This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Describe Cardboard Prison Discussion here.
Would Otis in The Andy Griffith Show be a type of this?
I don't think so. He's just generally the sort to spend a lot of nights in the drunk tank.
Regarding Arkham Asylum and the insanity defense... I'd like to find a place to mention that Real Life isn't like this (when is it ever?). People attempting an insanity defense don't usually succeed, and usually spend more time in a high-security mental hospital than they would have spent in prison, if convicted—even if they recover from whatever caused the insanity to begin with. For example, Hinckley, the guy who tried to kill Ronald Reagan, is still in a mental hospital after 25 years, despite having recovered from schizophrenia.
Also regarding Arkham, in the Sandman example, Dr. Destiny meets The Scarecrow on his way out of the asylum, but he isn't escaping, he's pretending to hang himself to scare the guards. When Destiny is returned, Scarecrow notes that although Arkham is a Cardboard Prison, the inmates always come back again.
Question regarding the applicability of this trope. Is law enforcement refusal to recapture escapees a primary or secondary part of the definition? In the game Liberal Crime Squad it's easy to repeatedly break people out of prison, but they are wanted and can be apprehended strictly for having done so. Is this "played straight", or "partially averted"?
DoKnowButchie Pulled:
- And of course there's the episode where he has the Pack broken out of prison. Fox stays behind, but gets early release.
Which, author's claims aside and the prescence of a prison, has nothing to do with the trope.
Nasrudith: Cut out an ill-informed political rant.
