History Main / CardboardPrison

* ''Series/MsMarvel2022:'' The Cube, Damage Control's supposed supermax for people they arrest. The first time it appears, the Clan Destine escape about five minutes after arriving by overpowering the one guard escorting them to their cells then literally walking out the door.

* ''Series/SheHulkAttorneyAtLaw:'' The Cube returns again, and it turns out it's the prison Abomination had been sent to. His guards never noticed he'd been magically teleported out by Wong to take part in underground fight clubbing until someone showed them the videos. [[spoiler:At the end of the series, Wong busts him out again.]]

-> [[Music/BillWurtz ha! that was a fake jail,]] [[LiteralMetaphor made out of real cardboard!]]

* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2''. Po and the Furious Five have no problem busting into the jail where Masters Storming Ox and Croc are being kept. In fact, they actually have more trouble convincing Ox and Croc to escape, as they've been demoralized by [[GameChanger Lord Shen's cannon]] and are convinced that ResistanceIsFutile. Cue a hilarious scene where the various kung fu Masters keep kicking down the barred iron door or putting it back up again while they argue. And even when the cell door is destroyed during the struggle, Ox and Croc simply walk into the opposite cell and lock themselves in there. [[spoiler:At the climax, Ox and Croc appear at the battle to stop Shen, revealing that Shifu talked some sense into them.]]

* Arnold in ''Fanfic/SoullessShell'' manages to talk his guards into helping him escape and joining him to fight against Leif.
* In the ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' fanfic ''[[Fanfic/JokersWildTrilogy Joker's Wild]]'', they give the explanation that the state of Jersey gives Arkham a huge defense budget, but forces them to spend it all on security equipment, and can barely afford the little staff they have. People escape so often because the secretaries and janitors are paid so little they are easy to bribe.

* In ''Film/The Cocoanuts'', Harpo accidentally locks himself in jail. He then escapes by tugging on the bars of the cell, causing one to pop loose so he can climb through and escape.

[[folder:Radio]]
* ''Radio/TheGoonShow'' episode "Tales of Old Dartmoor" involves the inmates of Dartmoor Prison escaping ''but taking the prison with them'', leaving a literal cardboard replica in its place.

* Whilst [[LightNovel/SwordArtOnline her canon counterpart]] only made one attempt to escape her cage, Asuna in ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' makes several attempts to escape, slaughtering Sugou's personnel in the process before she's eventually reined in. He eventually argues about the psych bills his personnel rack up because of her regular breakouts.

* In spite of the 24-hour surveillance, the animals in ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'' can easily break out of Central Park Zoo, and are only caught once they all get to Grand Central Station.

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': Arkham Asylum is one of the all-time classics, although this was {{lampshade|Hanging}}d a few times in the comics (e.g., as the effect of a curse). Not only is Arkham Asylum worthless, it seems to make its inmates ''[[GoAmongMadPeople worse]]'' instead of better. (What did you expect? It's [[BedlamHouse ARKHAM!]] ''Cue [[EvilLaugh insane laughter]]''.)
** [[Characters/BatmanRoguesGalleryPart2 Mr. Freeze]] once murdered a psychiatrist who was questioning him (there were no guards to stop him, or even a surveillance camera in the room), somehow hacked the air conditioner systems with a pen, stepped outside and walked to a nearby room housing his suit. Bear in mind that if it wasn't for that suit, he wouldn't be able to escape at all. It's comforting that even after a general reboot, some things won't ever change.
** One of the funniest {{lampshade hanging}}s on this was in ''Comicbook/{{The Sandman|1989}}'', when a villain locked in Arkham learns that someone else intends to escape, and on a whim, with no planning at all, escapes as well.
** In issue number two of [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]]'s own comic book, a pair of bumbling Arkham security guards are fired because The Joker has escaped on their watch ''five'' times. This series was published in the ''mid-seventies''. You know it's bad when people have lampshaded Arkham's poor security for forty-odd years.
*** This is even {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''ComicBook/{{Joker}}'', since no-one understands why the Joker is being released.
** ''ComicBook/ArkhamAsylumLivingHell'' has Commissioner Gordon outraged and chewing out Dr. Carver about the fact a villain called Doodlebug was released, who then added insult to injury by having written in graffiti "Gone to Arkham. Back after lunch" on a wall in an in-universe lampshade of Arkham's security. [[spoiler:It turns out that the "Dr. Carver" who issued Doodlebug's release was an imposter known as "Jane Doe" who'd killed the real Carver before the story, adding to Gordon's point, as does TheReveal of Doodlebug being a serial killer who uses his victim's blood in his paint.]]
** One comic mentioned that Batman is a bit rougher with his more dangerous enemies than is strictly necessary to subdue them for precisely this reason. If he simply puts the Joker in Arkham, he escapes. If he puts the Joker in Arkham with a couple of broken bones he will take the time to convalesce before escaping. Usually.
** Gotham City also has Blackgate Penitentiary for its non-insane criminals. It's just as bad as Arkham.
** After trying to traffic in nuclear weapons during ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'', the Joker got sent to Slabside Penitentiary, which is nicknamed "the Slab". Supposedly, no villain has ever broken out of it. In ''ComicBook/JokersLastLaugh'', the Joker is informed that he has terminal cancer. It takes him all of about five minutes to think up a plan to not only break himself out, but break out most of the other villains with him, ''and'' use the prison's own anti-riot countermeasures to "Jokerize" them all. Maybe Franchise/TheDCU's prisons aren't cardboard prisons. Maybe the Joker is just that good. The two aren't mutually exclusive. However, after it, StatusQuoIsGod got invoked and subsequent stories would see the Joker once again being housed in Arkham.
** In the case of the inmate named Amygdala, Arkham's treatment actually made him ''worse''. A violent sociopath, after drugs and therapy failed, they tried experimental surgery, and removed the part of his brain he is now named after. It made him even ''more'' violent and [[DumbMuscle nearly mindless]], easily manipulated by Gotham's smarter criminals.
** This is lampshaded in ''ComicBook/BatmanHush'' by Dick.
--->'''Dick:''' But you caught the bad guy. The Joker's back in Arkham for, like, the seventy-ninth time -- where maybe we can hold onto him for more than an hour and a half this time...
** In "Letter to Batman", from ''Legends of the Dark Knight'', Batman drags an unconscious Joker by the collar to Arkham, and tells the guards, "Here he is. Again. Make sure he stays a while this time." The next page of the comic shows Alfred telling Bruce that the Joker just escaped from Arkham.
** Also lampshaded in ''ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheCapedCrusader'' by Alfred (context: in Alfred's story, all Batman's villains are actors employed by him to let Master Bruce live out his ''completely ridiculous'' fantasy without getting himself killed. Arkham doesn't hold its prisoners because it's not ''meant'' to.)
--->'''Alfred:''' They took Eddie Nash to the madhouse. The '''real''' one, not Arkham.
** This is discussed in one ''Batman/Superman'' team-up book. Batman meets his older ComicBook/Earth2 counterpart, and finds out that Earth 2 Gotham is now crime-free thanks to the Supreme Court closing down Arkham and authorizing the use of [[HumanPopsicle cryogenic stasis]] to permanently inter supervillains. A brief glimpse of the facility shows [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]] and even Sinestro quietly locked up and frozen. That's not enough for [[spoiler:the new Batman]] in the ''Earth 2'' series, who [[spoiler:shoots the Joker without waking him]].
** In the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'', Joker breaks ''into'' Arkham, quipping that he was feeling "a bit screwloose". He then proceeds to release everyone.
** Even the much LighterAndSofter campy 60's version of ''Series/Batman1966'' showed how poor Gotham corrections could be at times. At the beginning of one episode, King Tut was being examined by a doctor at the psychiatric ward where he was being held, who fell asleep while the villain was talking to him. When Tut noticed, he was simply able to walk away.
** A recurring incident across multiple universes involves [[Characters/BatmanPoisonIvy Poison Ivy]]. She's usually in a glass cell, ostensibly so she doesn't have access to growths like mold. ''Except she's constantly given potted plants''. While one may presume it's for therapy reasons, she uses them to escape all the time.
** Ironically, one time the doctors at Arkham seemed almost competent was in the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "Dreams in Darkness"; they were actually able to hold Batman longer than most actual villains could, but this prevented the hero from tracking down the true culprit, the Scarecrow, who was engineering his sinister plot [[MightAsWellNotBeInPrisonAtAll without even leaving Arkham.]]
** When Superman decided it was time to start running the world himself in ''ComicBook/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'', one of the first things he did was shut down Arkham and relocate all the prisoners. He even pointed out in an interview how silly it was that Arkham is still open when it can't hold prisoners or reform them.
** In ''ComicBook/{{Harleen}}'', Harvey Dent knows of Arkham's cardboard status and tries to bully Doctor Harleen Quinzel into abandoning her research, reasoning that it would mean more criminals [[InsanityDefense sent to Arkham]] who would otherwise have gone to Blackgate, which he thinks is more secure.
** ''Videogame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' (whose own security faults are detailed in the Video Games folder) has a PlayedForLaughs case of awareness, as one of the signs on the way to the asylum is "Hitchhikers May Be Escaped Patients".
** The one time the staff at Arkham was actually able to cure a patient, it made him worse as well. Said patient was Cluemaster, who had a variation of the Riddler's gimmick, namely leaving clues instead of riddles at crime scenes. His stint in Arkham cured him of his compulsion to leave clues... but not of his compulsion to commit crimes.
* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
** In ''WesternAnimation/AllStarSuperman'', Lex Luthor tells Quintus that if he wanted to leave prison, he would have hours ago. In ''[[ComicBook/AllStarSuperman the comic book]]'', he demonstrates that he can leave at any time, and does so by getting Clark Kent out of a riot without stopping their interview.
** Lampshaded in one ''Superman'' novel, in which Luthor is sent to prison. Jimmy Olsen immediately starts writing his report about Luthor's escape, before he had actually done it. In the course of the story Olsen mentions that following one previous escape, Luthor had later broken back into the prison to retrieve something he had inadvertently left behind, then escaped again.
** Justified in the case of UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|OfComicBooks}} MadScientist version of Luthor, who was fond of MacGyvering a [[AppliedPhlebotinum Phlebotinum]]-powered escape device out of absolutely ''anything''. For instance, in one story he waited for the warden to go on vacation, knowing the temp who replaced him would trust him more, then sabotaged the prison newspaper's printing press. He offered to fix it for the temp guy, and instead turned it into an armored tank which he used to smash his way out of prison.
** Writer Creator/ElliotSMaggin once had Luthor muse that it had reached the point where the only two items his guards would allow him to have were a pen and a pad of paper. Luthor had, in fact, long since figured out a way to turn the ink, metal, plastic, and wood pulp into a high explosive to blast his way out, but he would never ''do'' so, because then the next time Characters/{{Superman|TheCharacter}} threw him in prison, the prison wouldn't let him have a pen and paper any more.
** He once built a ''radio to the future'' and was able to engineer an escape. By calling supervillains in the future. Yes.
** Another had him use his radio -- ''one'' radio -- to build a combination holographic projection device ''and'' a ray that would hopefully give humans superpowers. [[spoiler:Guess which mild-mannered reporter he tested it on?]] And when they checked, Luthor had reassembled the radio back to specs to boot.
** In ''ComicBook/TheGirlWithTheXRayMind'', ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' villain Lesla-Lar, called "Kandor's most dangerous outlaw", escapes her supposedly maximum-security cell by short-circuiting the energy bars using some unrevealed method.
** ''ComicBook/TheSuperRevengeOfLexLuthor'': Superman throws Lex in a distant planet prison where escape attempts are harshly punished, and although Luthor spends several months in prison, he still manages to escape by looting parts of a derelict spaceship. It helps nobody was apparently watching him as he built his gadgets and took off. When Superman hears the news, he seriously wonders if Luthor can even be held.
--->'''Prison Guard:''' ''"Interplanetary space prison calling Superman. Luthor has escaped!"''\\
'''Superman:''' ''"Great Krypton! Can no prison hold him?"''
* Intermittently, Franchise/TheDCU attempts a solution to both the in-character problem of this trope and the metafictional problem of [[VillainDecay keeping losing villains effective]], [[BoxedCrook by having villains perform missions as part of the US government top-secret Task Force X, a.k.a.]] ComicBook/SuicideSquad. This program offers early releases for imprisoned supervillains if they participate in, and survive, extremely dangerous secret missions that are subject to official denial. Thus, the villains temporarily become AntiHero protagonists.
* ''ComicBook/TheFlash'':
** His Rogues aren't imprisonable, because one of them can travel to an alternate dimension and back via mirror. Every time the Flash arrests any of his friends, Mirror Master goes and fetches them right back out again. The warden explains that they've tried to have the mirrors removed but prisoner-rights liberals won't have it.
** There was also the time Abra Kadabra got out because he was allowed to work in the kitchen and [[ImprovisedWeapon somehow formed the equipment there into a hypno-ray]].
** And then there's Dr. Alchemy, who uses prison for reading time and when he finishes a book, he turns the walls into oxygen and walks out... only to walk back in a month later with a new stack of books.
* "The Vault" was the Franchise/MarvelUniverse's most secure prison, but villains still escape as needed for various comic book plots. Its cardboard nature was actually [[http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe/msg/97d5f38002cf6fde commented on]] by writer Creator/KurtBusiek as the reason the writers had it destroyed. After its destruction and the resulting mass escape (the final shredding of the cardboard, if you will), supercriminals were incarcerated in lesser prisons nationwide, with predictable results.
* The Vault was later replaced by the Raft. It was first introduced in the first arc of ''ComicBook/NewAvengers''. Said arc is about a massive jail break. A running subplot was Mayor J. Jonah Jameson shutting the Raft down, noting how much of a failure it was. In ''ComicBook/SuperiorSpiderMan'', its last duty was to execute Alistair Smythe, the Spider-Slayer, only for him to execute a prison break. In short order, Ock!Spidey kills Smythe, blackmails Jolly Jonah for giving him that order, and takes control of it, turning it into Spider-Island II.
* This was {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in the ''ComicBook/YoungAvengers''/''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' crossover during ''ComicBook/{{Civil War|2006}}''. The Runaways end up fighting Flag-Smasher, only for Karolina to bemusedly point out that the kids had ''just'' beaten him and sent him off to prison only a few months prior.
* "Prison 42", nicknamed "Fantasy Island" by its inmates, debuted in ''Civil War''. It's located in another dimension, accessible only by certain teleporter systems, secure and heavily coded. Many superheroes unwilling to register with the government were locked up there, and were indeed its first inmates. It was supposed to be the final answer to this trope. Naturally, the anti-registration heroes on the outside engineered a mass jailbreak. Likewise it serves to be a sort of {{deconstruction}} of [[IDidWhatIHadToDo what steps you would have to take]] to actually make a prison immune to the kind of crazy shit filling the Marvel Universe. And as [[IKnewIt predicted]] by some annoyed fans, it later got taken over by the ''residents'' of the Negative Zone. Because it just would've made too much sense to place the prison in a pocket dimension that ''wasn't'' already occupied by various fanatically xenophobic aliens. Ironically, this ended up being what ultimately subverted this trope for 42. With Blastaar's invasion and takeover of the prison, the remaining prisoners (who at this point were mostly villains) were trapped in the facility, the portal back to Earth permanently shut down due to a warning to Reed Richards from the Guardians of the Galaxy about Blastaar's invasion force, and any attempts to escape the facility itself would cause Blastaar or one of his minions to kill them on sight.
* Any prison was cardboard to the Serpent Society, at least when Sidewinder was in charge; one of the benefits of being a member was that he could rescue an imprisoned member via his ability to teleport himself and others. Being semi-retired at the time, it was the only condition for his personal involvement.
* In ''ComicBook/XOfSwords'', the swordbearers of Arakko offer freedom to Solem if he agrees to be among the champions. Solem immediately breaks his chains and jumps out of the pit. Overlaps LuxuryPrisonSuite, because when someone is thrown is the pit, admirers are allowed to drop food, books...
* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'':
** The prisons of the ''Lucky Luke'' comic, especially the penitentiary. [[TheGuardsMustBeCrazy The wardens are a bunch of incompetent morons]], their dog is even stupider than they are, and the prisoners, especially [[ArchEnemy the Daltons]], escape constantly, sometimes right after being brought back to jail. They even managed to accidentally free [[BigBad Joe Dalton]] once. ''[[ExaggeratedTrope When he didn't even want to get out]]''. This is subjected to frequent LampshadeHanging, to the point Luke gets sick of it in later albums.
** The ''Rantanplan'' spin-off even has an episode where a couple of {{Mad Scientist}}s succeeded in ''kidnapping'' Averell Dalton from his cell without much problem. These guards don't just suck at preventing their prisoners from getting out, they also fail to keep people from coming ''in'' to take their prisoners forcefully. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even Joe is outraged by such a degree of ineffectiveness]].
** The same episode has Jack Dalton coming back to his cell and leaving again three times while one of the wardens is still trying to close the hole from their last escape. The warden just lets him take what he needs and go away, without even trying to stop him.
* The first time in DC Comics that the Crime Syndicate of Earth-3 showed up, they were beaten and imprisoned in a bubble created by ComicBook/GreenLantern, and THEN thrown into a limbo between dimensions/earths. They kept somehow breaking out and causing trouble. Although at first not that often and, at least the first time, only after outside interference. Johnny Quick, Power Ring, and Superwoman managed to escape from the bubble after an interdimensional traveler passed by and somehow weakened it (no real details given). That was about 14 years after their first appearance (real time; in comic time, it could have been anything from a week and a half later). A couple of years later, Ultraman got out, but nothing at all was said about how. Owlman wasn't seen again until the Crisis, and could well have been stuck in the bubble the whole time until the entire Syndicate returned home in time to die in the destruction of Earth-3.
* French comic book ''Le Mercenaire'' contains a literal example of a cardboard cell. The hero is imprisoned inside a flying castle, which is in fact a giant hot-air balloon. Hence, everything is constructed of light and hollow material, including the large jar used as a cell, which is thick cardboard. The prisoner was relieved of any item that could pierce it beforehand (including his belt buckle), but can cut through once he receives exterior help (in the form of a dagger).
* One [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] [[Comicbook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] comic has [[MadScientist Dr. Sivana]], sitting in prison grumbling that there's no point in escaping because Captain Marvel will only catch him again. He then thinks up a plan to destroy Captain Marvel and, his mood brightened, easily escapes by simply ''performing a mathematical calculation in his head'' that "opens a portal to the fifth dimension" and then walks out through a wall like a ghost. He later [[http://madscienceistclub.tumblr.com/post/111497959821/gees-what-kind-of-scientist-doesnt-know-that-if reminds his son]] that he's escaped jail [[ExaggeratedTrope 743 times]].
* In ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' v1 #5 Monty Moran "the Getaway Mastermind" breaks himself and 5 other supervillains out using a shrinking ray he somehow built that makes them half an inch tall. Then they use a balloon with a container underneath to get out.
* The Beagle Boys (ComicBook/{{Disney|DucksComicUniverse}}) use prisons as a temporary home, and are known to jailbreak at any convenient moment. A recurring gag is that they receive a [[JailBake cake filled with tools]]; once, the cake ''was'' the tool, as it was so dense and heavy that it could be used to smash the pavement, and the frosting used to dig.
* ''Comicbook/ThePunisher'' occasionally finds himself thrown in jail, but it's usually part of a BatmanGambit to kill a crime lord who's already behind bars in the same prison (for example: the final level of the video game).
*** One time Characters/{{Daredevil|MattMurdock}}, [[Characters/SpiderManPeterParker Spider-Man]], and Characters/{{Wolverine|JamesLoganHowlett}} all teamed up in an attempt to stop the Punisher once and for all, but at the end of the battle the Punisher [[LampshadeHanging points out that]] if they put him in jail he'll just kill every inmate in the prison before escaping again. [[Awesome/ThePunisher The three heroes agree and let him go.]]
** The ''Punisher: War Zone'' mini-series ends with a solution to this. Comicbook/TheAvengers capture the Punisher and place him in an undersea prison designed by [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]]. It would seem this too failed, since the Punisher inexplicably escaped and is now part of the ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}.
** ''The Cell'' has Frank escape his solitary confinement at Ryker's thanks to tricking the guard into his cell and threatening to break his arm before knocking him out, then causing a riot by framing said guard for the murder of a black inmate (said guard being the lover of an Aryan Brotherhood member, which he could hardly use as his alibi). Frank's escape from Ryker's itself is not shown, but the entire point of his being there was to kill a family of mafiosi in their LuxuryPrisonSuite.
* The ''absence'' of these is actually a plot point in ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}''. Because all the supervillains the Minutemen thwarted tended to stay thwarted, they eventually ran out of situations that required a team of heroes to deal with. This was one of the factors that led to the Minutemen breaking up.
** This factor is later used as a point of contention in ''Comicbook/DoomsdayClock'' during an argument between [[spoiler:Batman and Ozymandias, with Ozymandias accusing Batman, and by extension the other DC heroes, of being so focused on putting super-villains into "prisons with revolving doors" that they haven't taken any steps to address the world's real problems]].
* In [[http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/956653.html?#cutid1 a comic]] based on ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' featured on ''Scans Daily'', the Royal Flush Gang are out committing crimes when they are supposed to be in prison. Terry doesn't know how they could have escaped, noting "This place is locked up tighter than a drum." Despite the outcome, Terry's comment still seems like an odd thing to say when Bruce Wayne has told him all about his past, with one person posting, "Uhh, Terry? You got in, didn't ya?"
* Any prison is this for ComicBook/{{Diabolik}} and his accomplice Eva Kant. The first time he had been arrested (alluded in his first story and shown in a flashback years later) it had been because his [[LatexPerfection perfect masks]] weren't known yet, so the police didn't realize he was wearing one and he walked out of a maximum security prison with a stolen guard uniform after taking the mask off, but later imprisonments, which happened after his masks and real face were known, all ended with them breaking out rather easily in spite of always increasing measures to keep Eva in for life and him just long enough for his execution, with their first times being particularly ridiculous due to what they did to break each other out:
** The first on-page arrest of Diabolik has the title character kept in jail long enough to be tried and sentenced to death, with Eva (who at the time had just become his lover and accomplice, thus their relationship wasn't publicly known yet) present at every session of the trial. Diabolik, expecting to die, ''winked in Morse code to tell Eva where she could find his loot and tools '''in public''''', so she could make herself a new life away from her StalkerWithACrush... Except Eva bribed the guards of the death cell to bring her Diabolik just for the night before his execution, kidnapped her stalker, and when the guards brought Diabolik to her he had the tools to make a mask with his face and brainwash the stalker, so that Diabolik could take the identity of the stalker (who just happened to be above suspicions, what with being a high-ranking functionary in the ''ministry of justice'') and marry her, with the evidence being destroyed when the body of the fake Diabolik was cremated as per Diabolik's own last will (implying Eva somehow told him to do it, given it's the only reason he did it). The only reason it didn't work was that Ginko realized that 'Diabolik' had been drugged just as the executioner released the guillotine's blade, leading to the discovery and the bribed guards confessing what happened...
** When Eva was first arrested, she was put in a women-only jail ''in a swamp'', with a train as the only way in or out, and brought out only for the sessions of her trial. Diabolik first kidnapped a top model to ''convince the world he had ditched her'', thus getting the jury to pity her enough to sentence her to life in jail while he prepared her break-out. Then, knowing she had been recently inoculated, he caused a ''cholera outbreak in the jail''. As the jail was being evacuated, with Eva and the healthy patients in the last cars because the forward ones shook less, he derailed the train and freed Eva, with Ginko, who had been distracted by a fake sighting of Diabolik somewhere else, arriving right after they left.
* Thanks to the super strength granted to them by the magic potion, it is extremely rare for any prison to keep ComicBook/{{Asterix}} and Obelix in or out any longer than they feel like it.
* Exploited in ''ComicBook/RicHochet'' with "Le Bourreau" because he's an invaluable asset to the Eastern Bloc. Everytime he is jailed, foreign powers will request his release in exchange for France's captured secret agents.
* {{ComicBook/Iznogoud}} once wanted to hire the services of a master thief. He did not have to go looking far, as the thief was already in the Caliph's prison! ...some of the time. A nearby guard informed him that the thief is ''so good'' he comes and goes as he pleases, and nothing the jailers have done has managed to hinder him in the slightest. He basically treated his jail cell as a place where he could stay and eat for free and where people can contact him if they need to.
* Marvel's ''[[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel G.I. Joe]]'' comic had Cobra Commander employ an [[AmoralAttorney Army of Lawyers]] to ensure that if any of his mooks were captured, they would be OffOnATechnicality before they did any real time behind bars. The Joes, in an attempt to avert this, once imprisoned Storm-Shadow in a [[TailorMadePrison windowless]] [[TheAlcatraz Alcatraz]] cell, but he still got out.
* [[ComicBook/CaptainAmericaSamWilson Sam Wilson]] actually quipped about a pool for how long ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} can actually hold a villain (this case being Crossbones and he said two weeks). Given that he and Maria Hill were in the midst of a bit of a spat at the time, it's not quite sure how serious he was about it given that Sam's neither the most serious nor most joking of heroes.
* ''ComicBook/{{Royals}}:'' At the beginning, Maximus the Mad is imprisoned, and later drugged into insensibility to prevent him doing ''anything'' so he won't escape. Three issues later, it turns out he'd escaped long before then, what with being CrazyPrepared and all. After learning this, Medusa dryly notes there's no point trying to lock him up anywhere else, since he'll just escape again.
* ComicBook/UltimateMarvel
** ''ComicBook/UltimateWolverine'': Quicksilver kept Black Box and Jimmy in a high-tech prison. Yes, that's right: a technopath mutant in a prison filled of high-tech stuff that bends to his will. He could have left them in the mall and save some trouble.
** ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'': Although he was arrested and incarcerated multiple times, Toad always manages to escape and rejoin Magneto somehow. Likewise, despite supposedly being under constant surveillance, Magneto was somehow able to escape off-screen.
* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk:'' During the early issues of Jeph Loeb's ''Hulk'', Bruce Banner was imprisoned in a tiny underground cell, which was designed to gas him if he touched the windows. After a few issues, he winds up touching the glass (banging for help when a nearby fight causes an earthquake), and as the gas is activated asks whoever might be listening if they really thought he couldn't just hold his breath, as he starts to [[HulkingOut turn green]].
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'':
** ''[[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Volume 1]]'': Usually averted as escapes from Reformation Island are quite rare. However Diana does have to turn over many of the criminals she captures to the US authorities rather than the Amazons, and Dr. Psycho rather easily escapes prison ''twice'' in in issue 18 alone.
** ''[[ComicBook/WonderWoman1987 Volume 2]]'': When [[Characters/WonderWomanVillains Circe]] decides she wants to invite just about every living female villain to hunt superheroes in New York she simply teleports them to her, including the many who were in prison at the time.
* ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica:'' As Metron informs the JSA, trying to imprison a being of pure entropy like Extant is pointless because ''any'' prison he's in becomes a cardboard prison. There's really only one way to stop him coming back...
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries''
** The intro of ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' takes pains to show off Arkham's new "improved" security system. It takes all of 10 minutes for the Joker to not only break his bonds, but take over the asylum and free all of the inmates. Unfortunately for the Arkham staff, a good bit of work had already been done for him. He arranged a fire at Blackgate Prison to get his mooks on the island, and Harley already had control over the security system. Mostly it serves as a massive [[TheWorfBarrage Worf Barrage]] as soon as the credits finish rolling. If the Joker just overpowered this small army with no significant casualties, what chance does one guy with a buncha toys have?
** [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins In the]] [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOriginsBlackgate prequel games]], Blackgate Penitentiary suffers three major security breaches over a four month period (two of them over the course of ''one night''). Then-City Councilman Quincy Sharp uses these incidents to claim that Blackgate isn't capable of holding the more dangerous criminals Gotham is producing and lobbying for the reopening of Arkham Asylum, which would hopefully be more secure.
*** A side-quest in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'' reveals that the architect Cyrus Pinkney designed his buildings with a style that was said to drive away evil. One of those buildings was Arkham Asylum. [[GoneHorriblyRight This wasn't quite what he had in mind]].
*** At the end of another side-quest in ''Arkham Origins'', after Batman defeats Black Mask and leaves him to be arrested, the latter mocks the former's reliance on the justice system, [[LampshadeHanging stating that he'll probably be bailed out of prison soon]]. Then again, he's still locked up in Blackgate in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOriginsBlackgate'', and he only escaped because an explosion caused by careless guards provided a distraction.
** Averted in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity''. You would think that a giant prison made out of part of a city would be easy to escape from, but only Black Mask managed to escape before the events of the game, and he's recaptured. [[spoiler:Of course, since the whole point of Arkham City is to round up Gotham's criminals and have them exterminated, it makes sense that the prison is virtually escape-proof.]]
* Zigzagged in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''. When Organization XIII puts Kairi in the Soundless Prison, her cell has bars far enough apart that she could easily escape. However, when she does escape, it's with help from Naminé creating a portal in the back of the cell.
* The general majority of prisons in Creator/RockstarGames, prominently ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}'' and the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' series, are this. You get caught for [INSERT HEINOUS CRIME HERE] and your punishment? They take away a bit of cash and some easily replaced weapons. That said, ''Bully'' does punish you if you get caught enough or during class hours... by making you do a short detention minigame, or forcing you to attend class (which you can fail for no penalty).
* A politician in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' off-handedly states in a radio interview that letting criminals off easy is standard practice to save money on prisons.
* Zigursky Prison, also known as "The Zig", in the MMORPG ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes''.
** Its walls are so permeable that bands of escaped prisoners freely roam the streets of Brickstown, the zone in which it is located -- and all the bosses and archvillains who take advantage of its apparent revolving-door policies. The tutorial in the counterpart ''City of Villains'' has your character escaping the Zig as part of a massive prison break.
** Also, some mission maps contain prison areas where your character goes if defeated. When you wake up, all that stands between you and freedom are some guards and a door that can't take more than a few good shots from whatever powers you have.
** An extreme example of this is the final mission of the "Faultine" series: between when you get the MacGuffin and when you get the mission to destroy it (about 30 seconds), the villain you defeated to get it escapes from the Zig.
* Parodied in ''VideoGame/{{Toonstruck}}''. The guard has a sensitive nose that can be irritated by dust from your cell's doormat, incapacitating him. If you're locked up again, he acquires a gas mask which you persuade him to take off. If you're locked up again, the guard has quit in disgust, leaving a note that the key is under the mat.
* Prisons in ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland'' games are never renowned for their security.
** You're thrown into a prison hut at one point in ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland''. The natives (who imprisoned you) go through more and more elaborate door security systems if you keep getting captured, even using anachronistically futuristic technology. They never notice the Guybrush-sized hole in the floor...
--->'''Native:''' The only thing confounding us more than how you keep escaping is ''why you keep coming back.''
** The prize must go to the Flotsam Island Jail in Chapter 4 of ''VideoGame/TalesOfMonkeyIsland'': to get out, Guybrush simply says he wants to see his lawyer -- which happens to be [[AFoolForAClient Guybrush himself]]. You can also tell the guard to go get some food for you, then try to take advantage of a loose window bar (which turns out to be a bit less loose than it seems at first) or a soft spot in the wall (with solid steel directly underneath).
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'':
** In the expansion, ''[[VideoGame/DragonAgeOriginsAwakening Awakening]]'', there is the new party member Anders, an apostate mage who has escaped from the Templars seven times.
** It's laughably easy to escape Fort Drakon in ''Origins'' too, [[spoiler:if you let Ser Cauthrien take you away.]] There is only one easy to fool guard (and he has the cell key) in the same room as your cell, and all of your equipment is in one chest -- that is also in the same room. The cell isn't even one of those special doors that can't be lockpicked. There are also spare guard uniforms a couple rooms over too.
* Cody from the ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' series has spent every game since ''VideoGame/FinalFight'' in jail. This doesn't hinder him at all because he's so badass he just breaks out whenever he feels like it. He always turns himself in after the current tournament is over.
* In the video game of ''[[VideoGame/WhereInTimeIsCarmenSandiego1997 Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?]]'', all the prisoners you've managed to capture in the first half are conveniently busted out by Carmen so you have to capture them again in the second half. The bars of the prison cell are upgraded to lasers to prevent this from happening again.
* In ''Videogame/MarvelAvengersAlliance'', there are numerous missions where the {{Mooks}} are escapees from Ryker Island or the Raft. There is also the Wrecking Crew, a quartet of villains who serve as Bosses/Mini-Bosses. No matter how often the player Agent defeats them and sends them back to prison, they're back a few missions later.
* The ''VideoGame/SaintsRow'' series usually just skips the prison and [[PoliceBrutality has the cops kill you outright,]] but [[VideoGame/SaintsRow2 the second game]] takes gleeful delight in this trope. The FIRST mission of the game has the player and one other convict break out by stealing the guards' weapons and then a boat and blowing up everything trying to stop them. [[RefugeInAudacity Then, a few missions later the player has to break back into the prison with a bomb to free a drug dealer.]]
* The prison in the third game of ''VideoGame/TheSpellcastingSeries'' is a variant: the local sheriff is quite good at fixing exploits that can be used to escape so that they cannot be used again, but there are also more ways to break out than there are opportunities to get arrested.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', Papyrus' attempts at containing the player if he captures them is basically his shed with bars so wide you can walk right through, a note asking the player not to escape and the shed being locked from the inside.
* The Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC for ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'' has the player enter a universe where Cave Johnson is the warden of a prison in space, where the only doors are force fields because of RuleOfCool. Reality Ensues.
-->'''Cave Johnson:''' I'm gonna be brief. Because I'm dying. Because I got shivved. A lot. I just wanna get it on record that using force fields for doors in a space prison is a bad idea. You know what would have been better? Regular doors. With locks. Locks that don't open when the power goes out. Man, those blue force fields looked good, though. Every time I saw one, I thought, "Wow. I am in space." Still though, a door made out of ''paper'' would have been better in the long run. Would have at least slowed 'em down for a second.
* ''Videogame/FallenLondon'': New Newgate is intended to be TheAlcatraz, what with being inside a massive stalactite with the zee below, only reachable through dirigible, but in practice it's this. All players start there, so ''everyone'' has escaped from it at least once, they can all keep escaping by just stowing away on a dirigible, they'd throw [[{{Golem}} Unfinished Men]] in there and not reinforce the bars so they can't just break them open, and they've got a candle-eating FaceStealer problem so huge you can bribe the guards with candles so they'll let you out early.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'': Getting caught by the cult around Dark Palace has Link thrown into a cell in the middle of the courtyard he's trying to sneak through. Because the game's whole gimmick is turning into a painting and maneuvering across walls, Link can walk right out. Justified in that, if it weren't for that gimmick, it would be impossible for Link to get out.
* In ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTombRaider'', Lara Croft is captured by Trinity soldiers and thrown in a prison so old and dilapidated that she's easily able to escape within seconds. Of course, it also helps that Trinity didn't bother posting any guards in the prison, and they conveniently left her equipment right outside her cell.
* ''VideoGame/EdnaAndHarveyTheBreakout'': Zigzagged with the Asylum the player has to escape. On one hand, an average of three patients escape their cells per day. On another, none of them have so far made it past the walls surrounding the asylum.
* In ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'', the Special Prison holds prisoners protected by national secrecy. However, if the prison's generator is off-line, then ''all cells open automatically'', even though this means the bars have to slide up (i.e. this requires power). All the internal phones are knocked out as well. [[spoiler:Justified, as this is because the prison is less a prison and more a holding chamber. The prisoners are only captive due to being under the influence of the Manipulator, and the people in charge of the facility are more interested in studying this mysterious phenomena than actually punishing the people inside. Inspector Cabanera wholly believes the prisoners are innocent.]]
* There are several prisons and asylums that Twinsen can find himself imprisoned inside in ''Videogame/LittleBigAdventure'', but all have a trick that makes escaping incredibly easy, such as walking around your cell until a guard enters and tells you to "Stop squirming", or shouting for a guard that there's a loose stone in the cell wall which you could use to escape and beating him up when he investigates.
* In ''VideoGame/ManiacMansion'', you're thrown into a basement prison if one of the Edisons catches you. However, a brick can be pushed by one of your party members, allowing a second to walk free. A key that unlocks the basement door can also be found, allowing any of the characters to escape.
* ''VideoGame/PrayerOfTheFaithless'': Asala castle has a standard prison, but it's not capable of holding [[spoiler:Aeyr, who has Soulfire abilities that work independently of his equipment. [[PlayAlongPrisoner He only stays in prison]] out of the hope that Mia will eventually give up on trying to rule Asala and agree with his view that humanity isn't worth saving. In all endings, Vanessa escapes by knocking out the guards and stowing away on the Odyssey ship.]]
* Deconstructed in ''Franchise/{{Injustice}}''. After his FaceHeelTurn, Superman ordered Arkham Asylum to be closed for good and relocate all of its prisoners to more secure detention facilities. He even [[LampshadeHanging pointed out]] in an interview how silly it was that Arkham is still in operation when it can't hold prisoners properly or reform them. Arkham is infamous to have a [[SwissCheeseSecurity shoddy security record]] and high recidivism rate, and its inmates are frequently shown escaping at will -- and those who are considered to no longer be mentally unwell and discharged tend to re-offend.
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII'': At one point, a king has the party thrown in jail... along with all of their weapons, items, teleportation spells, and a key that can unlock any door. Though this is averted in a sense, since the guard who threw you in there hints that he is aware of the king's treachery, and is actually trying to help you.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'' Corvo does manage to easily escape from being imprisoned by the Whalers in the Flooded district, though it may be more justified both by the fact that the prison is clearly made of improvised materials in a facility not built for holding purposes. Corvo's superpowers also give him an advantage.
* The cells in the paradise police station in ''VideoGame/Postal2'' certainly qualify as this, at least to the Postal Dude. All the cell doors open if the fire alarm is set off which can be done quite easily with the box of matches the Dude gets to keep when he is detained, which begs the question as to [[PoliceAreUseless why the police never seem to confiscate his matches no matter how many times they arrest him.]]
* At a certain point in ''VideoGame/{{Stray}}'', the cat gets locked in a cage over deep water after [[spoiler:the Sentinels capture them and their allies]]. Unfortunately for their captors, the cat easily breaks the lock by swinging the cage against a pipe. Justified considering that those same captors have only locked up robots before and therefore never had to consider something as small and agile as the cat.
* ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'': Zenith created an AI abomination by merging their BrainUploading selves, then locked it in a cyber-prison for experimentation. Unfortunately for them, the AI eventually realized [[spoiler:that since Zenith left all other nations on Earth to die, and thus had no rival nations to contend with, it hadn't improved its cybersecurity - ''or its passwords'' - for a thousand years]], and immediately broke out of its cell, infesting the entire futuristic techno-society in hours.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'': As a result of their antics, the Warner siblings were locked away in the water tower on the Warner Bros. Studios lot in 1934, and allegedly hadn't escaped until the series premiere. However, it's shown in later episodes that not only were Yakko, Wakko, and Dot able to get out whenever they wanted, but were even let out more than once while the tower was being fumigated. Furthermore, similar to [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker's]] attitude towards Arkham, they view their so-called "prison" as their home, and always return to it willingly when they're done causing chaos. WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain have the same outlook regarding [=ACME=] Labs.
* Of the lighter variety, the dog catcher in the early sound cartoon "Dinnertime" (produced by Creator/VanBeurenStudios) unwittingly lets all of his dogs loose while trying to catch the dogs raiding Farmer Al Falfa's meat shop.
** The royal prison the Little King visits in "Jolly Good Felons", which is PlayedForLaughs; one of the prisoners even removes one of the bars from his cell window, only to dust it off and put it back. Then the King unwittingly ticks off a prisoner by ruining his chess game, which makes him tear the bars off his cell, steal the keys from the prison guard, and then a lever that releases all of the prisoners!
* ''[[WesternAnimation/SuperFriends Challenge of the Superfriends]]:''
** In "Wanted: The Superfriends", [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]] uses a dream machine to force the heroes to commit crimes. When they turn themselves in, the police chief ([[LatexPerfection actually]] Bizarro) points out that he knows the Superfriends could easily escape, so he is going to simply rely on their integrity to stay.
** Sinestro, Black Manta, and Cheetah escape from a cell by Sinestro just walking into the anti-matter Universe of Qward and the others following him.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''
** "Lock-Up" is dedicated to a former brutal Arkham security officer turned vigilante out of disgust with Arkham's poor track record. He actually said that as far as villains are concerned, Arkham has rotating doors.
** In "Deep Freeze", Robin wryly mentions that the recent breakout of Mr. Freeze was the "most elaborate escape from Arkham this year". [[spoiler:Truthfully, Freeze did not actually escape in that episode; he was ''kidnapped'' while in jail.]]
** In "Jokers Wild", The Joker manages to escape from Arkham in all of about 45 seconds after seeing a news broadcast about the new Joker-themed casino opening in Gotham. However, [[spoiler:the tycoon who had built the casino was going bankrupt, and was depending on the Joker to blow the place up so that he could collect the insurance money, and one of the guards acknowledges to himself that the Joker is being suckered. Thus, it's not unreasonable to assume that he had paid off the guys at Arkham to ''let'' the Joker escape]].
** In "Judgement Day", one of the city officials endorsing the Judge (who uses lethal force on criminals) says Arkham is like a revolving door.
** Lampshaded in "The Joker's Favor" when Charlie Collins threatens to blow up the Joker to end the threat to his family, pointing out that if he goes to Arkham he'll just escape again.
* [=WOOHP=]'s so-called high-security prison is a continual source of escaped baddies on ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies''
** Lampshaded when Smalls was captured again, Jerry commented that because he was so small they didn't even notice that he had escaped.
** And another when a villain was able to escape simply by making a guard uniform in arts and crafts. Jerry is obviously embarrassed by this predicament.
* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' reuses some villains this way, the ones who don't [[VillainExitStageLeft conveniently get away]]. Partly played for laughs at the beginning of the fourth season, where two episodes feature another villain breaking Shego out of prison and leaving Drakken behind, including his own cousin. Drakken is eventually freed by an alien Amazon, which the prison can't really have been expected to foresee.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'':
** The first episode has Plasmus being broken out of jail, and [[TerribleTrio the HIVE trio's]] first appearance made mention of their headmaster retrieving them after they were defeated. Otherwise, every arrested villain will just show up again without explanation, and we don't even see any in prison. Literally the only villain who ''stayed'' in jail was Brother Blood, the third season's ArcVillain.
** The isn't even limited to Earth prisons, either. When questioned on her reappearance, as she was supposed to be locked up in some galactic prison, Blackfire nonchalantly commented, "I got bored, so I broke out." (What ''really'' makes this odd is that the SpacePolice who arrested her in the first place had no trouble overpowering her.)
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** Sideshow Bob is constantly getting out of prison by one way or another. However, Bob has only really escaped twice: once by sneaking away while working at the Air Force base and once by [[Film/FaceOff disguising himself as his cellmate]]. More often than not he was released legally, albeit for highly questionable reasons: "No one who speaks German could be an evil man! Parole granted!" And he knows it too. Once, being dragged off to prison he yells "You can't keep me in jail. Sooner or later there'll be a Democrat in the White House again and I'll be free! And all my criminal pals as well."
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E8LisaOnIce Lisa on Ice]]", Chief Wiggum agrees to let out a bunch of prisoners so they can watch the little league hockey finals, but only if they promise to come back afterwards. When the prisoners [[NotEvenBotheringWithAnExcuse refuse to even]] ''pretend'' that they'll agree to do this, Wiggum lets them out anyway.
** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E23TheSpringfieldConnection The Springfield Connection]]":
--->'''Wiggum:''' Cuff him, boys. We're putting this dirtbag away.\\
'''Snake:''' Ha! I'll be back on the street in 24 hours.\\
'''Wiggum:''' We'll try to make it twelve.
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E9RealtyBites Realty Bites]]", Snake simply walks out through the jail's unlocked door, ignoring the "no escaping, please" sign posted nearby. Fellow inmate Kearney is not pleased.
--->'''Snake:''' Screw the honour system. My car needs me!\\
'''Kearney:''' Hey, you're ruining it for the rest of us!
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E23ThirtyMinutesOverTokyo Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo]]", Homer takes this literally when he goes to Japan. His jail cell is made out of paper. [[DungeonBypass So he just walks through it]], [[ThereWasADoor despite the cell now being open]].
* On ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'', the ease with which the Beagle Boys get out of jail countless times (usually with the help of [[JailBake cakes with poorly disguised tools inside sent by Ma Beagle]]) became a running gag. In one episode, the prison staff decide to X-ray one of Ma's cakes to put a stop to this. Though there's no tools baked inside, whatever recipe Ma used makes Burger Beagle (who devours it in quickly) jitter so much his brothers use him as a ''jackhammer''. Taken [[ExaggeratedTrope Up to Eleven]] in the episode "The Status Seeker", when the Beagle Boys are residing in a "prison" that more closely resembles a tropical resort hotel, complete with butler. When the episodes' antagonist approaches them with a job as hired muscle, Big Time asks the butler to tell the warden that they'll be ''"escaping for a week or so"''. The butler's response? A cheerful ''"very good, sir."''
* Though it's not actually pointed out, apparently the jails in ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'''s Cape Suzette are far from secure. Several minor villains reappear later, notably Buffy and Muffy Vanderschmere, who, despite being caught as con artists and hijackers, show up separately in the background some episodes later apparently up to their old tricks again.
* Lampshaded in ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'': XR and XL [[FreakyFridayFlip switch heads]], and XR (with XL's body) is thrown in Star Command prison. While looking at the different buttons on XL's arm, he makes a startling discovery:
-->'''XR:''' "Lasers"... "Acid"... "Escape From Prison"! So ''that's'' how he keeps coming back!
* ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'':
** The ghost containment unit is particularly unreliable. The marshmallow man might as well have been meeting with a parole officer. (Although in fairness, two of the episodes with him involved the team ''letting'' him out.) And yet it's actually very secure from the inside. Most of the break outs are some idiot (like Slimer) shutting it down. Some powerful ghosts escape after a minion from the outside springs them, or a crisis with multiple ghosts endangers machinery.
** Egon tried several times to beef up the security. He placed a backup generator that would kick in in case of a blackout, but the first time it was needed, said blackout was caused by ghosts that could possess machinery. Another time, the Containment Unit ''itself'' was possessed. Egon once installed a fingerprint ID system to prevent an intruder from shutting it down, but that was abandoned after a demon possessed Peter in order to do it.
** One story featured a ghost who kept breaking out of the ghost traps no matter what the Ghostbusters tried. Ultimately he turned out to be the ghost of Creator/HarryHoudini and fortunately was actually a good guy, negating the need to try putting him in the containment unit.
* Incarnations of ''Franchise/CarmenSandiego''. The game shows are especially guilty of this. In ''WesternAnimation/WhereOnEarthIsCarmenSandiego'', the fact that the local authorities let Carmen escape just hours after Acme detective prodigy Lee Jordan made history by actually capturing her was the beginning of his FaceHeelTurn.
* Professor Norton Nimnul from ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'' has been arrested countless times, yet he doesn't ever seem to stay in jail and always returns with new schemes.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' ChristmasEpisode, [[VillainProtagonist Zim]] [[BadSanta poses as Santa]] and throws [[HeroAntagonist Dib]] in "Jingle Jail." He breaks out easily, because the bars that look like candy canes actually ''are'' made of candy cane. {{Subverted|Trope}} when he's captured again:
-->'''Zim:''' This time throw him in the actually ''strong'' Jingle Jail!\\
'''[[OnlySaneMan Dib]]:''' ''(being dragged away)'' [[StatingTheSimpleSolution Why didn't you throw me in the strong one in the first place?]]\\
'''Zim:''' You can never understand my amazing brain!
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'':
** In one episode, some crooks manage to be let out of jail because there were some Powerpuff Girl costumes conveniently located in their cell.
* ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'' ran a WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse short in which Mortimer gets him falsely arrested for theft. He manages to escape because the policeman guarding his cell is dumb enough to demonstrate the easiest way for a prisoner to escape -- knocking him out and taking the keys.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' when Jerry is dumped off at "Jerryboree", a day care for all the Ricks of TheMultiverse to dump off their Jerrys to keep him out of their adventures. Our Jerry suggests to the others that they bust out and escape, and is matter-of-factly told by the others that they're free to leave whenever they want as keeping them there against their will [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome would be illegal]]. None of them bother simply because "they're Jerrys", and when our Jerry does leave he's back within the hour after having to deal with the utter insanity of the planet the place is on.
* Made fun of in ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' in a ''Franchise/GIJoe'' Parody.
-->'''Duke:''' (''concerning Cobra Commander'') We flew in, beat 'em like mixed-race stepchildren and Cobra Commander went to prison... and he promptly escaped. Whoo boy, the other countries of the world were pissed, they wanted him put to death immediately, but we kinda dragged our heels and by that time Zartan had busted him out with [[ContinuityNod a wicker basket thing]] and a remote control snake or something... ahhhh good times.
* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'':
** [[TheStarscream Starscream]] is captured and placed in a holding cell on the Elite Guard's ship. Unfortunately they forgot to properly restrain him or take away his weapons, so he was easily able to blow up part of the hull and escape. In later episodes, it seems they actually learned their lesson from this incident.
** The tie-in comics reveal that Starscream got his chance to escape while they were studying his flight tech. This trope is also used inconsistently with the human supervillains: the police don't even seem aware of Meltdown's first escape, but after that they stick him in a special cell not even his acid can melt through (he escapes, but thanks to the Dinobots following Blackarachnia's orders). On the whole, the comic-relief villains seem to have an easier time breaking out than the actual threats. This gets lampshaded in [[AllThereInTheManual the Allspark Almanac]], in which [[DaChief Captain Fanzone]] complains about how Blackwater Prison (the supermax all these villains are sent to) can't seem to keep its prisoners contained properly.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': Though not a villain, Cosmo leads to an example of this when Wanda tricks him into a dog carrier when he needs to go to the D-O-C-T-O-R. Multiple times, it shows him easily having the ability to escape the trap, but he's too clueless to take any of the opportunities. Worse then it sounds; he does escape it a few times, just to show how "inescapable" it is... only to go right back in.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ElTigre'', the Miracle City prison sees mass breakouts virtually every day; in one episode, El Oso is blase about being sent back to jail because he plans on breaking out before dinner anyway. In a later episode, he's taken away in a police van and is immediately seen walking free seconds after.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SushiPack'', though most villains are shown going to jail at the end of each episode, only one villain has been consistently shown in jail. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in one episode, as Ikura comments, "They need to start building better jails in this town!"
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderman'':
** The Sinister Six are broken out of a prison by Doc Ock, and another time are broken out of a mental institution.
** Another episode even has Spider-Man testing out the security of the Vault in a sealed cell. Guess the results. [[spoiler:Actually, pretty good -- though the Green Goblin]] manages to remotely take control of the prison, he manages to eventually take control again with some help from [[spoiler:Black Cat and her father]].
** It's a little hard to catch, due to Spidey's tongue being burnt, but in the episode "Reinforcement", he says something along the lines of "Beaky!? Is there a revolving door at that prison!?"
* In the old ''WesternAnimation/Birdman1967'' cartoon, a GadgeteerGenius once broke out of prison by constructing a suit of PoweredArmor complete with a jetpack in the prison metalshop. After Birdman kicked his ass and sent him back to prison the episode ended with the warden deciding to assign the guy to prison laundry duty instead of the metalshop, thinking the guy wouldn't be able to turn this to his advantage. The villain proved him wrong in a later episode when he escaped again ''by converting a dryer into an escape rocket''. After Birdman caught him ''again'', the warden finally wised up and sent the villain to work in the prison library, far away from any machinery.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'':
** This happens in the very ''first'' episode. There's a massive jailbreak at the four supervillain prisons (The Vault, The Cube, The Big House, and The Raft) that creates the need to form The Avengers. The viewers aren't told the history of the prisons beforehand aside from the fact that they were tailor made based on the type of supervillain they held. (The Vault had tech criminals, the Cube radiation criminals, the Big House genetic villains, and the Raft had the most dangerous criminals) Seeing how someone broke into the Vault in one of the backstory micro episodes, and two inmates had apparently broken out of the Cube in the past (Hulk and Absorbing Man), they don't sound too great.
** Regardless, all these prisons are presumably abandoned for prison 42, the above mentioned "fantasy island" of comic fame. Unlike in the comics, this prison has functioned just as designed, and despite the less-than-friendly environment, is generally considered a good idea in universe. At least until it gets attacked from the outside by Annihilus and has to be abandoned.
* During an imagination episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'' that portrayed a [[TheWildWest Wild West]] train robbery, Pooh and Tigger are put in one of these. Not only were [[WidelySpacedJailBars the bars wide enough for the characters to walk through (and they do),]] but also there was ''no back wall''. When Tigger comes to break Pooh out of jail, he unlocks the cell door but then they leave through the missing wall, and when they get caught again later they somehow don't think of just walking out the same way again.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' parodies this with "Canadian Alcatraz", where the guards routinely let prisoners out, as long as they're back by sundown.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Young Justice|2010}}''. After Hugo Strange takes over Belle Reve, the prisoners are to leave to do jobs for The Light and return before any inspections can take place. Even after Strange is exposed at the end of Season One, this trope is in effect as all the villains that were captured in Season One are free after the TimeSkip at the start of Season Two.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' adaption of the "Emperor Joker" story, Batman says he designed Joker's new cell himself and that he won't be getting out. Bat-Mite uses his RealityWarper abilities and Joker is loose again. This may explain the trope itself.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{King}}'', during the first episode Bob Wire puts Russell and the others in a prison that once you enter you can't leave. Because the door is [[ItMakesSenseInContext "ONLY" on the outside.]] in turn the outside door has no reason to be locked. Russell then pulls out a few loose bricks, [[ItMakesSenseInContext putting them back in backwards so the outside door is on the inside]], escaping within minutes.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/AxeCop'' episode "Heads Will Roll", Axe Cop is incarcerated. He decides to stay because it makes killing bad guys very convenient. As soon as he learns that Flute Cop is in trouble, he easily escapes.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' episode "Jailbreak", Steven easily breaks out of his cell within a minute of waking up in it. Justified since the cells are only meant to contain Gems, and so have {{Force Field Door}}s designed to disrupt a Gem's HardLight body. Since Steven's a HalfHumanHybrid with an organic body, he only feels minor shock akin to a joy buzzer when passing through the barrier.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': In "Get the Message", Lola and Lana play "hall monitor" and put Luan in a literal cardboard prison.
* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' captures his ghostly enemies and then ... returns them to the Ghost Zone. Which is accessed by a completely uncontrolled portal that opens whenever it feels like it. As well as a basically unlimited number of other portals that randomly connect the Zone to various points in time and space. This isn't even to mention that some ghosts, like Johnny 13, can open portals whenever they feel like it! It's small wonder that "caught" ghosts often return in ''the very next episode''. The setup to one episode even involves Danny's father repeatedly ''pressing the button that opens the portal'', with ghosts flying out with each press. There's ''a queue forming on the other side.''
* The Plumbers' Headquarters in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'' is absolutely terrible at keeping its prisoners under lock, despite being an underground base with advanced technology and several super-powered, trained guards. Most villains who get arrested are back on the street usually one or two episodes later, and villain Khyber has been known to break in twice without even getting noticed.
* In ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' any prison is this for Le Quack. In one of his appearances he is thrown into an armored truck by a police officer and driven away. Literally seconds later, we cut to the same truck. It has been completely destroyed. Le Quack is wandering the road alone; He is clad in the uniform of the police officer who apprehended him. In his second appearance he actually makes it to prison but just as the episode fades to black we see the same prison with all of its barbed wire fences on fire and Le Quack standing outside of them. There is no humor, there is nothing to even take the edge off. It's pure FridgeHorror.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheRaccoons'' episode "The Prism of Zenda", Cyril and the pigs get arrested for breaking into Mr. Knox's mansion and attempting to steal the eponymous prism, although the whole incident was actually one big misunderstanding (long story). After Cyril and the pigs get jailed, Cedric states that once Mr. Knox clears things up, Cyril and the pigs should be out within a few days.
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* In ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'', the Special Prison holds prisoners protected by national secrecy. However, for some reason, if the prison's generator is off-line, then ''all cells open automatically'', even though this means the bars have to slide up (i.e. this requires power). All the internal phones are knocked out as well.

* Syndrome's prison in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' doesn't work for long on Violet, because she can block the electricity holding her suspended with her force fields.

* ''Website/SCPFoundation'': There are some [=SCPs=] that the Foundation does not have the ability to contain.

** A politician in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' off-handedly states in a radio interview that letting criminals off easy is standard practice to save money on prisons.
* Zigursky Prison, also known as "The Zig", in the MMORPG ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes''. Its walls are so permeable that bands of escaped prisoners freely roam the streets of Brickstown, the zone in which it is located -- and all the bosses and archvillains who take advantage of its apparent revolving-door policies. The tutorial in the counterpart ''City of Villains'' has your character escaping the Zig as part of a massive prison break.

* Deconstructed in ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'' and ''VideoGame/Injustice2''. After his FaceHeelTurn, Superman ordered Arkham Asylum to be closed for good and relocate all of its prisoners to more secure detention facilities. He even [[LampshadeHanging pointed out]] in an interview how silly it was that Arkham is still in operation when it can't hold prisoners properly or reform them. Arkham is infamous to have a [[SwissCheeseSecurity shoddy security record]] and high recidivism rate, and its inmates are frequently shown escaping at will -- and those who are considered to no longer be mentally unwell and discharged tend to re-offend.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'': Getting caught by the cult around Dark Palace has Link thrown into a cell in the middle of the courtyard he's trying to sneak through. Because the game's whole gimmick is turning into a painting and maneuvering across walls, Link can walk right out. Justified in that, if it weren't for that gimmick, it would be impossible for Link to get out. [[FridgeLogic Which begs the question]] of how the cultists managed to get him ''in''.

* The cells in the paradise police station in ''VideoGame/Postal2'' certainly qualify as this, at least to the Postal Dude. All the cell doors open if the fire alarm is set off which can be done quite easily with the box of matches the postal dude gets to keep when he is detained, which begs the question as to [[PoliceAreUseless why the police never seem to confiscate the postal dude's matches no matter how many times they arrest him.]]

* The cells in the paradise police station in ''VideoGame/Postal2'' certainly qualify as this, at least to the postal dude. All the cell doors open if the fire alarm is set off which can be done quite easily with the box of matches the postal dude gets to keep when he is detained, which begs the question as to [[PoliceAreUseless why the police never seem to confiscate the postal dude's matches no matter how many times they arrest him.]]

** ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'': Although he was arrested and incarcerated multiple times, Toad always manages to escape and rejoin Magneto somehow.