History Main / GetIntoJailFree

Supertrope to CantGetInTroubleForNuthin. See also TrojanPrisoner, PlayAlongPrisoner, ConvenientlyCellmates and ChainedHeat. This is a subtrope of {{Unishment}}, where being put into prison is the desired "penalty" for committing a crime, and of CapturedOnPurpose. Named for, but not particularly related to the GetOutOfJailFreeCard.

* ''Franchise/LupinIII'' knows he can do this at any time, due to the obsessive nature of his archrival, Inspector Zenigata. As a GentlemanThief, Zenigata has been trying to arrest him for ''years''. All he has to do to go to jail is walk up and announce he's Lupin, coming to surrender.

** In the past, [[HumanTraffickers Leon Rastovich]] turned himself into the police to escape being killed by Frank.

* The Joker pulls a double-layered scheme in ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOBatmanMovie''. He surrenders to the Gotham Police, earning himself a spot in Arkham Asylum for his many prior crimes. This fuels Batman's paranoia: he decides Joker must be planning to pull something big from ''inside'' Arkham, and the only way to stop him is to throw him into someplace ''even more'' secure. So Batman sends Joker to [[spoiler:the Phantom Zone]]--which [[KansasCityShuffle plays right into the Joker's hand]], since his real goal all along was to recruit the the villains incarcerated in this second prison.

* ''Film/BatmanBegins'' opens with Bruce Wayne in a Chinese prison. It's pointed out that a man of his wealth and fame is only in a place like that by choice -- Bruce is attempting to learn about the criminal mindset. However Ducard regards this path as a dead end and quickly arranges his release so he can be tutored by the League of Shadows instead.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian2011''. Looking to get into a prison, Conan beats the crap out of a guard, stands over his prone form and tells the still slightly concussed guy "I am your prisoner" while meekly extending his hands for cuffs.

* ''Film/ExtremePrejudice''. Two of the special forces team pretend to have a racist confrontation so they'll be taken inside the police station, and can report via hidden transmitters the local law enforcement set-up.

* The movie ''Film/LawAbidingCitizen'' had a man not only get himself thrown in jail, but then got himself sent to solitary confinement. [[spoiler: He got himself sent to solitary because he'd already dug a tunnel linked to every cell so he could escape at will, cause mayhem all over the city and have the perfect alibi - all to get back at the prosecutor who took a plea bargain from one of the men who broke into his home and killed his wife and daughter in front of him.]]

* ''Film/MechanicResurrection''. Bishop's first target is an African ArmsDealer who [[MightAsWellNotBeInPrisonAtAll runs his business from inside a maximum security prison]] where no one can get in to kill him. Bishop finds a wanted criminal who looks like himself, copies his tattoo, then picks a fight with some police officers. He also has to smuggle in the items he needs to break out of the prison, which he does by hiding them in innocuous objects like a packet of cigarettes.

* In ''Film/{{Skidoo}}'', a retired hit man (Jackie Gleason) is ordered by TheDon (Groucho Marx, in his last role) to get himself into prison to kill a snitch (Mickey Rooney).

* ''Literature/CHERUBSeries'': In book 3, ''Maximum Security'', TeenSuperspy James Adam's assignment is to [[TheInfiltration go undercover in]] an Arizonan [[UsefulNotes/AmericanPrisons maximum security juvenile prison]] and engineer the escape of himself and one of the juvenile inmates. The plan is that the inmate he is helping them escape will lead them to his fugitive mother, a wanted international black market arms dealer. He does this by posing as a juvenile with a felony record, which is faked by the FBI.

** In ''Literature/GuardsGuards'', Vimes finds Vetinari in the dungeon, and after finding an "escape" route for himself realizes that Vetinari was probably the safest person in the city at that point and was essentially using the dungeon as a fortress. As a semi-retired Assassin he could certainly have resisted being put in the dungeon if he hadn't planned to stay there all along.

* ''Literature/TheHauntingOfDrearcliffGrangeSchool'', set in a school for future superheroes (and sometimes future supervillains), has an epilogue in which the protagonist, as an adult, goes to a notorious ExtranormalPrison to visit the newest inmate, the Broken Doll, who she was at school with. She arrives just in time to witness the Broken Doll stage a daring break-out, taking with her several valuable and dangerous artifacts that were being held in the prison for safe-keeping. They don't get a chance to chat, but it's strongly implied that the Broken Doll let herself caught as a way of getting through the prison's defenses and close to the artifacts.

* An early episode of ''Series/TheATeam'' had an episode where Hannibal, BA and Murdock tried to get arrested as part of the plan to get thrown in jail to break up a illegal prison fighting ring.
* One episode of ''Series/Batman1966'' had The Penguin try this after acquiring samples of various rich people's handwriting, because a forger has been imprisoned next to his [[CardboardPrison usual]] cell.
* ''Series/TheBlacklist'': This is the driving force of the series with Raymond Reddignton turning himself in for a lifetime of crime to help the FBI take down other criminals.

* ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU'': Olivia knows that one of the corrections officers at Sealview Women's Prison has been raping and abusing inmates (as well as the 14-year-old daughter of at least one of them). So to catch him, she goes undercover as a woman named Katrina Rae Lewis sent there for a theft or something, complete with a fake past-record of an abusive father and an abusive ex-husband. She ends up getting nearly raped by that CO before Finn (undercover there as a CO) comes in.
* ''Series/LittleLunch'': In "The Oval", Melanie deliberately kicks a ball into a window so she will get detention, because it is preferable to being stuck in Rory's {{Calvinball}} game.

* ''Series/WhodunnitUK'': In "Diamonds Are Almost Forever", one of thieves arranges to be caught red-handed stealing the diamonds so he will spend the night in jail. This is part of the plan to destroy the remaining evidence when the diamonds disappear from the police safe overnight.

* In ''VideoGame/Yakuza0'', Omi Alliance brass Homare Nishitani has his own personal jail cell at the Osaka precinct thanks to his friendships with a few [[DirtyCop corrupt cops]], including his foster father Billiken. As he notes, since there are guards everywhere, and you'd have to go to jail to get at him, it's the effectively "the best hideout taxpayer money can buy." When he decides he wants to leave, [[MightAsWellNotBeInPrisonAtAll the jail cell is left unlocked]] and he can just walk out.

* ''Fear is the Key'' (1972), a film adaptation of the novel by Alistair [=MacLean=]. The protagonist gets into a bar brawl with the police so he can get hauled into a courtroom where he takes the daughter of a millionaire hostage and a CarChase ensues. [[spoiler:The entire event turns out to have been faked by the police to give the protagonist a convincing criminal background, as the girl's father is involved with TheMafia. In the novel though the bar brawl at least is implied never to have happened.]]

* In his final novel, ''Literature/{{Quiller}}'' discovers a witness who has evidence that can bring down a high-ranking boss of TheMafiya has been thrown into TheGulag. He gets himself sent there too (though only by faking the conviction papers) even through no-one has ever escaped before.

* ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX'': In the past, [[HumanTraffickers Leon Rastovich]] turned himself into the police to escape being killed by Frank.

* ''Series/ShadowAndBone''. Once he's assigned to the First Army, the first thing Malyen Oretsev does is look up his childhood friend Alina Starkov, only to be told she's been thrown into the brig for striking the quartermaster after he insulted her. Mal looks up the quartermaster and decks him, both getting payback on her behalf and ensuring he'll be thrown into the same brig.

* ''Series/ShadowAndBone''. Once he's assigned to the First Army, the first thing Mal does is look up his childhood friend Alina Starkov, only to be told she's been thrown into the brig for striking the quartermaster after he insulted her. Mal looks up the quartermaster and decks him, both getting payback on her behalf and ensuring he'll be thrown into the same brig.

* ''ComicBook/{{Wonder Woman|1942}}'': [[ComicBook/WonderWomanNumberOne The Master Plan of Paula Von Gunther]]: This tale provides the page image. When the warden refuses to put Diana into the cell next to Paula the Amazon tosses a trash can over the head of one of his men and forces him to dance to avoid his feet being shot with his own gun, so they put her in irons and toss her right where she wanted to be.

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'':
** Hank gets himself arrested to talk to Bill, who'd been put in jail on a petty charge after getting estranged from the gang. Humorously, Hank's first idea is to ''jaywalk'' in front of a cop (he waits for the light to switch and ''then'' walks), assuming this is enough. His second attempt is even ''tamer'': taking off his shirt in a convenience store while pointing out the "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service" sign and attempting to surrender to a couple of cops buying sodas - at which point he's informed "it's not officially a law" (and the clerk rubs it in further by mentioning he doesn't even enforce the store policy). Finally, he decides to give one of their cars a light bump with his truck. Of course, their reaction is immediate and angry -- he's in jail quickly.

** There's a variation in another episode where Boomhauer had been put into a psychiatric hospital after falling asleep tubing and showing up in the city in a sunstroke-induced rambling state, clad in a Speedo and algae. His friends each feign craziness to get admitted and spring him, unaware that once the 24 observation period was complete he could leave anytime he wanted.

* Depending on the choices you can make in ''WesternAnimation/DCShowcaseBatmanDeathInTheFamily, [[spoiler:Jason can unintentionally do this if he kills the Joker in the diner. While he wasn't intending to go to prison he decides to stay there so he can kill other inmates.]]

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian2011''. Looking to get into a prison, Conan beats the crap out of a guard, stands over his prone form and tells the still slightly concussed guy "I am your prisoner" while meekly extending his hands for cuffs.

Most people spend their lives trying to ''avoid'' incarceration, but on some rare occasions, being in prison is better than being on the streets. Sometimes characters need to meet someone on the inside for information, revenge, or a rescue mission. Or maybe they need protection that only iron bars and 24-hour surveillance can provide. Whatever their reasons, they're prepared to do what it takes to land comfortably in the clink.

But prisons aren't hotels, and police won't let you in just because you ask them (unless you are trusted and working with said police), so characters will generally have to break some sort of law and intentionally get caught. Smart characters will adjust the severity of their crime depending on where they want to end up and for how long. Dumber or more desperate characters may wind up with a longer or harsher prison sentence than they wanted.

* ''Film/{{Colombiana}}''. Our introduction to the protagonist as an adult ProfessionalKiller involves her [[DynamicEntry suddenly ramming a police car]] while PlayingDrunk. The police put her in a cell overnight to sober up; she breaks out of the cell, kills a criminal who's being held overnight there by Federal Marshals, then gets back in her cell as an alibi. Unfortunately the feds realise the killer had to have been in the building, so start checking into everyone held in custody.

* The homeless protagonist of the Creator/OHenry story "The Cop and the Anthem" wants to pull this so he can spend the winter off the streets. [[spoiler:He succeeds; after hearing a hymn from a church and deciding to turn his life around, he's arrested for loitering.]]

* PlayedForLaughs in the ''Series/TheRedSkeltonShow'' episode "The Cop and the Anthem": [[{{Hobos}} Freddie the Freeloader]] plans to celebrate Christmas by running up a huge bill at a fancy restaurant, admitting he's broke, and getting sent to the relative comfort of prison. However, people keep letting him off the hook out of Christmas spirit. [[spoiler:Ironically, as soon as he feels inspired to get a job and make something of his life, he's arrested for loitering.]]

* In one episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/COPSAnimatedSeries C.O.P.S.]]'', Rock Krusher walked into the police station and tried to rob the place. He was easily apprehended, but what he really wanted was to be sent to prison as part of the Big Boss' latest crooked scheme. Luckily for him, he actually sort of likes prison life.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{COPS}}'', Rock Krusher walked into the police station and tried to rob the place. He was easily apprehended, but what he really wanted was to be sent to prison as part of the Big Boss' latest crooked scheme. Luckily for him, he actually sort of likes prison life.