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[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/images_554.jpeg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[CardboardPrison A rare glimpse of Gotham's prisoners actually in their cells.]]]]
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->''"Go to Jail. Go directly to Jail. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200."''
-->-- ''TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}}''

The Big House. The Slammer. The Pen. The Clink. The Hoosegow. The Pokey. The Calaboose. Call it what you will, stories set in jails and prisons have their own set of tropes attached to them.
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!! Tropes:
[[index]]
[floatboxright:
'''Main topic:'''
* {{Prison}}

'''See also:'''
* EscapeTropes
* LockedUpTropes
* ARestrainedIndex
* SealedIndexInACan
* ThisIndexIsStuck

'''UsefulNotes:'''
* UsefulNotes/AmericanPrisons
* UsefulNotes/BritishPrisons
]
* TheAlcatraz: A prison that is (supposedly) impossible to escape.
* AloneWithPrisonerPloy: TheMole talks to an arrested ally by claiming they want to see the prisoner alone.
* AmbiguousCriminalHistory: Often involves a stint in prison for unspecified crimes.
* ArtisticLicensePrison: Prison doesn't work that way in real life.
* BarefootCaptives: Prisoners and slaves forced to go without shoes.
* BedlamHouse: An oppressive psychiatric hospital that is effectively a HellholePrison for the patients, doing nothing to make them any less crazy. May sometimes be used to detain people who are "criminally insane" (they committed some sort of crime, but were found to be legally "not guilty" due to their mental illness).
* {{Birdcaged}}: A villain traps the hero inside a birdcage.
* BlackSite: A secret government facility that may be used to (illegally) hold prisoners under extrajudicial detention. Physical torture and summary executions are often included.
* BoxedCrook: A prison inmate is offered a chance for freedom if they agree to do certain favors.
* BreakingOutTheBoss: Members of a gang bust their boss out of jail.
* BrigBallBouncing: A prisoner passes the time by bouncing a ball against the wall of their cell.
* BunkerWoman: A woman is kidnapped and held in a contained location.
* CagedBirdMetaphor: A character is associated with a caged bird to symbolize for their sense of confinement and longing for freedom.
* CaptivityHarmonica: Someone plays the harmonica while in jail.
* CapturedOnPurpose: Someone allows themselves to be captured by the enemy as part of a plan.
* CardboardPrison: When inmates are able to escape from jail with absurd ease.
* ChainedHeat: Two opposing characters are stuck together and must learn how to cooperate.
* ConsultingAConvictedKiller: A detective stops by to interrogate a prison inmate while investigating a crime.
* ConvenientlyCellmates: Two characters who know each other end up sharing the same prison cell.
* CryoPrison: Imprisoning people by [[HumanPopsicle freezing them with cryonics]].
* CrystalPrison: Imprisoning characters inside of precious stones.
* CutleryEscapeAid: Using an eating utensil to escape from prison.
* DeadlyEnvironmentPrison: A prison where the surrounding area is more dangerous and impassable than any guards or walls.
* DeathMarch: Prisoners are transported on foot in fatal conditions, with death often the intended outcome.
* DeathRow: A prison cell block consisting of inmates who have been sentenced to death.
* DefeatedAndTrophified: You lose against them, your opponent keeps you as a living trophy of their victory.
* DesiresPrisonLife: When a character finds imprisonment appealing in and of itself.
* DoomedFellowPrisoner: A prisoner in the same cell as the main character ends up suffering some horrible fate.
* EpiphanicPrison: A prison someone can't escape from unless they have an epiphany.
* ExtranormalPrison: A prison that is specially designed to contain people or beings who have [[MagicAndPowers superhuman abilities]].
* FallingIntoJail: The bad guy is defeated by falling directly into prison.
* FirstRuleOfTheYard: If you wind up in jail, you must assert your dominance.
* GetIntoJailFree: A person does something to help them get into prison.
* GildedCage: A luxurious place that feels like a prison.
* GirlInTheTower: A female character (usually a princess) is imprisoned in a tall tower.
* GirlsBehindBars: Women's prisons are played for {{fanservice}} purposes.
* GlassyPrison: A person is imprisoned in a cage with transparent walls.
* GreatEscape: A grand plan to sneak one's way out of a prison.
* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: Prison staff make it almost too easy for prisoners to escape.
* TheGulag: A type of forced-labor prison camp that was once common in the UsefulNotes/SovietUnion.
* HadToComeToPrisonToBeACrook: A criminal has the backstory of being evil because they were wrongly jailed.
* {{Hell}}: In many different religious mythologies, there's a special afterlife designed to trap the souls of dead sinners and punish them for their misdeeds in life, often for eternity (or at least a long time before they can be forgiven and allowed to move into another realm). This is essentially the spiritual version of a mortal penal facility.
* HellholePrison: The prison is a terrible place for the inmates.
* HookingTheKeys: MacGyvering a way of stealing keys that are just out of reach.
* ImprovisedImprisonment: A character is held prisoner by amateurs, in a place not intended to hold prisoners.
* ImplicitPrison: A setting is treated like a prison, even if it's not explicitly called a prison.
* InescapablePrisonEasilyEscaped: A character trapped in an inescapable prison is easily able to find a way to escape.
* InPrisonWithTheRogues: The hero is locked up in the same prison alongside vengeful criminals they previously put behind bars.
* InstitutionalApparel: Uniforms worn by prison inmates.
* JailBake: Helping an inmate escape prison by giving them baked goods that have stuff they can use to escape hidden inside.
* JailedOneAfterAnother: Multiple characters get arrested and imprisoned in close proximity.
* TheJailer: A VigilanteMan who illegally incarcerates criminals in extrajudicial detention, instead of [[VigilanteExecution killing them]] or handing them over to the actual authorities.
* JustGotOutOfJail: A character who was just released from prison.
* JuvenileHell: A HellholePrison for juvenile {{delinquent}}s.
* {{Lockdown}}: A building or other location is isolated by means of blocking access to every single entrance or exit, so that no one can get in or out.
* LockedAwayInAMonastery: Disposing of someone by forcing them to live as a monk or nun in a distant church or temple.
* LockedInTheDungeon: Imprisoning someone in an underground cell beneath a castle or fortress.
* LongerThanLifeSentence: Someone has to serve a prison sentence that is far longer than anyone can live, ensuring that the prisoner will be long dead by the time they can be released.
* LuxuryPrisonSuite: A prison cell that's actually a nice place for the inmate(s) living there, to the point that it trivializes how exactly this is supposed to be a punishment.
* MadwomanInTheAttic: A [[TheGrotesque deformed]] and/or unstable character kept hidden somewhere.
* ManInTheIronMask: A character is held prisoner by another, even though the captive threatens the captor by his very existence.
* MenagerieOfMisery: An oppressive zoo that keeps wild animals held captive in conditions that are more like a HellholePrison than their natural habitat.
* MightAsWellNotBeInPrisonAtAll: A criminal is still a danger to the public even while behind bars.
* MindPrison: Imprisonment in a MentalWorld or a virtual reality.
* MistakenForImprisonment: Mistaking situations for imprisonment.
* NeverGoingBackToPrison: A character who has either been released or escaped from prison makes a pledge to never, ever go back.
* NoPrisonSegregation: Convicts are housed together regardless of their differences.
* NotUsedToFreedom: Someone is too used to life in prison and can't function outside confinement.
* TheOldConvict: An elderly prisoner who's been locked up for a very long time.
* PanopticonOfSurveillance: A means of watching all prisoners at once.
* PariahPrisoner: A prison inmate who is strongly despised by many other prisoners for various reasons.
* PassiveRescue: A character who rescues someone from prison without using aggression or violence to break them out.
* PenalColony: A distant location (usually an island, or maybe another planet in a sci-fi setting) used to dump prisoners to isolate them from the rest of civilization.
* PetGetsTheKeys: Someone breaks out of captivity by getting an animal to bring them an implement of escape, often keys.
* PlayAlongPrisoner: Someone who could escape whenever they wish, but they decide to stay for some reason or another.
* PossessiveParadise: A luxurious place that actively prevents you from leaving.
* PoundsAreAnimalPrisons: Pounds are depicted as being the domestic animal equivalent of a prison.
* POWCamp: A military prison camp designed to hold captured enemy soldiers (AKA prisoners-of-war, or [=POWs=]). Also closely related to internment/concentration camps that are used by the military to detain non-combatant civilians during wartime.
* PreferJailToTheProtagonist: The villain finds the hero to be so unbearable, that they'd rather go to prison than endure them any longer.
* PrisonChangesPeople: Spending time in prison can change one's personality, for better or for worse.
* PrisonDimension: Criminals are banished to and locked away in another dimension.
* PrisonEpisode: An episode of the series is devoted to one of the characters ending up in jail.
* PrisonEscapeArtist: A character who is known for escaping prison multiple times.
* PrisonLevel: A Video Game level that takes place in a prison, whether it is to escape or break someone out.
* PrisonRape: When prisoners get sexually assaulted by other inmates (or sometimes by the guards or staff).
* PrisonRiot: Mass violence in a prison, usually involving a [[GangWar fight between rival gangs]], or the inmates rebelling against the guards.
* PrisonShip: A vessel designed to transport prisoners from one detention facility to another, or at least hold them indefinitely.
* PrisonerExchange: When two groups (usually in a state of war or conflict) make an agreement to release each others' prisoners whom they were respectively holding captive.
* PrisonerPerformance: Inmates put on a theatrical performance or other live entertainment in prison.
* PrisonersLastMeal: The last meal a prisoner on DeathRow eats before their execution.
* PrisonersWork: When prisoners perform labor for their captors, usually through coercion (though sometimes it may be voluntary).
* PrisonsAreGymnasiums: Prison inmates are shown exercising and bodybuilding to develop their muscles.
* PrivateProfitPrison: A prison that is partially or fully operated by a private corporation instead of a government organization.
* ProtectorBehindBars: TheHero is locked up in jail and can't protect anyone on the outside.
* PunishmentBox: A shed or box that prisoners are put in to give them extra punishment.
* QuarantineWithExtremePrejudice: When the government enforces a very strict lockdown on an area (sometimes including ''entire cities''), in an attempt to stop the spread of [[ThePlague a very deadly disease]].
* RatsInABox: Locking all the prisoners in one room.
* RodentCellmates: A prisoner, lacking better options, befriends rats.
* SealedRoomInTheMiddleOfNowhere: Someone has been ThrownDownAWell and left to die there, usually through starvation.
* SelfRestraint: A prisoner willingly stays captured.
* SentencedToDownUnder: When colonial-era {{UsefulNotes/Australia}} was used as a penal colony by the UsefulNotes/BritishEmpire.
* ShippedInShackles: A prisoner is not only delivered to a place, but is restrained in every way possible.
* ShirtlessCaptives: Prisoners who don't wear shirts.
* SinisterShiv: An improvised blade weapon created and used by prison inmates.
* SkyCell: A prison that is usually on top of a high tower with an open ceiling.
* SmallSecludedWorld: A small area cut off from the rest of the world.
* StanfordPrisonExperiment: An infamous psychology experiment where volunteers are split between pretending they're either guards or prisoners. [[EnforcedMethodActing Soon though they began acting like it was totally real]]...
* StockPunishment: A device that holds someone immobile so that others can assault them with foodstuffs.
* TailorMadePrison: A prison cell that is specially designed to contain a single specific person who cannot be locked up by any normal means.
* TallyMarksOnThePrisonWall: A prisoner draws or etches tally marks on the wall of their prison cell to keep track of how long they've been incarcerated.
* ThrownDownAWell: A character gets trapped in an uncomfortable or remote location that's impossible to escape from.
* TimeLoopTrap: A character is deliberately trapped within a time loop.
* TradingBarsForStripes: A convicted criminal decides to serve in the military to avoid a prison sentence, or to earn their freedom.
* TrappedInContainment: When an area of a building gets put on lockdown to try and stop something dangerous from escaping or spreading out of control, someone is unlucky enough to get sealed inside with that threat.
* TrojanPrisoner: The heroes infiltrate an enemy base by pretending to have been captured.
* TunnelKing: A character who is an expert at digging escape routes beneath prison grounds.
* VulnerableConvoy: A convoy of vehicles that are transporting prisoners get attacked en route.
* TheWallAroundTheWorld: The whole world is the prison, or rather, the prison is the whole world, as least as far as the prisoner(s) know.
* WardensAreEvil: The prison is run by a ruthlessly corrupt administrator.
* WidelySpacedJailBars: An incarcerated person is kept in a cell with the bars wide enough that they could easily escape by slipping through the bars if they so choose.
* WhatAreYouInFor: A prisoner asks their cellmate what they did that got them into prison.
* WorkingOnTheChainGang: Convict laborers are chained together while doing work.
* YouAllMeetInACell: The story begins with the characters in captivity.
[[/index]]
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