners, though.

The typical HellholePrison has many horrors, but none so great as the prison's warden. The warden will often be a heartless, soulless monster dedicated to abusing and bullying prisoners in the most brutal ways possible. Alternatively, they will torment prisoners emotionally by saying hurtful words and putting them down. [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs Assuming they don't do both]]. Bonus points if their actions are illegal themselves, and if they make some of the prisoners act as enforcers. Double bonus points if they get busted and [[LaserGuidedKarma become an inmate in the prison they once ruled with an iron fist]].

Almost AlwaysMale.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'': The Warden of Stillwater casually offers to have [[spoiler:Vi]] beaten/tortured. When a [[EveryoneHasStandards visibly horrified]] Caitlyn asks how many times he's done so, he casually replies [[ButForMeItWasTuesday that he's never bothered to count]]. He also doesn't seem to care that there's no paperwork for [[spoiler:Vi]], meaning that she's there illegally.

* ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'' has Matron Mama Morton, who sings about how she loves getting bribes and doing favors for the inmates in her jail.

* The guards in ''{{Film/Mad Dog Morgan}}'' regularly hand out beatings to the prisoners, but Sergeant Smith is particularly brutal. His boss, Cobham, is even more sadistic.
** Vicious prison guards have been stock villains in many Australian Westerns, from ''Film/CaptainThunderbolt'' to ''Film/TheOutlawMichaelHowe''.

* {{Averted}}, or at least {{Downplayed}}, 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.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheCloneWars'' gave us Osi Sobeck, the Separatist warden of a huge prison known as the Citadel. In addition to being a BadBoss who has his own droid guards destroyed if they even say the word "escape," he also [[ColdBloodedTorture tortures]] Jedi Master Even Piell for information, and executes a captured Clone Trooper in an effort to make Obi-Wan talk.

* In ''VideoGame/MinecraftStoryMode'' Season 2, the Warden of the Sunshine Institute serves as one of the primary antagonists in the episode he appears in, "Jailhouse Block".