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[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_a986782d4a.png]]]]

->''"Put your trust in the Lord. Your ass belongs to me. Welcome to Shawshank."''
-->-- '''Warden Norton''', ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption''

The typical HellholePrison has many horrors, but none so great as the prison's warden. [[AlwaysMale He]] 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]].

Don't even think about thinking about crossing the warden, and don't even think about thinking about escaping. [[DisproportionateRetribution If you do, the punishment will make you wish you were dead]] ([[FateWorseThanDeath assuming it doesn't involve death]]).

Note that this doesn't necessarily have to be a prison warden; it could just be the commander of a prison-like institution. Compare CorruptPolitician, ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem Contrast ReasonableAuthorityFigure and TheJailer.
----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Anime/AngelsOfDeath'': Cathy Ward, in both her official position as a prison guard and her job as the jailer of the Tower, sadistically tortures her prisoners for sexual thrill.
* ''Manga/{{Dokuro}}'' has Kawashima Junta, chief prison guard who forces the prisoners into the [[GladiatorGames Rumble Fish fights to the death]] for his amusement, and also participates in [[OrganTheft organ trafficking]].
* ''Anime/FistOfTheNorthStar'' has Uighur, who rules Raoh’s prison city of Cassandra with an iron fist and tortures and kills inmates there for a living.
* ''Literature/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]].
* In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean'', the wardens of Green Dolphin Street Prison are all rather abusive towards prisoners. [[VillainOfTheWeek Viviano Westwood]] especially, since he releases all the maximum security prisoners from their cells just to fight them to death.
* ''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. [[EveryoneHasStandards This disgusted Magellan so much that he ordered Shiryu to be imprisoned.]]
** The wardens of the Prisoner Mine in [[{{wutai}} Wano Country]] are a straighter example, given that they're all members of the Beast Pirates. They will bully and torment the prisoners with sadistic glee, [[CantKillYouStillNeedYou but only stop short of killing them because they're used as workforce to craft weapons for Kaido]] and because they're expected to join his crew [[DespairEventHorizon once their spirits are broken.]]
* Mari Kurihara from ''Manga/PrisonSchool'', besides the fact that she threw the main characters into a real prison at all, has her subordinate Meiko abuse them physically and mentally as part of a larger plan to get them expelled.
* 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 is questionable, as the worst inmates will be stored in PeopleJars.]]
* In ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', there was [[FatBastard Takasu]], the obese warden of the prison facility. Among the unpleasant tropes that could be applied to him were TheBully, PoliticallyIncorrectVillain, BadLiar, SoreLoser, and CheatersNeverProsper. A key part of his plan to break Yusei was to make ending a long lockdown depend on his success in a duel, and make sure he couldn't duel and was disqualified, the end result being the inmates hating him. But he forgot one thing: The inmates, without exception, ''despised'' Takasu, and weren't as stupid as he figured. They not only figured the plan out fast, they helped Yusei to make sure he could duel. In fact, [[spoiler: Takasu was such scum that his boss (Rex Godwin, the BigBad of the first season), was disgusted with him, and fired him after his brutal treatment of inmates became known.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Audio Plays]]
* ''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.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': In 1990s comics, the warden of Blackgate Penitentiary was Victor Zehrhardt, a tyrant who viewed the prison population as animals -- and don't get him started on Batman himself.
* ''ComicBook/BatmanAndTheOutsiders'': In issue #4, Warden Brewster of Gotham State Prison deliberately denies a prisoner (codenamed "Meltdown") needed medical treatments and then lies that the Prison Board was responsible. He does this to trick the dangerously radioactive felon into escaping so he can be killed to save the public. It turns out that the warden has decided rehabilitation doesn't work, so he's been finding ways to "legally" off prisoners.
* ''ComicBook/{{Diabolik}}'': Ranko, featured in one 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 torments he'll inflict on him for getting him in trouble with the riot he caused to break out.
* ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'': Thinktwice is a space prison whose inmates are kept under control through memory-wiping. At best, this leaves them with no sense of identity and thus nothing to fight for; at worst, it fries their brains. The warden claims to be doing all this for their 'rehabilitation' while loving every minute of it. Oh, and his memory-wiping machine? It's being used to feed some very nasty, very hungry aliens.
* ''ComicBook/TheFlash'': Gregory Wolfe, warden of Iron Heights Penitentiary. 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 to get 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.]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Kaijumax}}'': Warden Kang rules the island of giant monsters with an iron fist. Helps that he can turn himself into [[Series/{{Ultraman}} a giant armored soldier who can shoot lasers out of his chest.]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Menace}}'': "They Wait in Their... Dungeon!" in issue #1 features a sadistic warden who uses [[ATasteOfThelash a whip to inflict punishment]] on prisoners for the slightest infraction of the rules. His actions include extinguishing a cigarette on the forehead of a convict, force-feeding a prisoner a pot of dishwater, and denying a death row prisoner pencil and paper so he can write a last letter to his mother. His actions eventually spark a revolt by the inmates and he attempts to flee downstairs. The inmates pursue him and, as the story ends, the warden realizes he has [[SadisticChoice a choice between two dooms]]; the poisonous fumes still lingering in the execution chamber or being torn to shreds by the maddened inmates.
* ''ComicBook/PowerGirl'': One arc involved a superpowered man (his parents immigrated from Qurac but he was born in America) who 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/RobynHood'': The warden of the interdimensional prison in ''Robyn Hood: The Hunt'' runs the penitentiary as his own personal fiefdom. subjecting the prisoners to all kinds of cruel and unusual punishment, and forcing them to fight for his amusement.
* ''ComicBook/Rocket2017:'' The warden of the prison Rocket gets sent to is deliberately one of these. Rocket notes the private security company that owns the prison deliberately hires the nastiest person they can get. All part of the service.
* ''ComicBook/TexWiller'': {{Subverted}} by Maxon, appearing in one story: he has no problem beating up the inmates and making 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 any more trouble after he 'learned his lesson').
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/LovedAndLost'': One of the main minions of [[TheUsurper Prince Jewelius]] is Commander Hildread, Canterlot's sadistic head jailer. She used to be in the Royal Guard along with its captain and her old rival Shining Armor, but he expelled her because she's an arrogant KnightTemplar who believes too much in using brutality to ensure peace and order. Her subordinate and {{Foil}}, Lieutenant Shackle, on the other hand, is a meek MinionWithAnFInEvil who doesn't enjoy needless brutality at all. [[spoiler:Though neither of them like Jewelius' idea to slaughter all of Ponyville's inhabitants, only Shackle sees the error of her ways and [[HeelFaceTurn repents]].]]
* ''Fanfic/MurderersRow'': Subverted by Sarge, who isn't evil so much as harmfully oblivious to the problems in his prison. His replacement, Niner, firmly averts this by being a ReasonableAuthorityFigure.
* ''Fanfic/TheRedemptionOfHarleyQuinn'': Lyle Bolton, unsurprisingly. He triggers Harley's memories of being gang-raped for no reason other than to amuse himself, forces Poison Ivy to striptease during her evaluation, and takes pleasure in lobotomizing most of the Arkham inmates.
* ''Fanfic/ShadowsOverMeridian'': The Warden of Cavigor, while loyal to Elyon, is a KnightTemplar who views all his prisoners as irredeemable loyalists of Phobos (regardless of any evidence to the contrary in [[FrameUp some cases]]), and decides to kill them all to prevent Frost from freeing them.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* 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 show up.
* ''Film/TheArcher'': Bob, though he first puts on an air of "tough but fair" turns out to be a sadistic, corrupt asshole, having girls sent to his camp for money and abusing his son. He also ruthlessly hunts down escapees.
* The Boss from ''Film/BigStan'' is a near-perfect example.
* In ''Film/{{Boot Camp|2008}}'', 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.
* In ''Film/BruteForce1947'', the beleaguered warden is a decent man under pressure to improve discipline. However, his chief of security Capt. Munsey is a sadist who manipulates prisoners to inform one another and create trouble so he can inflict punishment.
* In ''Film/{{Chicago}}'', Matron "Mama" Morton is the 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/CoolHandLuke''. The Captain is the sadistic warden of a chain gang prison. He ruthlessly mistreats the title character by locking him in a punishment box and having him beaten.
* In ''Film/TheCountOfMonteCristo2002'', the warden of the Chateau d'If is a sadist who among other things has the prisoners [[ATasteOfTheLash flogged]] and given a lash for every year of imprisonment. Incidentally, this is a case of AdaptationalVillainy, since in the novel the guards (the warden doesn't appear) are presented as [[PunchClockVillain good men doing a bad job]].
* ''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 from intervening.
* ''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 in 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/DeathWarrant'': The Warden agrees with corrupt state officials to kill his prisoners to harvest their organs. Unlike the mastermind behind this scheme, his own motive is just profit. He's also a [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain violent racist]] and a sadistic bully.
* In ''Film/EscapeFromAlcatraz'', the contrast between the unnamed Warden[[note]]Ironically played by Patrick "Series/{{The Prisoner|1967}}" [=McGoohan=][[/note]] and the rest of his staff is quite obvious. The guards and the Deputy Warden are just people doing their job and don't resort to plain brutality at any point. The Warden on the other hand is a cold, vain bully. He drives an old prisoner to madness by taking his painting privileges away just because he didn't like a painting the man made of him, and drives another into a heart attack by crushing a flower that the prisoner had brought into the cafeteria (and then not only remains stone-cold calm ''as the man dies at his feet'', but he ''immediately'' follows up with a BondOneLiner to remind the other onlooking prisoners that Alcatraz is inescapable). His mission to ensure that Frank Morris will remain in prison is also portrayed as more of a personal obsession than just fulfilling his duties as head of the prison.
* ''Film/EscapePlan'': Willard Hobbes is a cold and cruel warden of the Tomb, a secret private prison that houses convicts put in there by their wealthy enemies. He turns a blind eye to frequent violence inflicted by his staff as long as the prisoners are still alive and paid for, and he tries to keep the escape artist hired by him to uncover the Tomb's weaknesses because his partner sold him out.
* ''Film/FantasticBeastsTheSecretsOfDumbledore'': The unnamed warden of the Erkstag prison. Case in point, when Theseus Scamander gets (wrongfully) imprisoned and Newt comes to release him, the warden's attitude is basically "go find him and get out if you can". He also seems to enjoy when the lights in the prisoners' cells give out, as it means they're gonna get stabbed and eaten by the manticore in the bottom. Though in his final scene, he comes to take a look and [[KarmicDeath it's all but stated he's gonna suffer]] [[AssholeVictim the exact same fate as the prisoners]].
* In ''Film/{{Felon}}'', the actual warden seems clueless (or, at worst, is turning a blind eye to what is going inside the walls), but Lt. Jackson, who runs the SHU, is a vindictive sadist who is running his own punishment regime within his section, and staging fights between prisoners for other guards to bet on.
* ''Film/Fortress1992'': The wardens in both movies are more than happy to oversee a prison where the inmates are treated like cattle. However, the first movie provided a subversion where the Prison A.I. was revealed to be the one really in control.
* In ''Film/FrankensteinAndTheMonsterFromHell'', the director of the asylum is a weak man who has surrendered running of the asylum to Baron Frankenstein and uses his position to force himself on female inmates, while his two chief keepers are sadistic thugs who enjoy tormenting new arrivals.
* ''Film/TheHolyOffice'': The wardens rape Mariana de Carvajal when her mother is taken to confession.
* ''Film/Jailbait2014'': Warden Frank sexually abuses the girls in his care in exchange for protection and not putting them into solitary. He also [[spoiler:has the nurse first beaten, then shivved by one of the inmates to prevent her from talking]].
* ''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.
* In ''Film/TheLivingDaylights'', the jailer at the Soviet airbase physically and mentally torments his prisoners, and implies he is intending to rape Kara.
* 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 successfully escaping a previous 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]].
* ''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.
* 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''.
* ''Film/TheManhunt'': The warden and chief guard at the prison are sadists who make Wayne's character run back from the chain gang worksite behind the warden's jeep, being followed by an Angry Guard Dog that will attack him if he falls too far behind the jeep.
* In ''Film/TheManWhoCameBack'', the philosophy of the warden of the prison Paxton is sent to is "Prisoners are not human. They are livestock".
* In ''Film/TheManWhoTurnedToStone'', Mrs Ford, the warden of the detention home, is one of the group of unethical doctors who learned a hundred years ago to extend their lives by draining the vitality of others. Without such transfusions, they begin to slowly petrify. She has been using the detention home to ensure a steady supply of vital young bodies for them to feed upon.
* ''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/NoEscape1994'': The Warden is a nasty FatBastard.
* ''Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou'': The Sheriff. 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 no 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 help any.
* ''Film/PrimeCut'': The nasty old madam who sold the young orphans under her care into prostitution.
* In ''Film/ReformSchoolGirls'', Warden Sutter is a religious fanatic who believes in exercising total control over her charges, while the head matron Edna is a sadist who sexually preys upon the girls.
* ''Film/RikiOhTheStoryOfRicky'' has a Warden as the BigBad. He grinds his prisoners up in the kitchens to [[ImAHumanitarian make food out of them]].
* 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 who 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 businesses/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 to 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.
* ''Film/SuicideSquad2016'': Captain Griggs, the closest thing Belle Reve has to a warden, is an asshole who enjoys abusing the prisoners [[spoiler: and has a massive gambling problem that makes him an easy target for blackmail by the Joker.]]
* ''Film/TheSweeney'': One jail guard takes far too much joy in locking disgraced cop Regan in general population with the violent felons he arrested. His colleagues seem better, though.
* ''Film/WereNoAngels'': The warden is a well-dressed, self-righteous man who whips two prisoners for talking during his speech. Although he does have some JerkassHasAPoint moments about how bad Bobby (who escapes with the two protagonists but travels separately from them) is.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/AlCaponeDoesMyShirts'': 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.
* In ''Literature/TheCrownerJohnMysteries'', Stigand - the jailer at Roguemont Castle - is universally known and reviled as being a sadistic bastard.
* An interesting case in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''. The Ankh-Morpork City Watch is generally portrayed as heroic, but the city prison, the Tanty, is apparently answerable to the Patrician rather than the Commander of the Watch. When the protagonist of ''Literature/MakingMoney'' is springing a prisoner, he is pleased to find Bellyster, an evil cuss who doesn't even have the grace to turn his back when gobbing in a prisoner's food, on duty, because of the problems he's about to make for the man. [[spoiler: Later in the book, when Moist's been arrested, the guards treat him pretty well because of said trouble (it seems Bellyster's not too popular).]]
** 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.
* Played very straight in the Creator/DavidBaldacci thriller ''Divine Justice''. The warden of the local HellholePrison treats it like his own personal fiefdom, keeps the inmates in line through a mix of drugged food and beatings, and runs a drug ring on the side.
* In ''Literature/EscapeFromFurnace'' Warden Cross sees the inmates as a hivemind, starving them all out as the punishment for 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.]]
* ''Literature/{{Holes}}'': The Warden at Camp Green Lake crosses the [[MoralEventHorizon Moral Event Horizon]] when [[spoiler:she slashes Mr. Sir across the face with her rattlesnake-venom-polished nails.]] Later, it is revealed that [[spoiler:she established Camp Green Lake for the sole purpose of using inmate labor—''child'' inmate labor, no less—to find the relics of outlaw "Kissin' Kate" Barlow.]]
* ''Literature/MaulLockdown'': Warden Sadiki Blirr runs (admittedly legal) televised GladiatorGames from inside her prison and is willing to commit blackmail and murder when her profitable operation is threatened.
* ''Literature/ScavengeTheStars'': Captain Zharo is the warden in charge of the debtors' ship known as the ''Blackfish''. His job is to take in children of families who haven't paid their debt and have them work it off. He's also a cruel, selfish man who delights in breaking them mentally and physically. He starves and abuses said kids and goes as far as trying to break their self-worth by even removing their names.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/TheATeam'': The BigBad of the episode "[[Recap/TheATeamS1E4ProsAndCons Pros and Cons]]" is the warden of a Florida prison who takes exceptionally tough prisoners and forces them to fight to the death in an illegal [[TheBoxingEpisode boxing ring]].
* 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 [[PayEvilUntoEvil 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.
* Yoongab from ''Series/BigMouth2022'' fits to a tee. As the warden of Gucheon Penitentiary, he's a nasty man who takes bribes from the inmates in exchange for favors. He takes money from the three privileged prisoners in exchange for letting them get away with whatever they want to do in prison. He even has no problem ordering the guards to kill Changho.
-->'''Changho:''' ''[thinking]'' The cruelest murderer in this penitentiary is the warden.
* ''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 and completely destroys his life (inside he was hurt and his stuff stolen by other inmates, and outside the "ex-con" stigma meant he ended up as a waiter). 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."
* ''Series/TheDakotas'': "Mutiny at Fort Mercy" is about a [[TheNeidermeyer tyrannical and insane Army captain]] whose command of a military prison had become ridiculously cruel and harsh.
* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': The warden at the prison where 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.
* ''Series/DayBreak2006'': Detweiler is a former Warden at Pelican Bay State Prison who has been hiring out assassins from among its prison population for at least 15 years. His successor is just as unscrupulous.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': [[TheGhost The unseen warden]] of the prison space station that Davros is kept on in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E4ResurrectionOfTheDaleks Resurrection of the Daleks]]" is supposedly a real tyrant whom even the staff of the station are afraid of. However, he is killed when the Daleks storm the station without ever appearing onscreen.
* ''Series/FatherBrown'': In "The Penitent Man", one of the warders smacks Flambeau in the face for his smart mouth when he first arrives in prison, and then takes every opportunity to torment him about his upcoming execution. The prison governor is a closeted homosexual who attacks Flambeau when Flambeau calls him on it.
* As in the comics, Warden Wolfe in ''Series/TheFlash2014'', who turns out to be [[spoiler: ''selling'' metahuman prisoners to a crime ring]].
* ''Series/Forever2014'': In the flashbacks seen in "Skinny Dipper", Henry has been taken away to an asylum in 1815 after telling his wife Nora about his immortality. The unnamed man running the Charring Cross Asylum uses what modern viewers recognize as waterboarding as part of Henry's "treatments". He admits that Henry seems to be perfectly sane, but proceeds anyway, and continues even as Henry desperately pleads that he no longer believes he's immortal.
* ''Series/ForLife'': Averted with Safiya Masry, played straight with Cyrus Hunt. She is a reasonable, compassionate reformer who tries to always improve things for the inmates, he's an abusive, corrupt jerk.
* In ''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.
* In ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'', Dr. Frederick Chilton oversees the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, and has shown himself to be an evil, conniving man. In season 1, Chilton brainwashes Abel Gideon into believing he's the Chesapeake Ripper. In season 2, he secretly records nearly all of his inmate's conversations, and [[spoiler:secretly shares Will's conversations with Hannibal without Will's consent. He hires Matthew Brown as an orderly despite Brown's history of mental illness]].
* ''Series/TheILand'': [[spoiler:The Warden has been tampering with the results of the program because he believes the criminals are irredeemable, inserting elements into the simulation such as the gun, the cannibal island, and Bonnie and Clyde. He also bribes Chase to keep quiet about it, then later [[HeKnowsTooMuch tries to have her killed]].]]
* ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'': In "Stress Position", a group of prison guards are holding a number of 'off-the-books' prisoners (held under the Patriot Act) for the Justice Department within the protective custody wing of a state prison. They decide this gives them the right to torture and abuse the detainees as they see fit. When one of their number who has misgivings gets another job, the leader of the guards murders him so he cannot talk.
* In the ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' episode "[[Recap/LeverageS03E01TheJailhouseJob The Jailhouse Job]]", Nate finds himself in a prison run by a corrupt warden who is imprisoning innocent people to keep his occupancy rates up.
* ''Series/LukeCage2016'': Albert Rackham, the corrupt warden of Seagate Penitentiary, makes prisoners fight each other in an underground ring for money. He also has Shades and Comanche serve as his enforcers to kill or beat up inmates who disobey him.
* ''Series/MacGyver1985'': In "Jack in the Box", the warden of a prison farm is a SmallTownTyrant 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.
* ''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 uncover 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]].
* The warden from season 3 of ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'' subverts this by being a reasonable guy who lightens Earl's sentence when Earl's good deeds improve the prison. [[spoiler: Double subverted when the warden shreds the early release documents so he can keep Earl there, continuing to improve the joint.]]
* An episode of ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' guest-stars a woman who was sent to juvenile detention for drugs, where the prison warden [[RapeAsBackstory raped her]]. When she encounters him again years later, she shoots him, and a naval officer who's friends with her tries to [[TakingTheHeat take the heat]] and tells Gibbs that he shot the warden.
* In ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'', the prison's warden is often discussed and referred to, but never seen. The ''assistant'' warden, however, is a cold-hearted and self-serving woman who frequently turns a blind eye to the prison's problems or covers them up, blames the rest of the staff for everything that goes wrong, [[spoiler: and is embezzling money from the prison's budget]].
* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': {{Subverted|Trope}} in "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S5E3SmallFriends Small Friends]]", as Warden Taylor is a ReasonableAuthorityFigure who simply does his job and treats the prisoners with respect. A more straightforward example is the prison guard Gabriel who not only turns a blind eye to Marlon terrorizing other prisoners but actively assists in his escape in exchange for money. He ends up getting killed by Marlon for his trouble.
* 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. The one time he does, it's to bully Alvarez in a MisplacedRetribution after Glynn's daughter is raped in a street attack. Sister Marie makes him come to his senses and realize that this is an OutOfCharacterMoment for him.
* 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 fits 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).
* Subverted in ''Series/PrisonBreak'', where the warden of Fox River State Penitentiary, Henry Pope, is more of a ReasonableAuthorityFigure who genuinely believes in reforming the prisoners. A straighter example would be the skull-cracking captain of the guards, Brad Bellick.
* An episode of ''Series/QuantumLeap'' has Sam leap into an inmate at a women's prison who must prove the innocence of another inmate accused of murdering yet another inmate. The actual culprit turns out to be the male warden who had gotten the deceased inmate pregnant, forced her to have an abortion, and then allowed her to bleed to death when the procedure was botched. After exposing the corruption Sam is told that, as a result, a sympathetic guard who had helped Sam throughout the episode eventually becomes the new warden (who, presumably, would avert this trope).
* In ''Series/RedDwarf VIII'', when the crew are back on the Dwarf as it was, but are sent to the onboard prison for correction: the Warden is a sadistic grudge-holding bully who takes delight in having Rimmer and the Cat beaten up.
* One of the final villains of ''Series/TheWalkingDead2010'' 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.]]
* ''Series/TheXFiles'': Warren Brodeur, the corrupt petty tyrant of a Florida death row in "[[Recap/TheXFilesS03E05TheList The List]]".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* The WebVideo/BronyDAndD campaign ''Welcome to the Show'' opens with the characters being tormented by a Warden who persists in their dreams after they escape.
* Basic ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' module [=DA1=] ''Adventures in Blackmoor''. The warden of the Prison Out Of Time is a sadistic former slave master who has been ordered to kill King Uther rather than let him be rescued. He carries out this order by trying to magically torture the King to death.
* ''TabletopGame/MiceAndMystics'' defies this trope by featuring s Warden class in the Downwood Tales expansion. The Warden character introduced, Ansel, takes this further by being one of the most idealistic characters in the game, giving even [[TheLeader Prince]] [[TheHero Collin]] a run for his money.
* ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'' has a character actually ''called'' the Warden, who let his desire to keep Freedom City's crooks in the CardboardPrison overtake his empathy and turn him into a brutal petty tyrant, reasoning that they forfeited their rights when they became criminals. When he was fired, he turned to supervillainy.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'': the LawfulEvil subfaction of Sigil's Mercykillers are incredibly cruel. Death sentences are basically the default punishment, and many prisoners are sold as slaves to the Lower Planes.
* 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.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* Mr. Lockit from ''Theatre/TheBeggarsOpera'' is corrupt and abusive. When you arrive in his jail, he picks out your chains. The bigger your bribe, the lighter your chains.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* While not officially a warden, Commander Mckinsey from ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown'' is one in all but official name. He is the leader of the 444th "Spare" Squadron, a penal fighter squadron. 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.
* ''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.
* ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'' has an extra-dimensional prison whose warden is a Cambion, a [[HalfHumanHybrid half-fiend]]. He clearly doesn't care at all if his prisoners are guilty, and fits them with collars that allow him to kill them at will.
* ''Franchise/BatmanArkhamSeries'':
** Quincy Sharp from ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum''. [[spoiler:His ultimate plan was to kill every single inmate of the Asylum, as he believed himself to be the Spirit of Amadeus Arkham. For specifics, he went to the Joker's cell to knife him to death (Utter Failure), wanted to lobotomize Harley, and burn Poison Ivy alive.]]
** 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 [[LeaveNoSurvivors killing every single inmate in the prison.]]]]
** Subverted in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins''. While Warden Joseph ''is'' on the take, just like every single cop in Gotham except Gordon, he's a peach compared to the other examples. [[spoiler:The one unethical thing he did was to pressure Harleen Quinzel to change her evaluation of Calendar Man to "sane" so that he could legally receive the death penalty. To be fair, Calendar Man ''is'' a murderous and unrepentant criminal in this continuity.]]
** Initially averted in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', but the "Season of Infamy" DLC introduced Warden Ranken, the sadistic leader of Iron Heights Penitentiary, [[spoiler:who did things like cutting off Killer Croc's hand with a buzzsaw to see if it would grow back in an effort to see if Croc's condition could be weaponized on the orders of Quorum.]]
* The ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyZombies'' map "Mob of the Dead" takes place in a hellish version of Alcatraz, complete with a RecurringBoss in the form of Brutus, the warden. He towers over all others, can take a ton of damage, and has electrical attacking abilities. 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.
* ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga 2'': The Jailer, who spends all of his screentime in the form of the demon Kumbhanda, guards the "Internment Facility", which is actually more of a death camp where [[IAmAHumanitarian people are processed into meat]]. His prisoners are held there for some time, before he sticks them (presumably alive) into a meat processor and eats the results. While the setting more or less runs on HorrorHunger, the Jailer is one of the few shown to ''enjoy'' having to eat people.
* 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 beings.
* ''Franchise/DragonQuest'':
** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'': Blackmar is the head of Gallows Moor, a prison in the Dread Realm where he executes various prisoners from both the Real and Dream Worlds in order to [[HopeCrusher break their hope]], [[BadBoss as well as his own minions]]. [[AndNowYouMustMarryMe He also plans to marry Sister Anne]], since it would demoralize the prisoners even further.
** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'': Goreham-Hogg of the [[TheEmpire Gittish Empire]]'s Triumgorate runs the Gortress, a prison that was created by Stellestria in the Empire's past before the events of the game where people are enslaved and worked to the bone until they're dead.
* ''VideoGame/EscapeFromButcherBay'': Downplayed with Warden Hoxie, who does run one hell of a HellholePrison, but because he's a NonActionBigBad, he spends the entire game sitting in his office while Abbott, the head of the guards, actually brutalizes the prisoners. All things considered, he's rather restrained considering Riddick keeps killing dozens of his men and even provoked a PrisonRiot.
* [[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.
* 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."
* ''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 prison rules and trying to go into the restricted zone]]. Finally it gets subverted ''again'' when it's revealed he actually ''is'' a hospitable good guy, but was [[GoodIsNotNice bluffing to twist Lyney's arm into cooperating]]. 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/HenryStickminSeries'' has Dmitri Johannes Petrov who runs the inescapable complex known as The Wall. The complex's methods are very gulag-like, with Dmitri himself seemingly locking up criminals regardless of the crimes they committed.
* 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". The Warden also allows his guards to engage in some ColdBloodedTorture by beating on a prisoner for entertainment, as well as using it as a JackBauerInterrogationTechnique. The rest of Shepard's squad expresses disgust at the Warden and the guards' behavior, either because they find torture morally reprehensible, [[PragmaticVillainy or because]] [[TortureIsIneffective they think torture doesn't work because the victim will say anything to make the pain stop]].
* ''VideoGame/MegaManXCommandMission'': Silver Horn is effectively the overseer of Tianna Camp, where [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized the Rebellion]] keeps [=POWs=]. He personally tortures and murders many prisoners, including [[spoiler:the original Massimo]], and forces [[BridgeBunnies Nana]] to work for him, threatening to execute everyone in the camp if she doesn't comply.
* 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". He controls the Institute with an iron fist and is willing to torture [[HostageSituation "leverage"]] prisoners to keep others in line.
* ''VideoGame/NewLegends'' have an unnamed prison warden in the labor camp you're locked in executing a random slave for the flimsiest of reasons. Before shoving his boot into your face when you trip and fall.
-->'''Warden''': Enough talking! The prison camp is full with prisoners from Beijing. And we must lose some ''dead'' weight.\\
[shoots a random prisoner in the head, just ForTheEvulz]
* ''VideoGame/OctopathTravelerII'': Warden Davids forces prisoners to work in freezing cold weather without any warm clothes, frequently beats them up, and doesn't care if they die. The ore they mine should go to the mainland, but Davids forces prisoners to overwork, sells the ore on the side and pockets the money.
* ''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.
* ''VideoGame/SagaFrontier'': The Warden is so evil that he's actually one of the felons imprisoned within TheAlcatraz.
* ''VideoGame/SandsOfDestruction'': Lupus Rex appears to overseer the [[TheAlcatraz Sky Gaol]], but he's mainly just neglectful. His son Rajiv, on the other hand, while more of a field agent, is a complete {{Jerkass}}, who insults his ally Naja for [[HalfBreedDiscrimination being a half-breed]], and later returns to Sky Gaol to [[ColdBloodedTorture torture a prisoner for fun]].
* 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.
* Sheriff Fester Shinetop in ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'' tries his best to stop Guybrush, is a jerk to his one prisoner, and is just generally sinister. [[spoiler: He turns out to be the BigBad in disguise.]]
* ''VideoGame/SpaceStation13'': 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 inherently subject to this, and paranoia ensues every time a Warden is seen straying from the brig control desk.
%% Needs Context * Warden Montag in ''VideoGame/{{Strife}}''. [[LargeHam "Shackles or chains, I want you to hang around!"]]
* Warden Hargrave from ''VideoGame/TheSuffering'' is one of the few human opponents in the game. He's a religious nut who takes advantage of the monsters appearing on the island as an excuse to murder prisoners. Warden Elroy Sr. from the sequel was apparently pretty bad too before he died. His son however isn't.
* 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 [[PrisonChangesPeople sufficiently changed themselves as a person]]. Three of the four Chaplains are doing what they can to help prisoners change enough to meet the requirements to leave. 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.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Ultrakill}}'':
** [[OurAngelsAreDifferent The Virtues]] are more ruthless than evil, but they will still smite the sinners of Hell if they refuse to continue their punishments.
** The game also has an unusual example of this trope where [[spoiler:the warden and the prison are ''[[GeniusLoci one and the same]]''. {{Hell}} itself is a living realm of eternal suffering, and it torments its own prisoners out of {{sadist}}ic amusement rather than servitude for God.]]
* ''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 [[PayEvilUntoEvil 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.
* ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'':
** Maiev Shadowsong from ''Warcraft III'' is a downplayed version -- when you control her, she's chasing after Illidan, who was her prisoner for ten millennia, 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.
** Meanwhile, regular Wardens are said to be looked down on in Night Elf society, but this doesn't show up in-game. Even their unit quotes don't reveal them as particularly evil.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/GyakutenKenji2'': Averted in ''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 {{Double Subver|sion}}ted 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]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''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/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** The warden in "[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderImprisoned 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. It also doesn't help that his "prison" is essentially a ''concentration camp'' for Earthbenders, rather than a jail for actual criminals.
** The warden in "[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheBoilingRockPart1 The Boiling Rock, Part 1]]/[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheBoilingRockPart2 Part 2]]" would rather die (and have prisoners killed as well) than tarnish his prison's record of zero escapes. He also tortures a prisoner into revealing escape plans. Though interestingly, he gets some PetTheDog moments with [[spoiler:his niece Mai]].
* 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/{{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 made to spend the night inside a ScaryJackInTheBox, where Jack plays videos for brainwashing.
* Walker from ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' is an obsessive RulesLawyer when it comes to the rules of The Ghost Zone, and will go to great lengths to belittle his prisoners and keep them under control by any means necessary. His prisoners may be ghosts, but he can ensure a FateWorseThanDeath.
* ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'': The man in charge of Dexter's school's detention room on the short "Dexter Detention". The man treats his room [[SeriousBusiness like it was an actual prison]], calling all students that are there "criminals" (the camera even zooms in on his mouth [[RunningGag every time he says the word]] to make emphasis on this), trying to torture them psychologically so they accept their alleged guilt, and putting them into a "PunishmentBox" that is just a little hole in the ground barely bigger than a shoebox (and if you don't fit, too bad--he'll ''make'' you fit) where he will keep them until they go mad or he decides to let them out, whichever comes first.
* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': In "Forgetting Sarick Mortshall", the guards at Nick's asylum mistreat and lick the faces of the restrained patients.
* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': The Dominator is perhaps one of the most frightening examples that Western Animation has given us. He is undoubtedly a heartless, soulless mass murderer monster [[PsychoForHire who enjoys too much of his work]], as he tortures intruders with [[ElectricTorture electricity]] and controls kidnapped children with audio-frequency, turning them into [[SlaveMooks mind-controlled slaves]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'', 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/StormHawks'': Mr. Moss is the Cyclonian warden of a high-security prison located on Terra Zartacla. He's also a FatBastard with a noticeable Southern accent who wields an energy whip and takes sadistic glee in hunting escaped prisoners.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Superjail}}'': The Warden isn't exactly ''evil'', but he is a textbook example of a PsychopathicManchild. While his schemes are always intended to be "fun" (at least for him), Warden's boundless enthusiasm mixes with his total inattention to detail and thus always leads to absolute chaos and carnage, with the prisoners receiving the brunt of the consequences.
* Although he wasn't explicitly evil, the diamond-obsessed Warden Cyrus Meece in ''WesternAnimation/SWATKats'' was presented as greedy and unlikable. He even gets what the writers intended as a KarmicDeath, being [[TakenForGranite turned into crystal]] and then [[LiterallyShatteredLives shattered]].
* {{Averted|Trope}}, or at least {{downplayed|Trope}}, in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010''. This continuity has Amanda Waller 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.
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