History Main / TheJailer

* In ''Film/HouseOfWhipcord'', Margaret runs a secret illegal prison for 'morally corrupt' and 'delinquent' young women, replete with a group of tough female wardens who administer a harsh regime of corporal punishment upon their prisoners. Despite how this premise may sound at first glance, it is worth noting that this is ''not'' your bog-standard GirlsBehindBars exploitation flick, and what Margaret's victims go through is played for utter horror.

* In ''Film/HouseOfWhipcord'', Margaret runs a secret illegal prison for 'morally corrupt' and 'delinquent' young women, replete with a group of tough female wardens who administer a harsh regime of corporal punishment upon their prisoners. It is worth noting that this is ''not'' your bog-standard GirlsBehindBars exploitation flick, and what Margaret's victims go through is played for utter horror.

A vigilante, usually a KnightTemplar or WellIntentionedExtremist, who, rather than killing his chosen targets, imprisons them. Unlike judges and prison wardens, this character typically has no legal authority to actually lock people up, and most often is doing this out of a desire to punish those they feel the law can't or won't, a desire for power over others, or quite frequently both. Don't expect this villain to be overly concerned about the rights of their prisoners.

* In ''Film/EscapePlan'', Hobbes is warden of The Tomb: a privately run, off-the-books prison where individuals, corporations and governments can pay to have troublesome individuals 'disappeared'. There are no trials and no release dates. And because WardensAreEvil, he enjoys exercising absolute power of his personal fiefdom.

* Der Fallensteller ("The Trapper") is a German superhero from the ''Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse''. He is a GadgeteerGenius who specializes in traps and bonds.

A vigilante, usually a KnightTemplar or WellIntentionedExtremist, who, rather than killing his chosen targets, imprisons them. Unlike judges and prison wardens, this character typically has no legal authority to actually lock people up, and most often is doing this out of a desire to punish those they feel the law can't or won't, a desire for power over others, or quite frequently both.

A vigilante, usually a KnightTemplar or WellIntentionedExtremist, who, rather than killing his chosen targets, imprisons them. Unlike judges and prison wardens, this character typically has no legal authority to actually lock people up, and is doing this out of a desire to punish those they feel the law can't or won't, a desire for power over others, or quite frequently both.

A vigilante, usually a KnightTemplar or WellIntentionedExtremist, who, rather than killing his chosen targets, imprisons them.

* ''TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful'' has the Wardens, dream entities from [[LotusEaterMachine the Dreamlands]] whose function was to keep the souls [[BigGood the Radiant Queens]] and their [[MagicalGirl Princesses]] imprisoned here so they couldn't use their BornAgainImmortality. By the time the story takes place, they have been overthrown and are hiding in the darkest corners of the Dreamlands, but they still occasionally try to capture Princesses when they can.

* ''TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful'' has the Wardens, dream entities from [[DreamLand the Dreamlands]] whose function was to keep the souls [[BigGood the Radiant Queens]] and their [[MagicalGirl Princesses]] imprisoned here so they couldn't use their BornAgainImmortality. By the time the story takes place, they have been overthrown and are hiding in the darkest corners of the Dreamlands, but they still occasionally try to capture Princesses when they can.

* Gigi, a VainSorceress and HornyDevil from ''WesternAnimation/TheLifeAndTimesOfJuniperLee''; in order to stay young, she had to [[VampiricDraining drain the energy from other magical beings]], so she kidnapped them and turned them into animals before imprisoning them in the Orchid Bay Zoo. (June herself became a victim while trying to rescue them; [[BadassDamsel a mistake on Gigi's part]], as is often the case with this Trope.)

* In ''ComicBook/TheFlash2014'', the heroes turn part of STAR Labs into a private prison for metahumans who they think are too powerful for the criminal justice system to deal with.

* In ''Film/HouseOfWhipcord'', Margaret runs a secret illegal prison for 'morally corrupt' and 'delinquent' young women, replete with a group of tough female wardens who administer a harsh regime of corporal punishment upon their prisoners.

->'''Batman:''' I've seen how you treat your prisoners. Forgotten and scared, without hope or compassion.
->'''Lock-Up:''' And you actually care for those creatures? You're just as crazy as they are!

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* [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons Torog]], Evil God of the Underdark. Patron of Jailors and Torturers.
* The ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'' TabletopGame/FreedomCity villain Warden is one of these. He worked on making prisons as [[CardboardPrison non-cardboardy]] as possible, and got a bit fed up with people making that task harder by telling him that the prisoners have rights; didn't they forfeit those when they ended up in prison? His current goal is to overthrow "soft and corrupt" law and replace it with something altogether more draconian.

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* Hydraxon from ''Toy/{{Bionicle}}''. To be fair, it is his job description, and he's hunting escapees in a place where he can expect to ''find'' only escapees, but he's still a little too quick to assume that everyone he meets is an escaped criminal. Botar, in charge of prisoner apprehension and transport, also liked his job a bit too much, trouble is he doesn't bother to look after his prisoners, or know that they might have escaped.

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* The Ur-quan Kzer-za in ''VideoGame/StarControlII''. Either you joined them, or you got slave-shielded and trapped on your home world.
* Warden Kuril from ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', who you have to deal with during Jack's recruitment mission. Turns out he likes to make a tidy profit in selling select prisoners as slaves, which Shepard and his/her crew do ''not'' take kindly to.

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* Der Fallensteller ("The Trapper") is a German superhero from the ''Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse''. He is a GadgeteerGenius who specializes in traps and bonds.
* The role of the sheriff in ''Roleplay/ComicFuryWerewolf''.
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* Locksmith in the MarvelUniverse who used to imprison super-humans, feeling their feats overshadowed the achievements of ordinary humans. Most of his victims were {{Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain}}s who ComicBook/SpiderWoman (Jessica Drew) had fought during the run of her own comic, but eventually he managed to capture Tigra and Spider-Woman herself. While the design of his prison to prevent his captives from using their powers to escape was considerable, the heroine managed to outsmart him. (First she had Tigra insult Poltergeist to start a fight, which shorted out the power that maintained the cells. Then she convinced Gypsy Moth, to use her powers of cloth to switch their costumes. The Locksmith was fooled, and put Spider-Woman and Gypsy Moth in the wrong cells after the power was restored, and the one designed for Gypsy Moth couldn't hold Spider-Woman. Once everyone was free, the Locksmith stood no chance.
* The Hangman, another MarvelUniverse vigilante, would murder male evildoers but imprison female ones to 'protect them from corruption'. Unfortunately, he had a nasty habit of forgetting about them, leaving them without food or water...

* Faora Hu-Ul was a Phantom Zone villain introduced in ''[[ComicBook/{{Superman}} Action Comics]]'' #471. She was a beautiful Kryptonian woman whose unexplained hatred for men led her to torture and kill 23 men at a secret concentration camp in her home.

* The Master Jailer from ''{{Superman}}'' comics (Deathtrap in ComicBook/PostCrisis continuity) is a sort of example, except he's an out and out villain who just likes the power trips provided by his powers. And of course he's an unusual example because he actually has powers to facilitate his fascination with incarceration. Also of note is the fact that he was the architect who designed the supermax prison in Metropolis, Stryker's Island.

* Superman acts as one to Floyd Lawton after the latter killed Clark's mother in ''FanFic/TheMetropolitanMan''.

* The ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'' FreedomCity villain Warden is one of these. He worked on making prisons as [[CardboardPrison non-cardboardy]] as possible, and got a bit fed up with people making that task harder by telling him that the prisoners have rights; didn't they forfeit those when they ended up in prison? His current goal is to overthrow "soft and corrupt" law and replace it with something altogether more draconian.

* The role of the sheriff in ''ComicFuryWerewolf''.

* Played with in ''ReBoot'' when Megabyte imprisons Hexadecimal when he's not exploiting her power. When the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin firewall]] goes up imprisoning Megabyte, Hexadecimal remarks "now it is the jailer who has been jailed."
* Kampe, the jailer of Tartarus in ''ClassOfTheTitans''. Cronus was the only prisoner to have ever escaped under her watch. She hopes to correct this, even if it means sacrificing others to do so.

* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaLegendsOfAwesomeness'': General Tsin in "The Most Dangerous Po", who capturing the most dangerous villains in China and imprisoning them as his personal collection. Also an example of HuntingTheMostDangerousGame and TheCollector.

* Lock-Up from ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' (and CanonImmigrant to the Franchise/{{Batman}} comics). In the animated series, Lyle Bolton was once the new Head of Security at Arkham Asylum, but whose methods were so harsh and extreme that everyone at the asylum was afraid of him, particularly Scarecrow. After being relieved of his post, he would go on to "arrest" those who he deemed to be at the root of Gotham's problems, including the mayor, Commissioner Gordon, reporter Summer Gleeson and the chief doctor of Arkham ([[SarcasmMode coincidentally]] the very same people who exposed his abuse of power and had him fired, making this a case of revenge) before being stopped by Batman and Robin.