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13[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/DarkEmpire https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/imperialdungeonship1.jpg]]]]
14[[caption-width-right:350:A ''Lictor''-class dungeon ship]]
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16A Prison Ship is a penitentiary, correctional facility, or jail that typically moves under its own power (though some prisoner transports or jail vessels have to be towed[[note]]Historically, jail ships were often old, outdated ships that were converted into floating jails.[[/note]]). Often featured to highlight the questionable moral standards of the villains or enemy force, the heroics of protagonist in withstanding the cramped conditions, a setting for a prison story, or to add movement and interest to what would otherwise be a static setting. It's also an easy way to set up TheAlcatraz; in the middle of the ocean or in space, there's nowhere to escape ''to''.
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18For the purposes of this trope there are two types of Prison Ship:
19* The Prison Transport: this modestly-sized vessel is either designed or modified to transport prisoners between facilities, not hold them permanently. The transport spaceship in ''Film/PitchBlack'' is not an example as it had only one prisoner strapped in; the rest of the occupants were paying passengers. Conversely the prison transport in the ''Series/{{Lexx}}'' miniseries would count because his divine shadow is just that thorough. In fiction, there are often depictions of criminal gangs [[InescapableAmbush ambushing]] or hijacking the prison transport to free their comrades, or to capture a rival gang leader who they want to "[[DeadlyEuphemism deal with]]". A BountyHunter may use this kind of ship to hold several targets while transporting them to an actual prison.
20* The Jail Ship: often a setting in and of itself, this large vessel is usually purpose built to hold prisoners permanently, often for unscrupulous deeds committed outside of the jurisdiction. Jail ships include those that are mobile under their power and old demobilized ships that are no longer fit for military use, and which have been converted to become floating jails (they are kept at a dock).
21** Jail spaceships need to be large enough for cells (or stasis pods with life-support equipment if the prisoners are in HumanPopsicle mode), guard quarters, guard stations, food preparation facilities, recreational areas, an infirmary, and so on. As well, they need some self-defense capacities to protect the Prison Ship from attackers who hope to free their comrades.
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23Despite the name of the trope, it covers any mobile jail or prison transport, including trains and transport planes.
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25Not to be confused with {{Shipping}} between prisoners.
26
27----
28!!Examples:
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30[[foldercontrol]]
31
32[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
33* In the ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' episode "[[Recap/CowboyBebopSession16BlackDogSerenade Black Dog Serenade]]", one such ship gets hijacked by prisoners.
34[[/folder]]
35
36[[folder:Comic Books]]
37* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': In Gotham, Blackgate Prison (located on an island in the harbour) has used a modified barge as overflow housing for less dangerous prisoners. Warden Zehrhardt bitterly described it as a temporary solution... of twenty years and counting. Cluemaster once planned a [[GreatEscape mass breakout]] that involved cutting the barge loose and having it picked up by [[APirate400YearsTooLate modern-day pirate Cap'n Fear]].
38* ''ComicBook/LesPassagersDuVent'' contains both types at the time of the American War of Independence - a French slaver and a British prison hulk.
39* ''ComicBook/RatchetAndClankComic'': Ratchet gets sent to one of these in Issue #2 "Friends with Benefits" after being captured by Artemis Zogg.
40* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
41** ''ComicBook/StarWarsDoctorAphra'': During the "Catastrophe Con" arc, Aphra is imprisoned by the Imperials on [[PenalColony Accresker Prison]], which is a unique spin on this trope. It's actually the hulks of several ships magnetically strapped together and tugged around by a Star Destroyer, whose prisoners are press-ganged to act as expendable boarding parties whenever the Imperials raid a new ship. The prisoners aren't even restrained or placed into cells, since escape is impossible -- the ship pulling it is connected only through long cables, none of the component ships has so much as anything useful for building a functioning vessel left in it, and the prison never even approaches planets.
42** ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': In ''ComicBook/DarkEmpire'', Luke ends up imprisoned in a "dungeon ship" especially designed to hold Jedi.
43* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': The Sangtee Empire has large vessels dedicated to the transport of prisoners, specifically non kreel and non-natives caught within the borders of their Empire who are then enslaved and shipped off to prison planets to mine. They're called slave ships by both the Empire and the rebels.
44* ''Franchise/{{Zoids}}'': The Marvel UK version follows the story of the survivors of a human Prison Ship which crashed on what they think is an uninhabited planet but is in fact Zoidstar, former capital of the Zoidaryan Empire.
45[[/folder]]
46
47[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
48* The eponymous ''Film/{{Amistad}}'' is a slaver ship.
49* The airplane in ''Film/ConAir'' is a prison transport.
50* In ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' a ferry transporting prisoners from Gotham to the mainland is rigged to explode by the Joker, with the detonator on board another ferry full of civilians while the prison ship has the detonator for the civvies. He threatens to blow them both up if one doesn't pull the trigger before midnight. [[spoiler: Neither of them blow up.]]
51* The Tomb in ''Film/EscapePlan'' turns out to be an anchored tanker off the coast of Morocco.
52* ''Film/Fortress2ReEntry'': The new prison is revealed to be a satellite orbiting the Earth.
53* The heroes of ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'' truly get to know one another aboard Kyln, a prison space station where they're sent after getting into trouble on Xandar.
54* In ''Film/ManOfSteel'', General Zod and co. are stored in a prison ship in another dimension.
55* ''Film/VonRyansExpress'' is set on a train being used to transport allied [=POWs=] from Italy to Germany. The prisoners escape and hijack the train.
56* In ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'', the government imprisons Mystique in a special mobile prison built on a semi-trailer that is constantly moving; thereby making it harder for the Brotherhood to locate her and stage a rescue.
57[[/folder]]
58
59[[folder:Literature]]
60* Over half of ''Literature/DeathTroopers'' takes place on one, until the main characters have to run from the zombies to the larger spaceship it is docked on to. Then they encounter even more zombies.
61* ''Literature/DocSavage'': ''The Fortress of Solitude'' opens on a Soviet prison ship transporting prisoners to TheGulag. EvilGenius Jon Sunlight orchestrates a mutiny among the prisoners and they hijack the ship. This does not go so well, as none of the prisoners kmow how to operate a ship and they wind up running aground in the Arctic circle.
62* The ''Literature/DredChronicles'' are set on a prison ship called Perdition, in permanent orbit in an isolated system. It's where the Conglomerate dump people who they judge beyond any attempt at rehabilitation, and it's largely lawless — there are no cells and no human guards. There are deadly robotic sentries which keep prisoners from getting too close to anything deemed too sensitive, but they don't interfere in gang warfare or non-lethal degradation of conditions.
63* In Creator/CharlesDickens' ''Literature/GreatExpectations'', Abel Magwitch has escaped from a prison ship, and is transported to Australia on one.
64* In ''Kur of Literature/{{Gor}}'' Tarl finds himself on a prison ''planet'', an artificial satellite of Gor dubbed the "Prison Moon" by the inhabitants of Gor even though they don't know that it's a prison. He is the only prisoner in the entire place at the start of the book.
65* The ''Literature/MatthewHawkwood'' novel ''Rapscallion'' is set, in part, on the British prison hulks being used to hold [=POWs=] during the Napoleonic Wars.
66* The ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' story "The Adventure of the Gloria Scott" concerns a prison ship to Australia.
67* In Creator/JohnWCampbell's short story ''Literature/WhoGoesThere'', the characters speculated that the crashed alien vessel was a Prison Ship.
68* Over the first few books in the ''Literature/XWingSeries'' we hear talk of Lusankya, the Empire's secret prison and brainwashing facility, but only later is it revealed to be the ''Lusankya'', a Super Star Destroyer. Even after the pounding it takes in ''The Bacta War'' there's enough left to salvage, and the New Republic captures and makes use of it until the Literature/NewJediOrder, where it goes out in a proper blaze of glory for [[RammingAlwaysWorks Operation Emperor's Spear]].
69[[/folder]]
70
71[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
72* ''Series/{{Arrow}}''. In the Season 2 flashbacks, a lot of the action takes place on the ''Amazo'', a converted freighter used to hold [[TestedOnHumans subjects]] for the MadScience experiments of Dr. Anthony Ivo. He needs a ship because he's simultaneously searching islands in the North China Sea for a lost World War 2 submarine carrying the only known pure sample of the SuperSerum he's researching. After being captured on the island of Lian Yu, Oliver Queen meets his future ally Anatoli Knyazev in one of the cells.
73* Both series of ''Franchise/BattlestarGalactica'' had a prison ship among the ragtag fleet.
74** The [[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 original series]] had the Prison Barge, a ship used to hold prisoners of various kinds, including prisoners of war. Baltar organizes an escape from the ship along with various characters arrested or captured in previous episodes.
75** The [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 re-imagined series]] had a prison ship called the ''Astral Queen'' which held common criminals as well as noted terrorist Tom Zarek. It was a prison transport but after the attacks the prisoners were stuck in tiny cells for months before anybody even noticed/cared. When the fleet needed laborers for dangerous duties mining water ice on a frozen moon, Zarek negotiated the partial release of the prisoners as a condition of their being used as grunt labor. The prisoners were given their former prison ship as their new home among the fleet.
76* The original cast of ''Series/BlakesSeven'' (with one exception, introduced later) were [[YouAllMeetInACell all prisoners on a spaceship]] transporting them to a penal planet.
77* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday "Doomsday"]], the Doctor discovers that the Genesis Ark was a prison ship built by the Time Lords during the Last Great Time War. Being of Time Lord origin, it's BiggerOnTheInside and contains a small army of Daleks.
78* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': had many a episode set inside one, poignant considering Moya was one before the pilot episode. And half her crew in said pilot were escaped prisoners.
79* ''Series/{{Intergalactic}}'': Ash is put on the prison transport Hemlock with other female prisoners. They're headed to an offworld penal colony when some of the prisoners manage to break out, hijack the ship and escape. It continues to be their means of transportation afterward.
80* ''Series/LostInSpace'' episode "Condemned of Space". The Robinsons encounter a computer-controlled prison ship with criminals kept in HarmlessFreezing cryogenic suspension.
81* One episode of ''Series/TheMandalorian'' has the main character take a job with other mercenaries to free an ally from a New Republic prison transport.
82* ''Franchise/PowerRangers''/''Franchise/SuperSentai'':
83** In ''Series/MiraiSentaiTimeranger'', the villains hijack a prison ship and name themselves after it.
84** ''Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge'' has [[BigBad Sledge]] controlling a prison ship which carries MonstersOfTheWeek.
85* On ''Series/RedDwarf'', the ship itself serves a secondary purpose as a prison transport ship. Apparently only a few people are aware of that floor. Unfortunately the prisoners are reconstructed along with the crew in Series 8, and the main cast wind up incarcerated with them.
86* In both [[Series/Roots1977 the original]] and [[Series/Roots2016 the remake]] of ''Roots'', Mandinka warrior in training Kunta Kinte is brought aboard a slave ship where he has to endure three long months inside the cargo hold during the Middle Passage. Although he starts a revolt in an attempt to kill any unnecessary crewmen, and keep the rest alive to sail them back to Africa, the uprising fails, and he and the rest of the Africans are brought to the Maryland coast, [[AuctionOfEvil where they are bought by numerous plantation owners]] and [[MadeASlave Kunta ends up in John Weller's plantation.]]
87* The premise of ''Series/SevenDays'' is the use of technology from the [[RoswellThatEndsWell crashed Roswell UFO]] to develop TimeTravel. In one episode, one of the inventors finally translates the markings on the ship and finds out that it is a prison transport. Unfortunately, the [[TheGreys Grey]] prisoner has just escaped and is hell-bent on paying the humans back for putting him in a coma.
88* A ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode centers on the team finding a crashed prison transport, unfortunately they don't figure out what it was until the prisoners trick them into helping them fight the surviving guards.
89* One episode of ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' had Captain Archer and Trip aboard one of these. The other criminals launched an escape and killed the guards, forcing them to make themselves useful to the criminals in order to survive.
90* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. In "Repentence", Voyager is briefly converted into a prison ship when they rescue the crew and inmates of another prison ship conveying the inmates to their execution. This leads to the inevitable {{Anvilicious}} Debate Of The Week on the ethics of capital punishment and racial profiling, and the equally inevitable Crisis of the Week when the {{Force Field Door}}s fail when the power goes out during a prison breakout.
91[[/folder]]
92
93[[folder:Music]]
94* "Habeas Corpses (Draconian Love)" by Music/ElP, complete with the hook "I found love on a prison ship," is about a prison ship executioner who fantasizes about running away and starting a new life with one of the prisoners set to be executed. [[spoiler:He does his job anyway and shoots her.]]
95[[/folder]]
96
97[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
98* The sci-fi horror RPG ''TabletopGame/AbandonAllHope'' takes place completely inside the ''[[MeaningfulName Gehenna]]'', a gigantic ship that was made by a super-fascist Earth to put in everybody they deemed undesirable (criminals, political prisoners, people they deemed "useless" because of a useless skillset for the new world government [[KillThePoor and the like]]) and sent away... whereupon it flew inside of a NegativeSpaceWedgie that is best described as Hell by way of ''Film/EventHorizon''. The Player Characters are prisoners within the ''Gehenna'' trying to survive the subsequent demonic invasion.
99* ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}} Adventure 1 The Kinunir''. The Kinunir class starship Gaesh was converted into a Prison Ship and used to hold Imperial political prisoners.
100* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'''s [[TheEmpire Imperium of Man]] has the dreaded Black Ships, each ferrying tens of thousands of {{psy|chicPowers}}kers [[SuperRegistrationAct conscripted as per government policy]]. They're all taken to Holy Terra for processing, with the strong being "sanctioned" to serve as communicators or warriors, and the rest [[PoweredByAForsakenChild fed to a giant psychic navigational beacon]].
101[[/folder]]
102
103[[folder:Theatre]]
104* ''[[Theatre/TheConvictsOpera The Convict's Opera]]'' is about [[PrisonerPerformance a group of convicts on a ship to the Australian penal colony rehearsing a production]] of ''Theatre/TheBeggarsOpera'' to pass the time. At the end of the voyage, they perform it for the ship's captain and crew, and one of the cast members takes advantage of the performance to make a break for freedom.
105[[/folder]]
106
107[[folder:Toys]]
108* ''Toys/LegoSpacePolice'': Each iteration of the theme has a large ship that houses and transports criminals. With the exception of small personal transports, each Space Police I craft carries at least one removable cell for prisoner storage and transport.
109[[/folder]]
110
111[[folder:Video Games]]
112* Iron Heights, a prison that traditionally holds Franchise/TheFlash's enemies appears in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', reimagined as an airship that crashes into the waters outside of Gotham and had captured Killer Croc [[spoiler:for the purpose of experimenting on him and other inmates.]]
113* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' has you starting off in one.
114* ''VideoGame/TheEscapists2'':
115** Air Force Con is an enormous Boeing jet that serves as a [[TailorMadePrison prison meant for only one person]] - you.[[note]]The escape sequence reveals it's going to Fort Tundra.[[/note]]
116** The HMS Orca is an enormous ocean-going ship with prison cells. You aren't allowed anywhere outside. If you go outside, the guards will beat you to unconsciousness.
117** The USS Anomaly is a space station which serves as a prison.
118* In ''VideoGame/{{Freelancer}}'', [[LawEnforcementInc Liberty Police, Inc.]] have prison ships in the Texas system above Planet Houston, the LPI ''Huntsville'' and the LPI ''Sugarland.'' These are type II prison ships: while called ships in the game, they hold prisoners rather than merely transporting them, act more like space stations in function, and resemble [[VideoGame/{{Portal}} Weighted Storage Cubes]] in appearance.
119* In ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'', you can come across a [[SpacePirate slaver ship]] whose crew will either gladly sell you one of their slaves or attack you if you don't hand them over one of ''your'' crewmembers. Put enough dents in their hull and they may decide to give you a slave for free instead[[note]]Accepting gets you a slave that ultimately has freedom, but the slavers get to continue being slavers. Refusing forces you to blow up their ship, stopping their slaver ways, but killing all their slaves too. Make your choice[[/note]]. Smugglers hiding in SpaceClouds and the Rebel transport ships may also turn out to be a prisoner transport, as do several other ships if you kill their crew without destroying the hull.
120* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' has a sequence set on the prison ship ''[[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Purgatory]]'', a privately-run jail holding the type of prisoners planetary governments don't want in ''their'' prisons. The warden also makes some extra cash by threatening to release the inmates in the systems it passes through unless the locals cough up free supplies. [[SarcasmMode Real nice guys, the Blue Suns.]] Unfortunately for them, their leader makes the decision to try and capture Shepard[[labelnote:*]]You know, the same Commander Shepard who shot their way across the galaxy, shot a Reaper in the face, was spaced and killed before burning up in orbit, ''woke up angry'' and proceeded to shoot their way out of the lab they woke up in, and were in the process of shooting their way across the Terminus systems to the Collectors[[/labelnote]] and hold them for ransom... which results in Shepard shooting their way to the prison ship's resident TykeBomb... which results in said Tyke Bomb being release from cryo and going on a Biotics-and-rage-fueled rampage through the ship that ultimately ends with said prison ship being destroyed.
121* In ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline'', an incarnation of Dark Force Faiz was locked away in a giant Prison Ship in the center of Ragol.
122* An alternate Cave Johnson in the ''VideoGame/Portal2'' Perpetual Testing Initiative is captain of one of these.
123* ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando'' has one the Flying Lab on Planet Aranos, which later gets used as a prison ship for the heroes.
124* ''VideoGame/Rayman2TheGreatEscape'': There's also The Buccaneer, the robot pirates' mobile headquarters and prison ship.
125* The 90s action game, ''VideoGame/SkeletonKrew'' for the Amiga is set in one of these, where a viral outbreak turns every prisoner onboard into savage, bloodthirsty mutants. You assume one of three commandos assigned to investigate the outbreak and find out an EvilutionaryBiologist is behind the incident.
126* ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'' has you mount a raid on one to rescue [[spoiler:Raynor.]] To highlight Mengsk's asshattery, he orders the ship to selfdestruct with Kerrigan on it... without informing the ship's crew.
127--> '''Guard:''' Get to the escape pods!\
128'''Medic:''' This is a prison ship, there aren't any escape pods!
129* On the Navy skill-building path at the beginning of ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'', one of the missions you can select therein is the UNN Pierce, which plays this straight. According to the debriefing, said prison escort apparently had a mercenary on board, disguised as a prisoner.
130* ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'' has you start out on a crashed prison transport named the "Vortex Rikers".
131[[/folder]]
132
133[[folder:Web Animation]]
134* ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'': In [[WebAnimation/RedVsBlueTheChorusTrilogy the season 13 premiere]], Locus and his partner [[spoiler:Felix]] hijack a UNSC prison ship to recruit followers.
135[[/folder]]
136
137[[folder:Western Animation]]
138* An early episode of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' has a Fire Nation prison shipyard, a massive oil-derrick-like construction built way out in deep water. It serves as a TailorMadePrison for Earthbenders, as there is nothing for them to manipulate, unlike in a traditional prison where they could work with the literal ground beneath their feet.
139* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' involved Jack and his friend [[spoiler:Ashi]] exploring an alien prison spaceship that crashed on Earth. The only surviving prisoner is a [[StarfishAlien weird monster]] named [[TheWormThatWalks Lazarus-92]], which apparently killed all the other inmates, guards, and crew members of the ship.
140%%* ''WesternAnimation/SherlockHolmesInTheTwentySecondCentury''
141* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS5E15TheInmatesOfSummerToSaveASquirrel The Inmates of Summer]]," [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick accidentally board a prison ship and believe it to be a summer camp. To lift the other prisoners' morale, [=SpongeBob=] [[PrisonerPerformance writes a musical play for them to perform]] for "amusement and inspiration."
142* The ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' featured a two-part episode with a "Spirit-drinker" that Lady Deathstrike accidentally released from an alien Prison Ship.
143[[/folder]]
144
145[[folder:Real Life]]
146* TruthInTelevision, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_ship of course.]]
147** These were often older decommissioned ships, kept permanently at anchor and used because of the easily available space, versus having to build a custom prison. This was especially useful during times of war, where they might temporarily have many more prisoners than they would on a long-term basis in peace time.
148** Note that decommissioned ships have seen similar use for a variety of other purposes, to include housing for military recruits, defensive outposts, and as museums (often centering on the career of the ship itself, natch).
149* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernon_C._Bain_Correctional_Center Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center]] in New York City. It is a barge permanently moored to a pier in the Bronx that currently holds around 800 inmates, designed to handle medium to maximum security inmates.
150* Prison ships have long been associated with the English army. On the eve of the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon referred to British prison ships to rally the anger of the French soldiers: “Soldiers, let those among you who have been prisoners of the English describe to you the hulks [rotting, old prison ships], and detail the most frightful miseries which they endured!”
151* The practice of chaining slaves, and cramming them into ships' cargo holds is as old as maritime trade.
152* During [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII WWII]], Allied [=POWs=]' were crammed into "Hell Ships," to be transported across Japanese occupied territory (known to Japan as the "Eastern Co-Prosperity Sphere") to be held in [[HellHolePrison hellish prison camps,]] or as [[MadeASlave manual labor]]. Being unmarked, Allied naval forces would often attack and sink these "Hell Ships," thinking they were filled with supplies or combat troops. Considering the absolutely ''[[FateWorseThanDeath horrific]]'' conditions aboard these vessels, [[MercyKill they may as well have been.]]
153[[/folder]]

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