History Main / PrisonDimension

* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'', the Shadow Realm is often used this way when a duelist loses against an evil Millennium Item wielder. Similar are the cards that Pegasus uses to imprison the souls of Seto and Mokuba Kaiba.

** The Phantom Zone, where Krypton sent their condemned criminals.

* ''VideoGame/{{Brawlhalla}}'' has Terminus, previously the only mine in the multiverse that contained the dangerous ore known as Darkheart. Because of how dangerous it was, the gods folded it into its own dimension to both quarantine the ore and to have a place to banish the undesirables. One of the playable characters, Petra, was born and grew up in Terminus and was entered to Brawlhalla by the rather [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch rebel vakyrie]], Brynn, because of how much of a warrior she was.

* The Dead Zone from ''Anime/DragonballZ''. As Garlic Jr. was one of the few villains who successfully became immortal, it was the only way to get rid of him.
* The Prison Realm from ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen'' is a special-grade cursed object, capable of trapping a single person in a dimension surrounded by an impenetrable barrier, which prevents the victim from moving or using cursed energy. Taking down the barrier from the outside is difficult; escaping once trapped is impossible, even for [[spoiler:[[WorldsStrongestMan Satoru Gojo]]]].

* ''ComicBook/{{Civil War|2006}}'': It is revealed that ComicBook/IronMan's pro-registration faction has a prison built in the Negative Zone to house those who refused to go along with the [[SuperRegistrationAct Superhuman Registration Act]]. When ComicBook/SpiderMan discovers this, he promptly [[DefectorFromDecadence defects]] to ComicBook/CaptainAmerica's side. Predictably to any readers familiar with [[ComicBook/FantasticFour the history of the Negative Zone]], in post-''Civil War'' stories this choice of location backfires badly when the xenophobic Negative Zone natives discover the prison.
** Oh, it gets better. If the threat of Blastaar or Annihilus showing up isn't bad enough, simply being in the Negative Zone has mind-altering effects on those who stay too long. Super-powered beings all stuck in one facility in a place that ''starts slowly driving them mad from the time they enter?'' WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong

* ''Comicbook/{{Shazam}}'': The Monsterlands in ''ComicBook/Shazam2018'' is a vast dungeon complex where the Magical Lands send their worst criminals. Most of them are the Earth-Prime counterparts of classic Captain Marvel villains, but somehow Superboy-Prime ended up there as well.

* In ''Film/AntManAndTheWaspQuantumania'', it turns out that the Council of Kangs used the quantum realm as an ''ad hoc'' prison for one of their alternate selves who sought to eliminate the rest of them.
* The Isle of the Lost in ''Film/{{Descendants}}'' is a prison dimension for all of the villains in the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon. The moral dilemmas in such a plan begin with the fact that Mal and the other descendants are also living in exile even though they aren't guilty of their parents' crimes.

** General Zod to ComicBook/{{Superman}} in ''Film/SupermanII'', by sending him to the PhantomZone.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' has the Dungeon Dimensions, which are less than a shadow's width away. The things living there hate everything in the Discworlds dimension for being more real than them.

* The place known as the Forbidding in ''Literature/TheElfstonesOfShannara'' was a dimension created solely for the purpose of sealing demonkind away from the rest of the world many millennia ago. It is simply a black void where not even time exists and by the start of the story, Ellcrys the tree that maintains the Forbidding is dying and some of the demons manages to escape, kickstarting the plot.

* In ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'', the afterlife is revealed to be a huge prison camp for the souls of every sentient being of the {{Multiverse}}, where residents are slowly driven insane by psychological torture to the point CessationOfExistence is an improvement.
* In ''Literature/{{Ward}}'', the [[MeaningfulName Wardens]] SuperTeam begin using empty alternate earths as inescapable prisons for supervillains after their home earth is rendered basically uninhabitable along with the super-prison built there.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'' has a few examples:

** Like its comic book counterpart, the Speed Force from ''Series/TheFlash2014'' is a PocketDimension that acts like a prison. Over the course of the show, Savitar, Wally West, Jay Garrick, and Barry Allen have taken turns as prisoners within, and a speedster is actually ''needed'' to keep the energies of the Speed Force in check [[BarrierMaiden or else it will threaten]] TheMultiverse. The Speed Force can even send agents to capture anomalies (usually time-displaced speedsters) akin to a parole officer.

* In ''Myth/ClassicalMythology'', the classic example would have to be Tartarus, in which it was a deep abyss where it had torment and suffering for the damned, especially those who offended the gods particularly.

* Several in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'':

* ''ComicBook/TheFlash'': The Speed Force can be used as a prison. Its most notable prisoners include Superboy-Prime during the events of ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', and more tragically, Wally West during the entirety of the ''ComicBook/New52''.

* ''Franchise/TheDCU''

** The Speed Force from ''Franchise/TheFlash'' can be used as a prison. Its most notable prisoners include Superboy-Prime during the events of ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', and more tragically, Wally West during the entirety of the ''ComicBook/New52''.
** The Monsterlands in ''Comicbook/{{Shazam}}'' (2018) are a vast dungeon complex where the Magical Lands send their worst criminals. Most of them are the Earth-Prime counterparts of classic Captain Marvel villains, but somehow Superboy-Prime ended up there as well.
* Creator/MarvelComics' ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' event revealed that ComicBook/IronMan's pro-registration faction had a prison built in the Negative Zone to house those who refused to go along with the [[SuperRegistrationAct Superhuman Registration Act]]. When Franchise/SpiderMan discovered this, he promptly [[DefectorFromDecadence defects]] to ComicBook/CaptainAmerica's side. Predictably to any readers familiar with [[ComicBook/FantasticFour the history of the Negative Zone]], in post-''Civil War'' stories this choice of location backfires badly when the xenophobic Negative Zone natives discover the prison.
** Oh, it gets better. If the threat of Blastaar or Annihilus showing up isn't bad enough, simply being in the Negative Zone has mind-altering effects on those who stay too long. Super-powered beings all stuck in one facility in a place that ''starts slowly driving them mad from the time they enter?'' WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong
* The No Zone in ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'' is pretty much made up of a typical prison for villains who prove to be a threat to TheMultiverse. Even alternate doppelgangers enforce that and wonky gravity to prevent the prisoners from escaping!

** ''Series/{{Supergirl|2015}}'' has the Phantom Zone. Like in ''Smallville'', it houses other types of alien criminals as well as Kryptonians. At the start of the first season, a prison SpaceStation leaves the zone and crashes into Earth, letting all the prisoners escape, the better to create many an early MonsterOfTheWeek.

* ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}''

-->--'''Eradicator''', ''ComicBook/ActionComics'' (Vol 1) #983

Has shades of PocketDimension and TailorMadePrison. See also PhantomZone and SealedEvilInACan.

The Prison Dimension is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: AnotherDimension that is largely used for the sole purpose of imprisoning someone or something.

* ''Literature/TheElderEmpire'': The world of Asylum is an entire universe dedicated to imprisoning six Class-1 Fiends, nigh-incomprehensible and unkillable entities from the Void. The problem is that an Iteration needs living human souls in order to remain healthy and, importantly for Asylum, safe from the Void. So there are millions of innocent people trapped in this world who have been constantly used as playthings for evil gods for millennia. WordOfGod is that the Abidan (who trapped the Fiends) assumed they'd kill off humanity in a few centuries and let the world fall into the Void, which would be an annoyance for the Fiends but ultimately not a huge problem. Instead, they proved patient enough to keep the humans alive so that they could scheme and hopefully escape fully

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* In ''Myth/ClassicalMythology'', The classic example would have to be Tartarus, in which it was a deep abyss where it had torment and suffering for the damned, especially those who offended the gods particularly.