History Main / JustGotOutOfJail

* ''Series/{{Minder}}'' opens with Terry being released from prison having served several years for Grevious Bodily Harm and attempted armed robbery. Lacking job prospects, he ends up as a "minder" (bodyguard, heavy, etc.) for [[HonestJohnsDealership Honest John]] Arthur Dailey. Throughout the series, Terry is treated with suspicion and hostility by [[OldFashionedCopper police]] as a result of his criminal record.

-->--''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney'', "Return of the Clouded Kokoro"

** In "Alien Shop", Andy Pace has recently been released from prison after serving a sentence for drug dealing and is still on probation. He is desperately searching for a job so that he can support his pregnant wife Gabby and prove to her parents that he is not a deadbeat.

[[folder: Film ]]

* The 'Winter' segment of ''Film/MoreDeadThanAlive'' deals with Cain being just released prison. No one will give him a job and people are after him for his earlier crimes. He finally takes an offer from a showman named Ruffalo to perform as "Killer Cain" in his traveling shooting show.

* ''Film/{{Blastfighter}}'' opens with Tiger being released from the state pen after serving 8 years for murdering the man who killed his wife. He ex-partner Pete is waiting to pick him up.

[[folder: Literature ]]

* It's heavily implied that this is the case with Ostap Bender in Literature/TheTwelveChairs (he wears a clean fancy suit and shoes but no everyday consumables like socks, and is homeless; the suit and shoes are implied to be given back to him upon release). This explains why he is extremely cautious about not violating the criminal code directly, and enters Stargorod by foot to avoid run-ins with railroad police.

[[folder: Live-Action TV ]]

* ''Series/PrisonBreak'': Linc (after his name was cleared the first time) kills a Mook and tells LJ and Sofia to run since he rightly assumes the police won't care if its self-defense.
* In ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'', Earl gets released from prison, but finds he no longer has the apartment, the job, or girlfriend he acquired in Season 2, and [[ItMakesSenseInContext spent all the lottery money he had left on a prom for the prison]]...and that life has gotten a lot tougher, since no one wants to hire an ex-con. [[spoiler: Even though he was in for a crime his ex-wife committed.]] This causes him to lose faith in Karma, and go back to his old ways.
* Various characters in ''Series/TheSopranos'' (Richie Aprile, Tony Blundetto and Phil Leotardo, most prominently), only show up once they're released from jail, as a fairly [[JustifiedTrope justified]] way of having the characters be old friends without using RememberTheNewGuy.

[[folder: Music ]]

[[folder: Theatre ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* In ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent'', we first meet [[RobotGirl May]] as a hologram on a work-release program from Robot Jail, implied to be a server where criminal AIs [[AndIMustScream exist, body-less]]. Her program is successful, and she soon appears with a body of her own, determined to reform. Most of her storylines revolve around being a recent ex-con, trying to find a job and stay away from any hint of illegal activity.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

** Also, the Penguin did try to live a honest life and among Gotham's elites (which he believed possible thanks to Veronica Vreeland). While she cleared a misunderstanding when Batman wrongly assumed the Penguin was one of the muggers robbing her, it was eventually revealed to him she just wanted someone to be made a fool of at a party. He was so revolted he returned to a life of crime.

** ''Film/theArtOfTheSteal'' opens with Crunch being released from a Polish prison after serving a 7 year sentence.

* At the start of ''Film/AScoreToSettle'', Frank is released from prison after 19 years when he is diagnosed with a terminal illness.

** ''Mélodie en sous-sol''

* In ''Film/TigerHouse'', the volatile Callum has only been out of prison for a few weeks and says he has no intention of ever going back [[soiler:He's right, but not in the way he meant.]]

** ''Film/AntMan''

* ''Les Fugitifs'', by Francis Veber, begins with Lucas, an experienced bank robber who just got out of jail, being caught in Pignon's comically botched attempt at robbing a bank -- he even asks Pignon if he couldn't take somebody else as a hostage. The trope is similarly used in the [[ForeignRemake American remake]], ''Film/ThreeFugitives''

* ''Film/Blindspotting'' starts as Collins is released on probation. His fear of going back to prison for something as minor as missing curfew at his halfway house provides much of the tension of the first part of the film.

* While not exactly jail, the Jedi Exile in the second KnightsOfTheOldRepublic has just come back to Republic space after a ten-year sentence of exile pronounced on him/her by the Jedi Council.

[[folder: Live Action Tv ]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', when Meg was sentenced to 3 months in prison, she had a hard time adjusting to the norms of the outside world. She rapes Peter with a loofah in the shower, uses a bucket in her bedroom to relieve herself in instead of walking down the hall to the bathroom, beats Peter and the popular kids at school who made fun of her (and then French kisses [[AlphaBitch Connie]] to show dominance), and is hostile to everyone. It overlaps with HadToComeToPrisonToBecomeACrook.

* In ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', when Meg was sentenced to 3 months in prison, she had a hard time adjusting to the norms of the outside world. She rapes Peter with a loofah in the shower, uses a bucket in her bedroom to relieve herself in instead of walking down the hall to the bathroom, beats Peter and the popular kids at school who made fun of her (and then French kisses [[AlphaBitch Connie]] to show dominance), and is hostile to everyone. It overlaps with HadToGoToPrisonToBecomeACrook.

* In ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', when Meg was sentenced to 3 months in prison, she had a hard time adjusting to the norms of the outside world. She rapes Peter with a loofah in the shower, uses a bucket in her bedroom to relieve herself in instead of walking down the hall to the bathroom, beats Peter and the popular kids at school who made fun of her (and then French kisses [[AlphaBitch Connie]] to show dominance), and is hostile to everyone. It overlaps with HadtoGoToPrisonToBecomeACrook.

Note that this trope applies to people who were released either on parole or due to their sentence being complete. Expect a RetiredGunslinger to have JustGotOutOfJail about half the time. The same can be said of virtually any protagonist with a criminal background.

* ''Les Fugitifs'', by Francis Veber, begins with Lucas, an experienced bank robber who just got out of jail, being caught in Pignon's comically botched attempt at robbing a bank -- he even asks Pignon if he couldn't take somebody else as a hostage.

** ''Bank Shot''