Line #38 Main/PariahPrisoner


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5	[[quoteright:250:[[ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rorschach2_1.png]]]]
6	[[caption-width-right:250: [[IronicEcho A place where]] [[Series/{{Cheers}} everybody knows your name.]]]]
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8	->''"In prison, there is no creature lower than a sex offender. Even snitches get a pass before these guys. S-O's, chomos, pedophiles; the nicknames all mean the same thing, and they help average convicts differentiate themselves from those they like to believe are the real monsters."''
9	-->-- ''Vice'', "[[http://www.vice.com/read/why-sex-offenders-are-getting-slaughtered-in-california-prisons-218 Why Are So Many Sex Offenders Getting Murdered in California's Prisons?]]"
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13	Mainstream criminals have [[BlackAndGrayMorality a morality scale of their own]] ([[MoralEventHorizon though in some cases, said morality may involve them being]] ''[[MoralEventHorizon worse]]''). Many of them despise police officers and prison guards (including [[DirtyCop cops/guards sentenced to prison]]), [[TheInformant snitches]], [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil sexual offenders]] (especially [[PaedoHunt child rapists]]), [[BreadEggsMilkSquick and]] [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain sexual minorities or members of certain racial/ethnic groups]]. TruthInTelevision featured in many works of fiction.
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15	If prisoners of these groups get locked up together with mainstream criminals, they might be beaten up in a PrisonRiot, become the victim of PrisonRape (a kind of KarmicRape for sexual offenders), or even murdered, typically with a SinisterShiv.
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17	These groups might [[FateWorseThanDeath fear prison worse than death]]. If they survive a prison sentence, expect them to [[NeverGoingBackToPrison be willing to do anything to avoid going back]].
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19	See also AssholeVictim as a possible outcome, MoralEventHorizon for atrocities that may make them unwanted, BlueAndOrangeMorality for the peculiar rules that dictate what is acceptable and whatnot, and EvenEvilHasStandards for one possible reason that some prisoners become this.
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21	----
22	!!Examples:
23	[[foldercontrol]]
24
25	[[folder:Comic Books]]
26	* ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'':
27	** Frank once visited a not-quite LuxuryPrisonSuite where it was mentioned that the occupants (who can have just about anything smuggled into their cell except women) made use of cross-dressers with toothless mouths who knew how to use them, considered the lowest of the low.
28	** Frank himself is generally put into solitary after a while, as the first thing he does when he's in prison is kill a few inmates, whether they come after him for vengeance or street cred.
29	* PlayedForLaughs in ''ComicBook/ArkhamAsylumLivingHell'', in which Warren White pleads insanity to escape going to prison for white-collar crimes -- only to discover that in Arkham, home of any number of psychotic murderers, scamming people out of their money makes him ''even more hated than ComicBook/TheJoker''.
30	* In ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' when Rorschach is captured and put in prison, other prisoners plan to kill him for his vigilante activities, but he turns the tables on them. "[[BadassBoast I'm not locked up in here with you]]. '''''[[RussianReversal You're locked up in here with me]].'''''"
31	* Serial killer [[ComicBook/{{Carnage}} Cletus Kasady]] usually gets a cell of his own due to possessing a carnivorous alien parasite and being more than happy to use it to kill anyone and everyone in his vicinity. When separated from it in ''Superior Carnage Annual'', he was re-introduced into the general populace in an attempt to rehabilitate him. The other prisoners treated him with contempt and one of them -- who had been hired by his therapist -- shanked him. After the symbiote returned, Cletus returned the favor.
32	* In ''ComicBook/TopTen'', Atoman - publicly a veteran hero, but actually a pedophile and ringleader of a child porn business - chooses to commit suicide rather than surrender to the police, as he believes he'll be permanently de-powered before thrown into prison, making him an easy target for his many past enemies there. Just as the police hoped, since they wanted to avoid Atoman breaking out and wreaking havoc with his powers.
33	* In ''Hard Time'', Lewis Gatherwood is in State for the rape and murder of a young (implicitly ''very'' young) black girl. Not only is he beaten by black inmates in the shower, but SinisterMinister inmate Gantry soon kills him by dousing him in gasoline and burning him alive. He was dead only a few ''days'' into his sentence.
34	* ''ComicBook/SinisterDexter'' has Sinister go into prison to find Dexter. Finny soon discovers that gun sharks like him are at the bottom of the food chain, mostly because of the hits carried out on mobsters whose friends are in prison. Even a paedophilic serial killer ranks above a gun shark in said serial killer's own words. Finny is outright told that a gun shark in prison is screwed precisely because he's now a gunless shark.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Fan Works]]
38	* At the end of ''Fanfic/CrumblingDown'', after being sent to juvie, Lila attempts to start up her old tricks. However, due to her fellow inmates both being aware of her status as a chronic liar as well as having no restraint in physically attacking her, Lila quickly ends up in the infirmary several times before being sent to solitary confinement for her own safety after one too many tries to assert herself ends with almost the whole prison trying to kill her.
39	* In ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'', Belladonna's [[AbusiveParents abusive mother]] is outright loathed by her fellow inmates, who have attacked her on multiple occasions. TruthInTelevision: child abusers are considered among the lowest of the low in women's prisons.
40	* Crops up a couple of times in ''FanFic/WithPearlAndRubyGlowing''.
41	** [[WesternAnimation/CatsDontDance Danny]] is framed by Darla for raping her, and since she's eight years old and a beloved child star he immediately becomes a target for officers and prisoners alike. He's eventually found innocent, but only after he suffers a CareerEndingInjury from being raped and beaten so many times.
42	** [[WesternAnimation/LegendOfKorra Mako]] is a police officer who gets framed for a robbery, and is targeted by prisoners on whom he'd used excessive force before, resulting in his infection with HIV, which he perceives as a KarmicSTD.
43	** Invoked when [[WesternAnimation/TheCupheadShow Cuphead]], an eleven-year-old [[MiscarriageOfJustice falsely placed in adult prison]], gets put in the Vulnerable Prisoners Unit with known child molesters to punish him for trying to escape.
44	** Inverted with [[WesternAnimation/OpenSeason Beth]], who kidnapped [[RelatedInTheAdaptation her son]] Boog across state lines to keep him away from his abusive father, and is praised by the cops for protecting him.
45	** The members of God's Will First, upon their arrest, are noted by the narration to have barely spent any time in the main prison population before getting sent to the Vulnerable Prisoners Unit or the infirmary, implying they weren't all that popular with the other prisoners.
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
49	* Part of the motive rant of the villain in ''Film/TheBoneCollector'' is that he was a former cop who was thrown in prison.
50	-->"Do you know what happens to a cop in prison? You are brutalised every single day over and over... you become a human toilet."
51	* Gamora of ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'' is this on The Kyln due to her being affiliated with and working for Thanos, which made her a lot of enemies. Indeed the first night there a group of prisoners plus Drax try to kill her and she survives only thanks to Peter.
52	* ''Film/TheHunter1980'' (Steve [=McQueen's=] last movie before his death that year) had LAPD character "Detective Spota" facing this unenviable fate because he stole and sold drugs from an evidence locker but instead commits suicide to avoid facing this.
53	* ''Film/AnInnocentMan'' (1989, Tom Selleck) has David Rasche's ex cop character facing this when he is sent to the same prison after being convicted of drug dealing.
54	* The ending of ''Film/KinjiteForbiddenSubjects'', where Duke, the main bad guy of the movie, is HoistByHisOwnPetard following his imprisonment for his sexual crimes against children. It is heavily implied that PrisonRape ensues.
55	* Matt Cordell, the eponymous character of the ''Film/ManiacCop'' films, was actually a heroic figure in his heyday. But he was framed for corruption and was placed in prison together with the scum that he had helped to put away, and was constantly a target for them. He eventually got shanked so bad that it left him brain-damaged, and he became a villain who does the exact opposite of his former duty.
56	* ''Film/TheMcKenzieBreak'': Neuchel is the only prisoner who makes a signficant effort to abide by the Geneva Convention amidst the riots and escape plans that Schluter engineers. Due to this attitude and his suspected homosexuality, he's treated as an outcast.
57	* ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption''. [[spoiler:When guard chief Hadley is arrested, he breaks down. Implicitly, he knows he will not only go to prison but also together with inmates who hate him.]]
58	* ''Short Eyes'' (1977), based on real life ex con Miguel Pinero's 1974 play of the same title (prison slang for child molester) in which Bruce Davison's character is accused of this while confined at Manhattan's Men's Detention Complex (the Tombs).
59	[[/folder]]
60
61	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
62	* ''Series/{{Alcatraz}}'': Kit Nelson is beaten by a mob of prisoners in the yard because of his status as a child murderer. He's put into solitary confinement by the guards partly for his safety, and partly as punishment.
63	* ''Series/BetterCallSaul'':
64	** Mike says that cops [[FateWorseThanDeath fear prison more than death]].
65	** Inverted by [[spoiler:Saul himself. When he's finally arrested for his part in Heisenberg's drug empire at the end of the series, he ends up sentenced to over 80 years in what would normally be a HellholePrison filled with some of the worst scum imaginable. However, it ends up not being that bad for him, since all of the prisoners there practically worship him. After all, he spent his entire career as an AmoralAttorney keeping guys like them ''out'' of prison. The worst thing he can say about it is that he's working in the kitchen there, essentially doing the exact same thing he did in his boring life as Gene the Cinnabon Manager.]]
66	* At the end of the ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' episode "Stress Position", Goren manages to [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath shame each of the corrupt prison guards]] who killed the VictimOfTheWeek (and are trying to make another witness suffer an "accident") into turning themselves in. The leader tries to stop the first to back down by warning them he'll face this trope; [[HeelRealisation he says he'll do his time in solitary]].
67	* The "psycho" SerialKiller who murdered 9 married women in ''Series/BigMouth2022'' is hated by everyone in jail and no one comes near him because they also fear him. It becomes quite a shock to everyone when Changho provokes the said psycho and makes him cry when he mentions his mother.
68	* In the backstory of ''Series/{{Life\|2007}}'', police officer Charlie Crews was in prison for a crime he didn't commit and ended up spending most of his time in solitary just to keep other prisoners from killing him.
69	* On ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'', Randy (who has just become a prison guard) brings in a new prisoner and introduces him as a first-time prisoner, a convicted child molester, and a former police officer to the other inmates.
70	* ''Series/{{Oz}}'':
71	** The prison has a separate small wing to house inmates who used to work in law enforcement to protect them from other prisoners.
72	** Zigzagged by one of the few child killers in the show, Malcolm "Snake" Coyle. He was arrested on a robbery charge, but when the truth about his other crimes came out ([[StupidEvil he couldn't help bragging about it]]), all the other gangs allied together to protect the guy who snitched on him. The Homeboys, however, were pissed off when Coyle ended up dead, albeit for "political" reasons rather than moral ones.
73	** Mershah becomes this when he gives up information to the guards to get revenge on Saïd, triggering a search that leads to Em City's entire population being punished for hiding various weapons and drugs. [[spoiler:He's eventually DrivenToSuicide by the isolation.]]
74	* ''Series/PrisonBreak'':
75	** When Brad Bellick is framed for murder and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment, he has the bright idea to request a sentence at the same prison where he used to be the captain of the guard, thinking that his old status will grant him protection by his former colleagues. It backfires because the new hardline Warden is adamant about no privileges being accorded to anyone, so he quickly becomes a target for reprisals.
76	** The Sona prison in Panama has a specific prisoner who is designated as the pariah and is completely ignored by the other prisoners, not even giving them any food (they feed on leftovers). This happens to Brad Bellick (the guy can't catch a break it seems) when he refuses to give up his belongings on his arrival, and only gets accepted after winning a fight much later.
77	* In ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'', (former) Commander Michael Burnham is imprisoned for attempted mutiny against her captain; the other prisoners despise her because, in addition to the mutiny, she's held responsible for starting the war with the Klingon Empire in which over 8,000 Federation citizens have died.
78	[[/folder]]
79
80	[[folder:Music]]
81	* The song "Date Rape" by Music/{{Sublime}} tells a story of a man who rapes a girl he meets in a bar, goes to jail, and [[PrisonRape is in turn raped himself]], [[LaserGuidedKarma in a sort of poetic justice]].
82	[[/folder]]
83
84	[[folder:Theater]]
85	* In ''Theatre/TheLaramieProject'', one of the characters mentions that Aaron [=McKinney=] and Brian Henderson, the murderers of Matthew Shepard, were not very well-received by their fellow inmates.
86	* The 1974 play ''Short Eyes'' by Miguel Piñero (Obie Award, Drama Desk Award, Tony Nomination, made into a film) is about an accused child molester in prison. Nearly all the other inmates turn on him for his crime. The term "Short Eyes" is prison slang for a pedophile.
87	[[/folder]]
88
89	[[folder:Video Games]]
90	* Invoked in ''VideoGame/MirrorsEdge'': one of the reasons Faith is so adamant about [[ClearTheirName clearing her cop sister Kate's name]] before she stands trial is that "blues in jail don't last long", as she tells Captain Miller.
91	* ''VideoGame/PrisonArchitect''. A constant concern. Snitches and ex-cops need to get into a segregated unit.
92	* This is the fate of [[spoiler:Superintendent Pendrew]] in ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs2012''. Wei is given evidence that confirms him as [[spoiler:the killer of [[TheDon Uncle Po]]]], meaning that he's not just going away as an [[spoiler:ex-cop]], but also [[spoiler:the man who killed one of the underworld's most-respected figures]].
93	-->[[spoiler:'''Pendrew''']]: That's a fucking death sentence!
94	-->'''Wei''': That's the plan.
95	[[/folder]]
96
97	[[folder:Webcomics]]
98	* In ''Webcomic/TheDragonDoctors'', a captured member of MurderInc mentions that her kind doesn't live long in Prison.
99	* In ''Webcomic/{{Gaia}}'', being in prison for alleged treason causes even the other inmates to turn on you.
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Western Animation]]
103	* {{Discussed\|Trope}} in the ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' episode [[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheBoilingRockPart1 "The Boiling Rock, Part 1"]]. After Zuko is caught infiltrating the Boiling Rock prison and subsequently imprisoned, the warden tells him that the prisoners would tear him to shreds if they found out he's the traitor prince.
104	* ''WesternAnimation/TheMagician'': After one pirate-themed VillainOfTheWeek was defeated and arrested for taking artifacts from a museum and trying to drown the protagonists, he was told by another inmate, "In this jail, we don't like people who steal from museums!" causing him to scream in fright!
105	* {{Double Subverted\|Trope}} in the episode "Peternormal Activity" of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. After Peter and the guys accidently killed an old war veteran, Joe talks Quagmire out of reporting it, telling him that they are going to prison for this and "you know what they do to cops in prison". It cuts to a ImagineSpot where a prison inmate asks a bored Joe several questions about the police like an excited, curious child ("when you were a cop, do they let you use the siren?") and then, right afterwards, this same inmate casually says that he and several others prisoners are going to kill Joe in the shower later.
106	[[/folder]]
107
108	[[folder:Real Life]]
109	* The authors of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi-Fi_murders Hi-Fi murders]] were despised by their death row cellmates, to the point that [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Gilmore_(criminal) Gary Gilmore]], ''en route'' to the [[ShotAtDawn firing squad]], exclaimed [[SeeYouInHell he would see them in Hell]].
110	-->'''Gilmore:''' (''paraphrased'') Adios, Pierre and Andrews. I'll be seeing ''you'' directly.
111	* PedophilePriest John Geoghan was murdered by Joseph Druce, who was serving a life sentence for murder (and now serving a [[LongerThanLifeSentence second life sentence]] for Geoghan's death). It was suggested at the time that Druce killed Geoghan to gain prestige in the prison hierarchy.
112	* SerialKiller Jeffrey Dahmer was beaten to death by Christopher Scarver in 1994 while serving barely three years into his multiple life sentence. He was declared mentally competent to answer for his crimes, thus placed in the general population. What is notable about this incident is that Dahmer was white while Scarver is black. Normally, undesirable inmates such as pedophiles are always "handled" by inmates of their own race. To cross racial barriers on such an issue is a violation of prison politics, regardless of the end justifying the means. However, Dahmer was considered an acceptable exception due to the fact that while he was a white man, the majority of his victims were black males.
113	* [[GunmanWithThreeNames James Eagan Holmes]], the gunman who gained infamy for ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' shootings in Aurora, Colorado, became this as not only that the judge expressed ''absolutely zero sympathy'' towards the shooter for maiming if not slaughtering scores of people '''including children''' who were at the theatre for the premiere, declaring that Holmes may "never set foot in free society again" and giving Holmes a LongerThanLifeSentence,[[note]]3,318 years to be exact, though he'd obviously be dead or worse murdered in prison before he finishes it[[/note]] a fellow inmate named Mark "Slim" Daniels attempted to murder him ostensibly to avenge the deaths of Holmes's victims. Whether Slim's motivation for sending the ''Dark Knight'' spree shooter to hell is sincere or not is debatable though, as he might have done this merely for the notoriety.
114	[[/folder]]

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