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* The ''Literature/SinisterSixTrilogy'' has Electro, who's first seen in a sealed plastic box suspended in water.
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* The ''Literature/SinisterSixTrilogy'' ''Literature/SpiderManSinisterSixTrilogy'' has Electro, who's first seen in a sealed plastic box suspended in water.
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None
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* {{Downplayed|Trope}} in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}''. Visser Three (by then, [[spoiler:promoted to Visser One]]) is tried and imprisoned in a special "Yeerk box", built by the Andalites that lets him hear and speak, and then he's shipped off to a special max-security prison until he dies. The 'downplayed' comes from the fact that he's a sentient slug that can barely move under its own power and is deaf and blind. The reason he's imprisoned now is that he led the Yeerks trying to take over the human race.
to:
* {{Downplayed|Trope}} in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}''.''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'':
** {{Downplayed|Trope}}. Visser Three (by then, [[spoiler:promoted to Visser One]]) is tried and imprisoned in a special "Yeerk box", built by the Andalites that lets him hear and speak, and then he's shipped off to a special max-security prison until he dies. The 'downplayed' comes from the fact that he's a sentient slug that can barely move under its own power and is deaf and blind. The reason he's imprisoned now is that he led the Yeerks trying to take over the human race.
** {{Downplayed|Trope}}. Visser Three (by then, [[spoiler:promoted to Visser One]]) is tried and imprisoned in a special "Yeerk box", built by the Andalites that lets him hear and speak, and then he's shipped off to a special max-security prison until he dies. The 'downplayed' comes from the fact that he's a sentient slug that can barely move under its own power and is deaf and blind. The reason he's imprisoned now is that he led the Yeerks trying to take over the human race.
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* ''Literature/{{Circleverse}}'': ''Literature/TheWillOfTheEmpress'' has Sandry kidnapped by a man who intends to force her into marriage. He locks her in a prison [[{{Pun}} made for tailors]], that is, one that will hamstring her thread-based magic. It's described as "unraveling" whenever she tries using it. Fortunately, her link with her foster siblings is made up of all their magics, so she's still able to use it and get them to free her.
* Creator/JimButcher's ''Literature/CodexAlera'' series has several mentions of prisons made to hold [[ElementalRockPaperScissors particular types of crafters]]. Earthcrafters are held in cages off the ground to prevent contact with the earth, windcrafters are held in windowless stone cells to prevent breezes (or buried up to the shoulders), watercrafters are held in a ring of fire that dehydrates the air around them, and so on. Since it's not that rare for normal people to have more than one kind of fury, these measures tend to have a 'mix and match' quality to them, but High Lords and Ladies have access to all six, so a prison for them has to be incredibly complicated, often tailored to the specific individual.
* Creator/JimButcher's ''Literature/CodexAlera'' series has several mentions of prisons made to hold [[ElementalRockPaperScissors particular types of crafters]]. Earthcrafters are held in cages off the ground to prevent contact with the earth, windcrafters are held in windowless stone cells to prevent breezes (or buried up to the shoulders), watercrafters are held in a ring of fire that dehydrates the air around them, and so on. Since it's not that rare for normal people to have more than one kind of fury, these measures tend to have a 'mix and match' quality to them, but High Lords and Ladies have access to all six, so a prison for them has to be incredibly complicated, often tailored to the specific individual.
to:
* ''Literature/{{Circleverse}}'': ''Literature/TheWillOfTheEmpress'' has Sandry kidnapped by a man who intends to force her into marriage. He locks her in a prison [[{{Pun}} made for tailors]], that is, one that will hamstring her thread-based magic. It's described as "unraveling" whenever she tries using it. Fortunately, her link with her foster siblings is made up of all their magics, so she's still able to use it and get them to free her.
* Creator/JimButcher's''Literature/CodexAlera'' series has several mentions of prisons made to hold [[ElementalRockPaperScissors particular types of crafters]]. Earthcrafters are held in cages off the ground to prevent contact with the earth, windcrafters are held in windowless stone cells to prevent breezes (or buried up to the shoulders), watercrafters are held in a ring of fire that dehydrates the air around them, and so on. Since it's not that rare for normal people to have more than one kind of fury, these measures tend to have a 'mix and match' quality to them, but High Lords and Ladies have access to all six, so a prison for them has to be incredibly complicated, often tailored to the specific individual.
* Creator/JimButcher's
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* ''Literature/TheEmperorsSoul:'' The Rose Empire's special cells for Forgers have walls made of many different types of stone from many different locations. In order to make a soulstamp to Forge a hole through the wall, the Forger would have to identify every type of stone used to make it and address all of them in the soulstamp. And then there's a plate of ralkalest, the unForgeable metal, behind the stones in case the Forger does figure them all out.
* In Creator/RobertEHoward's ''Literature/TheHourOfTheDragon'', Literature/ConanTheBarbarian is thrown into a prison with a skeleton and taunted with the fact that only the slaves and their master know of it, and he will die there like the last one.
* In Creator/RobertEHoward's ''Literature/TheHourOfTheDragon'', Literature/ConanTheBarbarian is thrown into a prison with a skeleton and taunted with the fact that only the slaves and their master know of it, and he will die there like the last one.
to:
* ''Literature/TheEmperorsSoul:'' ''Literature/TheEmperorsSoul'': The Rose Empire's special cells for Forgers have walls made of many different types of stone from many different locations. In order to make a soulstamp to Forge a hole through the wall, the Forger would have to identify every type of stone used to make it and address all of them in the soulstamp. And then there's a plate of ralkalest, the unForgeable metal, behind the stones in case the Forger does figure them all out.
* In Creator/RobertEHoward's ''Literature/TheHourOfTheDragon'', Literature/ConanTheBarbarian is thrown into a prison with a skeleton and taunted with the fact that only the slaves and their master know of it, and he will die there like the last one.out.
* In Creator/RobertEHoward's ''Literature/TheHourOfTheDragon'', Literature/ConanTheBarbarian is thrown into a prison with a skeleton and taunted with the fact that only the slaves and their master know of it, and he will die there like the last one.
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** ''The Indestructible Man'', a Literature/PastDoctorAdventures novel by Simon Messingham. The eponymous character's EvilCounterpart, Captain Taylor (an {{Expy}} of [[Series/CaptainScarletAndTheMysterons Captain Black]]) is immersed in a (now-solidified) ball of reinforced liquid concrete, sealed in titanium, and placed in an underwater habitat on the bottom of the ocean constructed for this sole purpose, monitored by sensors, a small team of guards and automated {{Sentry Gun}}s. For years there's never been a flicker of brainwave activity until the events of the novel. Taylor then casually melts his way out of the concrete, slaughters all the guards and sails off in a submarine that happened to be docked.
to:
** ''The Indestructible Man'', a Literature/PastDoctorAdventures ''Literature/PastDoctorAdventures'' novel by Simon Messingham. The eponymous character's EvilCounterpart, Captain Taylor (an {{Expy}} of [[Series/CaptainScarletAndTheMysterons Captain Black]]) is immersed in a (now-solidified) ball of reinforced liquid concrete, sealed in titanium, and placed in an underwater habitat on the bottom of the ocean constructed for this sole purpose, monitored by sensors, a small team of guards and automated {{Sentry Gun}}s. For years there's never been a flicker of brainwave activity until the events of the novel. Taylor then casually melts his way out of the concrete, slaughters all the guards and sails off in a submarine that happened to be docked.
* ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'': Spore is harmless in the vacuum of space. It needs air to spread and bare skin to [[TheVirus infect]]; being stored in a sealed room in a deep pit on an airless asteroid, with plenty of warnings outside of the door, is ideal. The Ithorians didn't kill it because of their dedication to pacifism. Unfortunately, in the three hundred years since the outbreak was contained, they started letting people [[AsteroidMiners mine the asteroids]], even ''that'' asteroid. Partly this was out of the knowledge that if they said what Spore was, TheEmpire or others would [[EvilIsNotAToy try to use it]], whereas if they just warned people away, [[ForbiddenFruit it would just make treasure hunters more determined]].
* In ''Literature/TheHourOfTheDragon'', Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian is thrown into a prison with a skeleton and taunted with the fact that only the slaves and their master know of it, and he will die there like the last one.
* In ''Literature/TheHourOfTheDragon'', Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian is thrown into a prison with a skeleton and taunted with the fact that only the slaves and their master know of it, and he will die there like the last one.
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* In ''Suldrun's Garden'' (the first book of the ''Literature/{{Lyonesse}}'' trilogy) by Creator/JackVance, Aillas is lowered into an Oubliette ("a bell-shaped cell fourteen feet in diameter and seventy feet underground") for impregnating King Casmir's daughter and left to die. Aillas finds a dozen skeletons sitting around the oubliette, with a note scrawled on the wall welcoming him to their "council". Just before he figures a way out, he starts to hear them talking to him. Taking months, he constructs a ladder from the bones of the previous occupants, and escapes.
to:
* ''Literature/{{Lyonesse}}'': In ''Suldrun's Garden'' (the first book of the ''Literature/{{Lyonesse}}'' trilogy) by Creator/JackVance, book), Aillas is lowered into an Oubliette ("a bell-shaped cell fourteen feet in diameter and seventy feet underground") for impregnating King Casmir's daughter and left to die. Aillas finds a dozen skeletons sitting around the oubliette, with a note scrawled on the wall welcoming him to their "council". Just before he figures a way out, he starts to hear them talking to him. Taking months, he constructs a ladder from the bones of the previous occupants, and escapes.
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* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': Spore, in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'', is harmless in the vacuum of space. It needs air to spread and bare skin to [[TheVirus infect]]; being stored in a sealed room in a deep pit on an airless asteroid, with plenty of warnings outside of the door, is ideal. The Ithorians didn't kill it because of their dedication to pacifism. Unfortunately, in the three hundred years since the outbreak was contained they started letting people [[AsteroidMiners mine the asteroids]], even ''that'' asteroid. Partly this was out of the knowledge that if they said what Spore was, TheEmpire or others would [[EvilIsNotAToy try to use it]], whereas if they just warned people away, [[ForbiddenFruit it would just make treasure hunters more determined]].
* Digitized personalities run in virtual environments in Creator/RichardKMorgan's ''Literature/TakeshiKovacs'' series are effectively immortal if their environment is not sophisticated enough to include death or the possibility of suicide. Someone running in a simple, low-power simulator could remain there for a very long time indeed, made worse by the fact that simulations run faster than normal time. [[AndIMustScream Few hundred years of boredom sound like fun]]?
* Digitized personalities run in virtual environments in Creator/RichardKMorgan's ''Literature/TakeshiKovacs'' series are effectively immortal if their environment is not sophisticated enough to include death or the possibility of suicide. Someone running in a simple, low-power simulator could remain there for a very long time indeed, made worse by the fact that simulations run faster than normal time. [[AndIMustScream Few hundred years of boredom sound like fun]]?
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* ''Literature/TheWillOfTheEmpress'' has Sandry kidnapped by a man who intends to force her into marriage. He locks her in a prison [[{{Pun}} made for tailors]], that is, one that will hamstring her thread-based magic. It's described as "unraveling" whenever she tries using it. Fortunately, her link with her foster siblings is made up of all their magics, so she's still able to use it and get them to free her.
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[[TailorMadePrison Tailor-Made Prisons]] in {{Literature}}.
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* In ''Literature/TwentyYearsAfter'', D'Artagnan and Porthos have been captured on the orders of Cardinal Mazarin and are imprisoned in Rueil Castle. Mazarin requests ''thirty'' extra soldiers to guard exclusively the two "special guests". Unsurprisingly, they manage to escape anyway.
* {{Downplayed|Trope}} in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}''. Visser Three (by then, [[spoiler:promoted to Visser One]]) is tried and imprisoned in a special "Yeerk box", built by the Andalites that lets him hear and speak, and then he's shipped off to a special max-security prison until he dies. The 'downplayed' comes from the fact that he's a sentient slug that can barely move under its own power and is deaf and blind. The reason he's imprisoned now is that he led the Yeerks trying to take over the human race.
** Also, David. He was trapped in rat form (by being kept in a space too small for him to resume human form, thus unable to change back before ShapeshifterModeLock set in) and kept on a rocky island with not much life on it for being willing and able to destroy the Animorphs and any hope for the world with a few words to the Yeerks and repeatedly trying to kill them. Books later, Crayak and the Drode give him a chance at revenge at Rachel, but when Rachel ignores Crayak's offers for super strength, Crayak and the Drode leave. Rachel catches David and David pleads to be killed, as being put back on the island would be a fate worse than death. It is left unclear at the end whether Rachel killed him or sent him back to the island.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov published books that were a collection of short stories. One involved an alien species trying to deal with an alien murderer and considered the constrictive prison to be inhumane. They created a much larger building for that alien to reside in, with food deliveries through a [[TubeTravel Pneumatic Tube system]], and no way out other than a fatal 50-foot drop. The prisoner opened its wings and flew away.
* ''Literature/{{Circleverse}}'': ''Literature/TheWillOfTheEmpress'' has Sandry kidnapped by a man who intends to force her into marriage. He locks her in a prison [[{{Pun}} made for tailors]], that is, one that will hamstring her thread-based magic. It's described as "unraveling" whenever she tries using it. Fortunately, her link with her foster siblings is made up of all their magics, so she's still able to use it and get them to free her.
* Creator/JimButcher's ''Literature/CodexAlera'' series has several mentions of prisons made to hold [[ElementalRockPaperScissors particular types of crafters]]. Earthcrafters are held in cages off the ground to prevent contact with the earth, windcrafters are held in windowless stone cells to prevent breezes (or buried up to the shoulders), watercrafters are held in a ring of fire that dehydrates the air around them, and so on. Since it's not that rare for normal people to have more than one kind of fury, these measures tend to have a 'mix and match' quality to them, but High Lords and Ladies have access to all six, so a prison for them has to be incredibly complicated, often tailored to the specific individual.
* In the first book of the ''Literature/ColdfireTrilogy'', the Hunter is captured and rendered totally helpless by being placed in a simple bonfire. A normal human who can manipulate fae could easily extinguish the flames and escape, but the DealWithTheDevil the Hunter made for immortality long ago robbed him of his ability to manipulate anything related to life or light, like fire. All he can do is tap into the weak currents of earth fae to constantly heal himself to avoid being burned to death. Damien wonders what is more painful to the Hunter: being burned alive, or the blow to his pride due to being rendered powerless through such mundane means.
* In Peter Hamilton's ''Literature/CommonwealthSaga'' novels, very serious but non-capital crimes are punished by a one-way trip to the surface of a prison world, which is much the same as being cast back into the Stone Age, as there is no real civilization or technology. No visitors, and a military blockade ensures no rescuers will get close enough to even see the world.
* In Lawrence Yep's ''Literature/DragonSeries'', the protagonists come onto a deserted island sealed by a barrier that prevents the use of any magic within it and stops anyone or anything from leaving. Anything, that is, except earth, to prevent the beach from piling up endlessly. Once Thorn figures this out, they make a raft from ceramic jars and escape. Of course, they only realize afterward that they accidentally helped the island's designated prisoner, [[EvilSorcerer The Nameless One]], to escape as well.
* ''Literature/TheEmperorsSoul:'' The Rose Empire's special cells for Forgers have walls made of many different types of stone from many different locations. In order to make a soulstamp to Forge a hole through the wall, the Forger would have to identify every type of stone used to make it and address all of them in the soulstamp. And then there's a plate of ralkalest, the unForgeable metal, behind the stones in case the Forger does figure them all out.
* In Creator/RobertEHoward's ''Literature/TheHourOfTheDragon'', Literature/ConanTheBarbarian is thrown into a prison with a skeleton and taunted with the fact that only the slaves and their master know of it, and he will die there like the last one.
* The Creator/GordonRDickson short story "Danger -- Human!" had the aliens construct an escape-proof cell, consisting of metal physical enclosures, an impenetrable force field, constant armed surveillance, and access only for carefully monitored brief periods to provide food and water, to study a human they'd abducted to try and find out why humans kept conquering the galaxy. Didn't work.
* The first part of Dante's ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' was thick with this, not so much due to the fact that Hell was escape-proof, but due to the fact that sinners were punished via creative means that fit the crimes they had committed in life. To give one example, thieves had their very forms stolen from them, and continually shifted from one monstrous form to another.
* ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'':
** ''The Indestructible Man'', a Literature/PastDoctorAdventures novel by Simon Messingham. The eponymous character's EvilCounterpart, Captain Taylor (an {{Expy}} of [[Series/CaptainScarletAndTheMysterons Captain Black]]) is immersed in a (now-solidified) ball of reinforced liquid concrete, sealed in titanium, and placed in an underwater habitat on the bottom of the ocean constructed for this sole purpose, monitored by sensors, a small team of guards and automated {{Sentry Gun}}s. For years there's never been a flicker of brainwave activity until the events of the novel. Taylor then casually melts his way out of the concrete, slaughters all the guards and sails off in a submarine that happened to be docked.
** In ''Harvest of Time'' by Alistair Reynolds, a Third Doctor and UNIT story, the Master is imprisoned in a windowless cell that is usually submerged in water at the bottom of a disused nuclear power station which is still notably radioactive. The radioactivity doesn't affect Time Lords, but it discourages visitors from hanging about long enough to be hypnotized.
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'':
** In the short story [[Literature/SideJobs "Love Hurts"]], the villain lovingly describes the cage for Dresden -- or rather, for his best friend, to provoke her into attacking. It's covered in spikes so that he can't fall asleep, inside a half-bowl so he must stand in his own waste, and there's a rack with three needle-nosed spears on it outside so any passing evildoer can participate.
** [[spoiler:Demonreach]] is revealed to be this in ''Literature/ColdDays'', with Dresden having unwittingly become the Warden in ''Literature/TurnCoat'' -- he thought that it was just an ordinary, if horrifyingly powerful and creepy, GeniusLoci powered by a very strong dark LeyLine. As it turns out, it's the ultimate super-max for dark gods and immortals, with each inmate getting their own CrystalPrison, and it was built in both space ''and'' time (and, [[TheSmartGuy Bob]] -- who's initially stumped by it and has to have it dumbed down significantly to get it, before dumbing it down further for Harry -- implies, several dimensions beyond that), its defenses are so strong that once Harry works them out, he's pretty confident (but not totally certain) that he can take ''Mab'' while on the island, with a physical embodiment of it being theoretically capable of imprisoning her. Oh, and if it's ever broken open, it'll trigger 'the Banefire', an explosion that would apparently take out approximately half of the Mid-Western United States. This is {{justified|Trope}}: it's a prison so hard that ''six'' borderline {{Physical God}}s are in ''minimum security'', with seven apparently infinite tunnels full of dark gods and {{Eldritch Abomination}}s.
* In ''The Eyes of Kid Midas'' by Shusterman Neal, Kevin creates a prison for the school bully full of fish. Fish being one of the few things that Kevin knows that the bully is afraid of.
* ''Literature/{{Fablehaven}}'' has several examples of this. One of the most unique examples is Olloch the Glutton -- he isn't trapped anywhere, he's just TakenForGranite... until [[SealedEvilInACan someone feeds him]].
* ''Literature/LegacyOfTheDragokin'': Zarracka has a custom-made cell to negate her [[AnIcePerson ice powers]]. It has successfully held her for ten years, [[spoiler:and she never escapes from it. Her jailer, Daniar, was so paranoid about her breaking free while she was gone that she took Zarracka with her to another country, and she escaped from a weaker cell]].
* In ''The Black Prism'', the first book of ''Literature/TheLightBringerTrilogy'', Gavin Guile creates a [[HardLight blue luxin]] prison with a [[PowerNullifier hellstone]] floor. It's designed to hold a Prism, such as his brother. [[spoiler:There's more cells beyond the first, each with the same design.]] Notably enough the difficulty of creating the prison is made explicit and the immense cost of the power nullifying hellstone is pointed out, [[spoiler:offering an early hint that the prison's designer wasn't exactly sane]].
* In ''Suldrun's Garden'' (the first book of the ''Literature/{{Lyonesse}}'' trilogy) by Creator/JackVance, Aillas is lowered into an Oubliette ("a bell-shaped cell fourteen feet in diameter and seventy feet underground") for impregnating King Casmir's daughter and left to die. Aillas finds a dozen skeletons sitting around the oubliette, with a note scrawled on the wall welcoming him to their "council". Just before he figures a way out, he starts to hear them talking to him. Taking months, he constructs a ladder from the bones of the previous occupants, and escapes.
* In ''[[Literature/MythAdventures Myth-ing Persons]]'', Aahz is imprisoned on Limbo in a special jail cell designed to hold ''vampire'' criminals. It's the mouth of an animated dragon's-head statue, which is mobile and aware enough to swallow a would-be escapee who tries to rip out its teeth/bars with vampiric strength, or inhale them if they turn into mist.
%%* In ''Literature/TheOnesWhoWalkAwayFromOmelas'', Utopia is PoweredByAForsakenChild locked in a dark basement.
%%* Tartarus in ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians''.
* In ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImASupervillain'', the extremely powerful shapeshifter Chimera was kept in one. He's bound in shackles that will slice off his limbs and neck if he grows too big, and if he tries to shrink they'll electrocute him.
%%* In ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', where Melkor was imprisoned in a completely inescapable prison. If only those morons didn't release him for good behavior. All Sauron's lairs worked this way too. Thorin's father was imprisoned for so long he could no longer remember his own name. HOW is the prison "tailor-made"?
* The ''Literature/SinisterSixTrilogy'' has Electro, who's first seen in a sealed plastic box suspended in water.
* ''Literature/SoonIWillBeInvincible'': {{Deconstructed|Trope}} with Baron Ether, whom Dr. Impossible seeks advice from. His arch-nemesis The Mechanist has trapped him in a house designed specifically to hold him, but it does little to prevent others from breaking in to see him.
%%** Dr. Impossible is in one at the beginning.
* ''Literature/StarBridge'' has Vantee, aka "Prison Terminal". It's an inverse prison, in that the prisoners are free to roam the (barren) surface of the world, while the ''guards'' are locked inside a fortress with the Tube terminal, the only way on or off the planet. At one point after bragging of Lil's ability to break him free of any prison Wu says that Vantee could ''perhaps'' hold him... ''if'' they could keep him in custody long enough to get him there.
* ''Literature/StarShardsChronicles'': In ''Shattered Sky'', Dillon Cole has the power to see patterns and create order from chaos. No ordinary prison could hold him -- locks would spontaneously unlock themselves in his presence, guards would bow to his whim, and he could easily tap into the resonant frequency of a wall to tear it apart. The millionaire genius Elon Tessic manages to design a specialized prison that won't be affected by his powers. Naturally, Dillon, being a protagonist, manages to escape anyway.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': Spore, in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'', is harmless in the vacuum of space. It needs air to spread and bare skin to [[TheVirus infect]]; being stored in a sealed room in a deep pit on an airless asteroid, with plenty of warnings outside of the door, is ideal. The Ithorians didn't kill it because of their dedication to pacifism. Unfortunately, in the three hundred years since the outbreak was contained they started letting people [[AsteroidMiners mine the asteroids]], even ''that'' asteroid. Partly this was out of the knowledge that if they said what Spore was, TheEmpire or others would [[EvilIsNotAToy try to use it]], whereas if they just warned people away, [[ForbiddenFruit it would just make treasure hunters more determined]].
* Digitized personalities run in virtual environments in Creator/RichardKMorgan's ''Literature/TakeshiKovacs'' series are effectively immortal if their environment is not sophisticated enough to include death or the possibility of suicide. Someone running in a simple, low-power simulator could remain there for a very long time indeed, made worse by the fact that simulations run faster than normal time. [[AndIMustScream Few hundred years of boredom sound like fun]]?
* ''Literature/TortallUniverse'': In ''Literature/TheImmortals'' and ''Literature/TheNumairChronicles'', there are rooms in the Carthaki university and the palace that completely cancel out magic abilities from the Gift. Particularly unruly students are threatened with a stay in these rooms. In ''Emperor Mage'', Daine is locked in one of those rooms by Emperor Ozorne. It ensures that the Tortallan mages can't find her... but does nothing whatsoever to cancel out her wild magic, allowing her to escape.
* In ''Literature/WarOfTheDreaming'', [[MeaningfulName Azrael]] de Gray's imprisonment in Dreamland takes the form of a cage made of inward-pointing, sharpened hooks, suspended on a mile-long chain off the rim of a FlatWorld. Food and water are provided by the cage's momentum swinging him periodically through the rim-waterfall. The Fae ''invented'' this type of prison specifically for him.
%%* Meg Murray's father's prison in ''Literature/AWrinkleInTime''.
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%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!
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[[TailorMadePrison Tailor-Made Prisons]] in {{Literature}}.
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* In ''Literature/TwentyYearsAfter'', D'Artagnan and Porthos have been captured on the orders of Cardinal Mazarin and are imprisoned in Rueil Castle. Mazarin requests ''thirty'' extra soldiers to guard exclusively the two "special guests". Unsurprisingly, they manage to escape anyway.
* {{Downplayed|Trope}} in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}''. Visser Three (by then, [[spoiler:promoted to Visser One]]) is tried and imprisoned in a special "Yeerk box", built by the Andalites that lets him hear and speak, and then he's shipped off to a special max-security prison until he dies. The 'downplayed' comes from the fact that he's a sentient slug that can barely move under its own power and is deaf and blind. The reason he's imprisoned now is that he led the Yeerks trying to take over the human race.
** Also, David. He was trapped in rat form (by being kept in a space too small for him to resume human form, thus unable to change back before ShapeshifterModeLock set in) and kept on a rocky island with not much life on it for being willing and able to destroy the Animorphs and any hope for the world with a few words to the Yeerks and repeatedly trying to kill them. Books later, Crayak and the Drode give him a chance at revenge at Rachel, but when Rachel ignores Crayak's offers for super strength, Crayak and the Drode leave. Rachel catches David and David pleads to be killed, as being put back on the island would be a fate worse than death. It is left unclear at the end whether Rachel killed him or sent him back to the island.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov published books that were a collection of short stories. One involved an alien species trying to deal with an alien murderer and considered the constrictive prison to be inhumane. They created a much larger building for that alien to reside in, with food deliveries through a [[TubeTravel Pneumatic Tube system]], and no way out other than a fatal 50-foot drop. The prisoner opened its wings and flew away.
* ''Literature/{{Circleverse}}'': ''Literature/TheWillOfTheEmpress'' has Sandry kidnapped by a man who intends to force her into marriage. He locks her in a prison [[{{Pun}} made for tailors]], that is, one that will hamstring her thread-based magic. It's described as "unraveling" whenever she tries using it. Fortunately, her link with her foster siblings is made up of all their magics, so she's still able to use it and get them to free her.
* Creator/JimButcher's ''Literature/CodexAlera'' series has several mentions of prisons made to hold [[ElementalRockPaperScissors particular types of crafters]]. Earthcrafters are held in cages off the ground to prevent contact with the earth, windcrafters are held in windowless stone cells to prevent breezes (or buried up to the shoulders), watercrafters are held in a ring of fire that dehydrates the air around them, and so on. Since it's not that rare for normal people to have more than one kind of fury, these measures tend to have a 'mix and match' quality to them, but High Lords and Ladies have access to all six, so a prison for them has to be incredibly complicated, often tailored to the specific individual.
* In the first book of the ''Literature/ColdfireTrilogy'', the Hunter is captured and rendered totally helpless by being placed in a simple bonfire. A normal human who can manipulate fae could easily extinguish the flames and escape, but the DealWithTheDevil the Hunter made for immortality long ago robbed him of his ability to manipulate anything related to life or light, like fire. All he can do is tap into the weak currents of earth fae to constantly heal himself to avoid being burned to death. Damien wonders what is more painful to the Hunter: being burned alive, or the blow to his pride due to being rendered powerless through such mundane means.
* In Peter Hamilton's ''Literature/CommonwealthSaga'' novels, very serious but non-capital crimes are punished by a one-way trip to the surface of a prison world, which is much the same as being cast back into the Stone Age, as there is no real civilization or technology. No visitors, and a military blockade ensures no rescuers will get close enough to even see the world.
* In Lawrence Yep's ''Literature/DragonSeries'', the protagonists come onto a deserted island sealed by a barrier that prevents the use of any magic within it and stops anyone or anything from leaving. Anything, that is, except earth, to prevent the beach from piling up endlessly. Once Thorn figures this out, they make a raft from ceramic jars and escape. Of course, they only realize afterward that they accidentally helped the island's designated prisoner, [[EvilSorcerer The Nameless One]], to escape as well.
* ''Literature/TheEmperorsSoul:'' The Rose Empire's special cells for Forgers have walls made of many different types of stone from many different locations. In order to make a soulstamp to Forge a hole through the wall, the Forger would have to identify every type of stone used to make it and address all of them in the soulstamp. And then there's a plate of ralkalest, the unForgeable metal, behind the stones in case the Forger does figure them all out.
* In Creator/RobertEHoward's ''Literature/TheHourOfTheDragon'', Literature/ConanTheBarbarian is thrown into a prison with a skeleton and taunted with the fact that only the slaves and their master know of it, and he will die there like the last one.
* The Creator/GordonRDickson short story "Danger -- Human!" had the aliens construct an escape-proof cell, consisting of metal physical enclosures, an impenetrable force field, constant armed surveillance, and access only for carefully monitored brief periods to provide food and water, to study a human they'd abducted to try and find out why humans kept conquering the galaxy. Didn't work.
* The first part of Dante's ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' was thick with this, not so much due to the fact that Hell was escape-proof, but due to the fact that sinners were punished via creative means that fit the crimes they had committed in life. To give one example, thieves had their very forms stolen from them, and continually shifted from one monstrous form to another.
* ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'':
** ''The Indestructible Man'', a Literature/PastDoctorAdventures novel by Simon Messingham. The eponymous character's EvilCounterpart, Captain Taylor (an {{Expy}} of [[Series/CaptainScarletAndTheMysterons Captain Black]]) is immersed in a (now-solidified) ball of reinforced liquid concrete, sealed in titanium, and placed in an underwater habitat on the bottom of the ocean constructed for this sole purpose, monitored by sensors, a small team of guards and automated {{Sentry Gun}}s. For years there's never been a flicker of brainwave activity until the events of the novel. Taylor then casually melts his way out of the concrete, slaughters all the guards and sails off in a submarine that happened to be docked.
** In ''Harvest of Time'' by Alistair Reynolds, a Third Doctor and UNIT story, the Master is imprisoned in a windowless cell that is usually submerged in water at the bottom of a disused nuclear power station which is still notably radioactive. The radioactivity doesn't affect Time Lords, but it discourages visitors from hanging about long enough to be hypnotized.
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'':
** In the short story [[Literature/SideJobs "Love Hurts"]], the villain lovingly describes the cage for Dresden -- or rather, for his best friend, to provoke her into attacking. It's covered in spikes so that he can't fall asleep, inside a half-bowl so he must stand in his own waste, and there's a rack with three needle-nosed spears on it outside so any passing evildoer can participate.
** [[spoiler:Demonreach]] is revealed to be this in ''Literature/ColdDays'', with Dresden having unwittingly become the Warden in ''Literature/TurnCoat'' -- he thought that it was just an ordinary, if horrifyingly powerful and creepy, GeniusLoci powered by a very strong dark LeyLine. As it turns out, it's the ultimate super-max for dark gods and immortals, with each inmate getting their own CrystalPrison, and it was built in both space ''and'' time (and, [[TheSmartGuy Bob]] -- who's initially stumped by it and has to have it dumbed down significantly to get it, before dumbing it down further for Harry -- implies, several dimensions beyond that), its defenses are so strong that once Harry works them out, he's pretty confident (but not totally certain) that he can take ''Mab'' while on the island, with a physical embodiment of it being theoretically capable of imprisoning her. Oh, and if it's ever broken open, it'll trigger 'the Banefire', an explosion that would apparently take out approximately half of the Mid-Western United States. This is {{justified|Trope}}: it's a prison so hard that ''six'' borderline {{Physical God}}s are in ''minimum security'', with seven apparently infinite tunnels full of dark gods and {{Eldritch Abomination}}s.
* In ''The Eyes of Kid Midas'' by Shusterman Neal, Kevin creates a prison for the school bully full of fish. Fish being one of the few things that Kevin knows that the bully is afraid of.
* ''Literature/{{Fablehaven}}'' has several examples of this. One of the most unique examples is Olloch the Glutton -- he isn't trapped anywhere, he's just TakenForGranite... until [[SealedEvilInACan someone feeds him]].
* ''Literature/LegacyOfTheDragokin'': Zarracka has a custom-made cell to negate her [[AnIcePerson ice powers]]. It has successfully held her for ten years, [[spoiler:and she never escapes from it. Her jailer, Daniar, was so paranoid about her breaking free while she was gone that she took Zarracka with her to another country, and she escaped from a weaker cell]].
* In ''The Black Prism'', the first book of ''Literature/TheLightBringerTrilogy'', Gavin Guile creates a [[HardLight blue luxin]] prison with a [[PowerNullifier hellstone]] floor. It's designed to hold a Prism, such as his brother. [[spoiler:There's more cells beyond the first, each with the same design.]] Notably enough the difficulty of creating the prison is made explicit and the immense cost of the power nullifying hellstone is pointed out, [[spoiler:offering an early hint that the prison's designer wasn't exactly sane]].
* In ''Suldrun's Garden'' (the first book of the ''Literature/{{Lyonesse}}'' trilogy) by Creator/JackVance, Aillas is lowered into an Oubliette ("a bell-shaped cell fourteen feet in diameter and seventy feet underground") for impregnating King Casmir's daughter and left to die. Aillas finds a dozen skeletons sitting around the oubliette, with a note scrawled on the wall welcoming him to their "council". Just before he figures a way out, he starts to hear them talking to him. Taking months, he constructs a ladder from the bones of the previous occupants, and escapes.
* In ''[[Literature/MythAdventures Myth-ing Persons]]'', Aahz is imprisoned on Limbo in a special jail cell designed to hold ''vampire'' criminals. It's the mouth of an animated dragon's-head statue, which is mobile and aware enough to swallow a would-be escapee who tries to rip out its teeth/bars with vampiric strength, or inhale them if they turn into mist.
%%* In ''Literature/TheOnesWhoWalkAwayFromOmelas'', Utopia is PoweredByAForsakenChild locked in a dark basement.
%%* Tartarus in ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians''.
* In ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImASupervillain'', the extremely powerful shapeshifter Chimera was kept in one. He's bound in shackles that will slice off his limbs and neck if he grows too big, and if he tries to shrink they'll electrocute him.
%%* In ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', where Melkor was imprisoned in a completely inescapable prison. If only those morons didn't release him for good behavior. All Sauron's lairs worked this way too. Thorin's father was imprisoned for so long he could no longer remember his own name. HOW is the prison "tailor-made"?
* The ''Literature/SinisterSixTrilogy'' has Electro, who's first seen in a sealed plastic box suspended in water.
* ''Literature/SoonIWillBeInvincible'': {{Deconstructed|Trope}} with Baron Ether, whom Dr. Impossible seeks advice from. His arch-nemesis The Mechanist has trapped him in a house designed specifically to hold him, but it does little to prevent others from breaking in to see him.
%%** Dr. Impossible is in one at the beginning.
* ''Literature/StarBridge'' has Vantee, aka "Prison Terminal". It's an inverse prison, in that the prisoners are free to roam the (barren) surface of the world, while the ''guards'' are locked inside a fortress with the Tube terminal, the only way on or off the planet. At one point after bragging of Lil's ability to break him free of any prison Wu says that Vantee could ''perhaps'' hold him... ''if'' they could keep him in custody long enough to get him there.
* ''Literature/StarShardsChronicles'': In ''Shattered Sky'', Dillon Cole has the power to see patterns and create order from chaos. No ordinary prison could hold him -- locks would spontaneously unlock themselves in his presence, guards would bow to his whim, and he could easily tap into the resonant frequency of a wall to tear it apart. The millionaire genius Elon Tessic manages to design a specialized prison that won't be affected by his powers. Naturally, Dillon, being a protagonist, manages to escape anyway.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': Spore, in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'', is harmless in the vacuum of space. It needs air to spread and bare skin to [[TheVirus infect]]; being stored in a sealed room in a deep pit on an airless asteroid, with plenty of warnings outside of the door, is ideal. The Ithorians didn't kill it because of their dedication to pacifism. Unfortunately, in the three hundred years since the outbreak was contained they started letting people [[AsteroidMiners mine the asteroids]], even ''that'' asteroid. Partly this was out of the knowledge that if they said what Spore was, TheEmpire or others would [[EvilIsNotAToy try to use it]], whereas if they just warned people away, [[ForbiddenFruit it would just make treasure hunters more determined]].
* Digitized personalities run in virtual environments in Creator/RichardKMorgan's ''Literature/TakeshiKovacs'' series are effectively immortal if their environment is not sophisticated enough to include death or the possibility of suicide. Someone running in a simple, low-power simulator could remain there for a very long time indeed, made worse by the fact that simulations run faster than normal time. [[AndIMustScream Few hundred years of boredom sound like fun]]?
* ''Literature/TortallUniverse'': In ''Literature/TheImmortals'' and ''Literature/TheNumairChronicles'', there are rooms in the Carthaki university and the palace that completely cancel out magic abilities from the Gift. Particularly unruly students are threatened with a stay in these rooms. In ''Emperor Mage'', Daine is locked in one of those rooms by Emperor Ozorne. It ensures that the Tortallan mages can't find her... but does nothing whatsoever to cancel out her wild magic, allowing her to escape.
* In ''Literature/WarOfTheDreaming'', [[MeaningfulName Azrael]] de Gray's imprisonment in Dreamland takes the form of a cage made of inward-pointing, sharpened hooks, suspended on a mile-long chain off the rim of a FlatWorld. Food and water are provided by the cage's momentum swinging him periodically through the rim-waterfall. The Fae ''invented'' this type of prison specifically for him.
%%* Meg Murray's father's prison in ''Literature/AWrinkleInTime''.
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