History Main / MightAsWellNotBeInPrisonAtAll

* ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'': A heroic, or at least antiheroic, version occurs in the third series, ''Genesis Testament''. Accelerator takes over Academy City as General Superintendant... and immediately has himself thrown into prison as a way to atone for previously committed crimes (worth noting, Accelerator could break out of prison any time he wanted, and everyone knows it). He still runs Academy City from inside his cell, working to clean up the city's "dark side" as best he can.

** In [[UsefulNotes/TheMafia the American Mafia]], the boss of a crime family stays in power until they either retire or die. As such, they often set up acting bosses to whom they relay orders and run the family on their behalf while they serve their sentences. The acting boss position is typically held by a high-ranking member such as the underboss or consigliere. Possibly the crowning example of this is Carmine "the Snake" Persico, who was boss of the Colombo family for nearly 50 years, most of which was spent behind bars. When first sent to prison, his initial choice of replacement was his son Alphonse (aka "Little Allie Boy"), but as he was also serving a prison sentence of his own, Persico put his underboss Vic Orena (who was also a relative of Persico) as a fill-in until Alphonse got out. This led to a MobWar when Orena tried to seize power for himself. After this, Persico understandably distrusted anyone outside his blood family anymore, so when Alphonse was jailed again for a longer sentence, Persico decided to forego an acting boss and just led the family personally from jail until his death in 2019.
*** After its family namesake died in 1969, the Genoveses set up a power-sharing arrangement where a high-ranking capo served as a "dummy" boss to fool law enforcement and muddy the hierarchy. While the front bosses had broad discretion in their decisions, they still had to notify the panel beforehand. This worked until mob soldier Vincent "Fish" Cafaro blew the lid on the ruse in 1987.

* Polpo, the high-ranking mafia operative from ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind]]'', stays in his cell for a couple of reasons. Partly, it's because he can still give orders to his men, he can get anything he wants in his LuxuryPrisonSuite and his [[FightingSpirit Stand]], Music/BlackSabbath, is automatic and has nearly infinite range, so it can be summoned to pursue his enemies while he stays comfortably in his prison cell. However, the main reason for Polpo staying in prison is because [[FatBastard he's so massive]] [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome that getting him out would be a pain]]. Indeed, after Giorno Giovanna kills him and [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident makes it look like a suicide]], it is said that the coroner had trouble moving his corpse out of his cell.

** ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'''s higher-up criminals often do this in high-security prisons (given the CrapsackWorld nature of the legal system here), leading to Frank occasionally getting deliberately arrested and sent to the same prison so he can do some cleaning.

* The returning villain of ''Dead End'' makes a plan to get doubles of the gang to commit crimes and then pretend to be runaways so no one will notice the kids are being are kidnapped. And that plan is prepared from inside a prison cell which the villain ultimately escapes from in order to watch the culmination of their revenge up close.

** In [[UsefulNotes/TheMafia the American Mafia]], the boss of a crime family stays in power until they either retire or die. As such, they often set up acting bosses to whom they relay orders and run the family on their behalf while they serve their sentences. The acting boss position is typically held by a high-ranking member such as the underboss or consigliere. Possibly the crowning example of this is Carmine "the Snake" Persico, who was boss of the Colombo family for nearly 50 years, most of which was spent behind bars. When first sent to prison, his initial choice of replacement was his son Alphonse (aka "Little Allie Boy"), but as he was also serving a prison sentence of his own, Persico put his underboss Vic Orena (who was also a distant cousin of Persico) in charge as acting boss until Alphonse got out. This led to a MobWar when Orena tried to seize power for himself. After this, Persico understandably didn't trust anyone outside his blood family anymore, so when Alphonse was sent back to jail for a longer sentence, Persico decided to forego an acting boss and just led the family personally from jail until his death in 2019.

* Polpo, the high-ranking mafia operative from ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind]]'', stays in his cell for a couple of reasons. Partly, it's because he can still give orders to his men, he can get anything he wants in his LuxuryPrisonSuite and his [[FightingSpirit Stand]], Music/BlackSabbath, is automatic and has nearly infinite range, so it can be summoned to pursue his enemies while he stays comfortably in his prison cell. However, the main reason for Polpo staying in prison is because [[FatBastard he's so massive]] [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome that getting him out would be a pain]]. Indeed, after Giorno Giovanna kills him and makes it look like a suicide, it is said that the coroner had trouble moving his corpse out of his cell.

* The first episode of ''The Whistler'' features a prisoner who escapes with the intention of recovering his hidden loot. One of his fellow prisoners, [[spoiler:his supposedly reformed cellmate]], orchestrates a grab for that same loot, by getting two of his agents on the outside to [[spoiler:pull off a ScoobyDooHoax]].

%% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1566673769012611400 Please see thread to discuss a new image.

* ''VideoGame/Bioshock2'': The prequel novel ''Literature/BioshockRapture'' shows that Sofia Lamb was prepared for the possibility that Andrew Ryan would have declared her enough of a political and ideological threat to have her arrested for dissent, deeming it a necessary risk in the pursuit of a compassionate, unified Rapture. Once she was jailed, the warden, a "miserable" man became a member of her group; she later tells Simon Wales that he basically asked questions about himself during her interrogation, as if he wanted her to psychoanalyze and console his apparent pain. She spent her time strengthening her movement from the inside and biding time for a jailbreak that would not only release her, but all of the other prisoners as well, several of whom were on her side, whose overwhelming numbers would then overpower the guards and ensure that the prison was effectively hers. That time came when her anxiety about the wellbeing of her daughter Eleanor reached a point where it was unbearable since she had little way of making sure that whoever was taking care of her wasn't plying her with authoritarian propaganda.

-->-- '''Bruno Bucciarati''' (in regards to Polpo, a mafia ''caporegime''), ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure: [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind Golden Wind]]''

* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': Telepathic arch-villain Hector Hammond's body is imprisoned (he's serving multiple life sentences) and is supposedly under the effects of a psionic inhibitor... but Hammond's mind is so powerful that he can still telepathically control people hundreds or even thousands of miles away from the prison without ever leaving his cell.
* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
** In his first appearances in ''ComicBook/New52'' ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'', books, though he was kept in an unconscious state and monitored 24/7, Hector Hammond was able to exert his power enough to mess with Superman, and ultimately even take over his mind.
** Pre-Crisis, Lex Luthor regularly ran his criminal enterprises from the inside of his prison cell. Of course, it was basically understood, if not ever explicitly admitted, that Luthor was in prison only as long as Luthor wanted to be in prison. Post-Crisis, that is still true, but this time he'll usually just [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney wait for his lawyers to get him out instead.]]
** ''ComicBook/SupergirlCosmicAdventuresInThe8thGrade'': When Superman visits Luthor's cell to inform him that his scheme to blackmail the warden into letting him out has been busted, Lex smugly gloats he remains in prison because he is choosing to do so, and he will get out whenever he wants.
* ComicBook/TheKingpin [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zags this trope]]. On the one hand, he is still fully capable of running a criminal enterprise from inside prison and once even tricked ComicBook/IronMan into eliminating a competitor on the outside for him, able to do so because he still had enough information on the wider criminal underworld to make deals and manipulate the authorities. In a one-shot, an ex-con who had been in prison for years remarks that the Kingpin is still the number 1 crime boss in the city after all that time, despite Fisk being behind bars at that point. On the ''other'' hand, he's only in prison ''after'' Daredevil managed to bring down most of his ''old'' criminal empire so what he had was just a shadow of his former glory, and while in prison he had made enough enemies that a lot of guys -- even some of his own men -- made repeated attempts to kill him. It's blatantly clear from his numerous failed deals and escape attempts that he didn't ''want'' to be in prison, and Daredevil as well as the Feds took twisted pleasure in making sure he ''stayed'' there every time he thought he was about to get out. Eventually, he only does because his wife convinces Matt to be his lawyer and gets all charges dropped.
* An unusual version in the MarvelUniverse: The Mad Thinker spent several years of real time in an ordinary prison cell--but his brain implant enabled him to project his mind into android duplicates, enabling him to enjoy life and go on the occasional crime spree.
* Franchise/{{Batman}}:
** Warren White, aka the Great White Shark, runs a profitable criminal empire (mostly catering to fellow members of Batman's RoguesGallery) from inside Arkham Asylum. White was originally just a white-collar criminal who very stupidly used the InsanityDefense to avoid going to prison for committing the biggest fraud in U.S history -- the judge chose to send him to Arkham, which was a hundred times worse. White only became a psychotic crime boss ''after'' he was sent to Arkham and endured all the abuse and trauma and mutilation that came with it (with half the staff turning blind eye since White's crime touched them too) -- he didn't even ''have'' a criminal empire before he went in!
** The Ratcatcher can control the massive amount of rats in Gotham from inside of his prison cell.
** In TheSeventies, when ComicBook/TheJoker had his own bi-monthly comic book, the writers had a conundrum. On one hand, the Comics Code Authority at the time required that villains never get away at the end of a story, to show that JusticeWillPrevail. On the other hand, showing a new elaborate escape at the beginning of every issue would get tedious and take precious pages away from the story they wanted to tell. Their solution? Give the Joker an ElaborateUndergroundBase located directly beneath Arkham Asylum, called the "Ha-Hacienda". He even had a SecretUndergroundPassage in his cell. Apparently, nobody at the CCA tripped to the FridgeLogic of "punishing" someone by imprisoning him in a place he can walk out of at any time.
* ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}'' villain [[spoiler:Mr. Fear at the end of the Hell to Pay storyline]]. In addition to the above-mentioned Kingpin. Hell, most of Daredevil's higher-tier villains...
* In ''X-Men Noir'', Warden Halloway gives the prisoners at the Welfare Island Penitentiary free rein to do whatever they want - because crime lord inmate Sean Cassidy is running a heroin trade out of the joint and bought him off with the proceeds.
* Ethan Harrow in ''Hard Time'' has the power to leave his body as an invisible force that can manipulate objects and people. He doesn't use this to commit crimes, but being able to more or less leave the prison freely at night goes a long way towards keeping him sane. He's serving 50 to life, he needs something to hold onto to keep him from losing his spirit.
* ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'''s higher-up criminals often do this in high-security prisons (given the CrapsackWorld nature of the legal system here), leading to Frank occasionally getting deliberately arrested and sent to the same prison so he can do some cleaning.
* In one issue of ''ComicBook/Batgirl2000'', David Cain easily escapes from prison (where he'd been ever since the conclusion of ComicBook/BruceWayneFugitive.) to deliver his daughter a knife as a birthday present, and then casually waltzes right back in during the middle of the investigation into how he did it.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Volume 1]]: During the Golden Age prior to her reformation, Paula has a SupervillainLair right underneath her cell after she's caught by Wondy and ComicBook/SteveTrevor the first time, and has bribed the enough of the guards that she can leave anytime she pleases.
* At the end of Marvel's Damnation miniseries, Mephisto is dethroned from Hell and imprisoned in a cell of the Hotel Inferno he raised in Las Vegas. Aside from the loss of his throne and thus the blow to his ego, no visitors are actually barred from visiting him by mystical means, so he's still entirely free to cut deals with mortals as much as he likes. He's shown in multiple other titles after his imprisonment negotiating with clients with the only indication he's still imprisoned being one wall of the room being cell bars.
* ''Franchise/TheFlash'' rogue Dr. Alchemy is in possession of a potent Philosopher's Stone, and police could never get it off of his person whenever he gets arrested. With the Stone, he can escape containment at any leisure; he just chooses to ''stay'' anyway because it's one place he can get peace and quiet for his reading.

* ''Acción Mutante:'' Terrorist leader Ramón Yarritu organizes his next heist from jail, and even records his ransom note, as a home movie, there - so that the background cannot reveal where he is when he sends it.
* ''Film/TheAppleDumplingGang:'' In the sequel, several prison inmates use a series of natural tunnels below their cells to make a LuxuryPrisonSuite and commit robberies while having a perfect alibi.
--> '''Theodore:''' Are you gentlemen prisoners?
--> '''Big Mac:''' When we feel like it.
* Mr. Bridger from the original ''Film/TheItalianJob1969'' ran his gangland empire from his LuxuryPrisonSuite. To the point that when ex-con Charlie breaks back into prison to get his permission for a job, he ''complains to the governor'' about the lapse in security.

* ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'' has [[Characters/MarvelComicsTheKingpin The Kingpin]] arrested at the end of the very first mission, but it's eventually revealed that he's still able to communicate with his men on the outside and have them continue his operations. However, this gets shut down by Miles in ''VideoGame/SpiderManMilesMorales''.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', Batman allowed himself to be captured by the Injustice Gang; he feigned helplessness in order to manipulate one of the Gang's members. He later revealed he could have escaped at any time, but if he did he wouldn't have had a resource "on the inside". In fact, Joker was the only member to flat-out state they should just shoot him when they had the chance.
* The pilot episode of ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' had its major villain, Taurus Bulba, running his operation from prison. He could escape at any time and he chose to remain in prison because he felt that it was the perfect hideout for him, despite constantly having to deal with an annoying warden. He even had his cell converted into an ''office'', complete with an outside phone line, and he can press a button to transform it back into a prison cell whenever the warden comes along. This culminates in an epic jailbreak, as he reveals he had the entire cell ''block'' he was in converted into a flying fortress, which launches, leaving behind the rest of the prison.

* A plot point in ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman''. Hugo Strange calls Batman to his cell and announces that, despite the minor inconvenience of being in prison, he's managed to release a zombie virus throughout Gotham; it's up to Batman to find where Strange's antidote is hidden and save the city. [[spoiler:If you think this is far-fetched, you're right: Strange can only affect the area inside and immediately around his cell; when Batman shows up Strange exposes him to a hallucinogen that makes him see Gotham in ruins and its people as zombies, and the "antidote" Batman's seeking to spread is this same drug.]]

* Willy Watt in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' was fully capable of exerting his telekinetic abilities to do whatever he wanted wherever he pleased while still being in juvenile hall. Though he admits he does this on purpose because in a short time he will be let out legally and with all this power that no one is aware of. [[spoiler:That all ends after his powers are exposed and Terry recaptures him. He's last seen shackled and wearing a PowerLimiter helmet that negates his telekinesis...and he ''still'' doesn't get any visitors]].
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', [[spoiler:Varrick]] is arrested. However, his prison cell is spacious with two desks, a king-sized bed, and chair and table. [[spoiler: His assistant, Zhu Li, is also with him in the cell.]] He explains that since his company had built the prison, he designed the cell for himself-- expecting to need it one day.
* In one episode of the western ''WesternAnimation/StreetFighter'' animated series, Bison is captured by a British team of super-agents (Cammy was a former member) and sent to prison. This turned out to be a ''distraction'' on Bison's part that allowed his agents to enact a scheme that threatened ''all of England''. Bison then forces the British government to hand over a ransom of one billion pounds sterling -- all while chilling in his cell and sipping tea.

* In the very first episode of ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' the villains Captain Cold, Icicle Jr., Killer Frost, and Mister Freeze are captured by different heroes and their sidekicks in separate incidents on the same day. Batman doubts that this was a coincidence, and thought they all went down too easily, but they are all carted off to Belle Reve prison. A few episodes later, it turned out Icicle Sr., who was already in Belle Reve, arranged the whole thing and wanted them to get caught so they could help him and the other incarcerated villains stage a mass breakout, but this is foiled. Then in TheStinger, it was revealed the whole thing was an EvilPlan orchestrated by [[BigBad The Light]] to get Warden Amanda Waller fired and replaced by their man Hugo Strange, the prison psychiatrist, so that they could control the prison. Over the rest of the season, various prisoners such as MadScientist Professor Ivo are secretly broken out and returned to their cells, or simply asked for advice in other crimes, in order to help out the Light with their various criminal schemes, and they all seem comfortable there knowing that they secretly run the place and can leave when needed. By the penultimate episode, Batman has the proof he needs to shut the operation down, but if the matter is resolved it happens off-screen as we are never shown it.
* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'' episode ''It Was Them'' has Rook mention a case where an alien criminal did this. We have yet to actually see said criminal, however.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E9RealtyBites Realty Bites]]" Snake is in the prison yard and sees Homer driving by in his old car. Snake says screw the honour system and walks out through a door wait a "No Escaping Please" sign on it. Kearney shouts after him that he's ruining it for everybody else.

* Polpo, the high-ranking mafia operative from ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind]]'', stays in his cell for a couple of reasons. Partly, it's because he can still give orders to his men, he can get anything he wants in his LuxuryPrisonSuite and his [[FightingSpirit Stand]], Music/BlackSabbath, is automatic and has nearly infinite range, so it can be summoned to pursue his enemies while he stays comfortably in his prison cell. However, the main reason for Polpo staying in prison is because [[FatBastard he's so massive]] [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome that getting him out would be a pain]].

* In the ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'' comics, powerfully telepathic arch-villain Hector Hammond's body is imprisoned (he's serving multiple life sentences) and is supposedly under the effects of a psionic inhibitor... but Hammond's mind is so powerful that he can still telepathically control people hundreds or even thousands of miles away from the prison without ever leaving his cell.
** Something similar happened in his first appearances in The ComicBook/{{New 52}}'s ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}''; though he was kept in an unconscious state and monitored 24/7, he was able to exert his power enough to mess with Superman, and ultimately even take over his mind.
* Pre-Crisis, ComicBook/LexLuthor regularly ran his criminal enterprises from the inside of his prison cell. Of course, it was basically understood, if not ever explicitly admitted, that Luthor was in prison only as long as Luthor wanted to be in prison. Post-Crisis, that is still true, but this time he'll usually just [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney wait for his lawyers to get him out instead.]]

* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'', ComicBook/TheJoker discovered that one of the doctors had plans to create a Venom-variant using Arkham inmates as test subjects with support from the Warden. Interested in the idea, he started using one of his many fake identities to fund her project. However, the doctor ended up backing out of the deal and Joker thus initiated a plan to get the formula by force. First by causing a fire that destroyed Balckgate prison so that his cronies will be temporarily transferred to Arkham, and then getting himself caught by ComicBook/{{Batman}} on purpose to infiltrate the Asylum, escape, and take over.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}}'', a late-game tactic is to stay in jail for as long as possible. While in jail, you're still free to conduct business as usual - collecting rent from, bidding on, or selling properties. Moving around the board has only two major advantages - collecting $200 for passing "Go" and having right of first refusal for landing on an unsold property. But since there are very few unsold properties in the late game and the $200 for passing "Go" is a pittance compared to landing on another player's developed property, Jail is actually the ''best'' place to be. Some players enact HouseRules for this reason that rent on a jailed player's property is either free or goes towards that other popular House Rule, the "Free Parking" kitty.

** In [[UsefulNotes/TheMafia the American Mafia]], the boss of a crime family stays in power until they either retire or die. As such, they often set up acting bosses to whom they relay orders and run the family on their behalf while they serve their sentences. The acting boss position is typically held by a high-ranking member such as the underboss or consigliere. Possibly the crowning example of this is Carmine "the Snake" Persico, who was boss of the Colombo family for nearly 50 years, most of which was spent behind bars. When first sent to prison, his initial choice of replacement was his son Alphonse (aka "Little Allie Boy"), but as he was also serving a prison sentence of his own, Persico put his underboss Vic Orena in charge as acting boss until Alphonse got out. This led to a MobWar when Orena tried to seize power for himself. After this, Persico understandably didn't trust anyone outside blood family anymore, so when Alphonse was sent back to jail for a longer sentence, Persico decided to forego an acting boss and just led the family personally from jail until his death in 2019.

* A rare heroic version in ''TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful'': when [[BigGood Radiant Queens]] and their Courts were defeated by minions of the Darkness centuries ago, the latter tried to bypass their BornAgainImmortality by [[SealedGoodInACan trapping their souls]] in the Dreamlands, a LotusEaterMachine realm where supernatural Wardens would use illusions to fool them into thinking they were still being active while the real world was being corrupted. This worked for centuries (long enough to make Earth a CrapsackWorld), but backfired spectacularly when the Queens ''did'' realize what was going on, as they [[CurbStompBattle promptly defeated the Wardens]] and took over a huge portion of the Dreamlands, essentially turning it into ''their'' home realm. Nowadays, they stay here by choice, as reincarnating would weaken them by forcing them to start back as Princesses- while staying allows them to support their Courts, who ''do'' reincarnate to take back the real world. And, because the Darkness doesn't have any means to travel to the Dreamlands, the Queens are now out of their reach.

* In ''Videogame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', within Cidhna Mines, Madanach not only has a [[LuxuryPrisonSuite private cell with various accommodations]] but still holds power as the leader of the Forsworn, which Thonar Silver-Blood uses to get him to use them as his personal assassins.
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'', the master trainer for Security, J'Baana, is currently locked up in the Imperial City's Legion compound. He still regularly participates in ThievesGuild business, however, and a quick check of his inventory reveals that he holds the keys to every door in the compound, as well as thirty lockpicks, making the reason he even bothers to stay in the prison a mystery.

* ''Manga/TisTimeForTorturePrincess'': The only thing the Princess isn't allowed to do as a prisoner of the Hell-Horde is leave the palace unescorted. The "tortures" quickly devolve into ways to have fun with her. They don't even ''lock her cell''.

* ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'' has ComicBook/TheKingpin arrested at the end of the very first mission, but it's eventually revealed that he's still able to communicate with his men on the outside and have them continue his operations. However, this gets shut down by Miles in ''VideoGame/SpiderManMilesMorales''.

* ''Series/Batwoman2019'': In the back half of Season 1, [[BigBad Alice]] and [[TheDragon Mouse]] are arrested and locked up in Arkham Asylum. By the end of the following episode, they've taken over the facility (thanks to Mouse pulling a KillAndReplace on the chief doctor with one of his [[LatexPerfection flesh masks]]), and rather than escaping decide to turn it into their own personal fortress as they prepare to eventually take revenge on Gotham.