Synonyms of prisons

prisons

noun

plural of prison

1

as in jails

a place of confinement for persons held in lawful custody

the ongoing debate whether drug users should go to prison

Synonyms & Similar Words

• jails
• penitentiaries
• brigs
• stockades
• lockups
• pens
• coops
• coolers
• cages
• big houses
• jugs
• dungeons
• guardrooms
• hocks
• tanks
• bastilles
• joints
• cans
• cells
• jailhouses
• nicks
• clinks
• quods
• pokeys
• slammers
• tolbooths
• bridewells
• stirs
• hoosegows
• calabooses
• wards
• slams
• holes
• hulks
• gulags
• reformatories
• holds
• guardhouses
• bull pens
• prison camps
• concentration camps
• labor camps
• glasshouses
• work camps
• keeps
• blocks
• reform schools
• oubliettes
• training schools
• stalags

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• outsides

2

as in captivities

the act of confining or the state of being confined

the view that prison does nothing to cure the criminal—if anything, it makes him worse

Synonyms & Similar Words

• captivities
• internments
• incarcerations
• imprisonments
• confinements
• impoundments
• restraints
• enslavements
• bondages
• servitudes
• restrictions
• immurements
• custodies
• arrests
• captures
• house arrests
• detentions
• entrapments
• detainments
• detainers

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• releases
• liberations
• redemptions
• liberties
• freedoms
• manumissions
• emancipations
• independences

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of prisons

Alfonsi departed after clashing with Bari Weiss, CBS News’ editor in chief, who delayed the airing of a report the journalist had prepared investigating the deportation of migrants to harsh prisons in Venezuela. — Brian Steinberg, Variety, 3 Aug. 2026

Given some of the ideas such as abolishing prisons and defunding the Pentagon, that seems like a reasonable argument. — Chicago Tribune, 3 Aug. 2026

Lamberth, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President Ronald Reagan, ruled on June 7 that officials must house the lawsuit's plaintiffs in women’s prisons or women’s halfway houses. — ABC News, 29 July 2026

Abolition has been a component of the contemporary movement for Black lives, a strategy to dismantle oppression and a vision for a world without police, prisons, borders, a carceral state, and debt. — Literary Hub, 27 July 2026

Croughton said Louisiana scaled back its plans to have Medicaid pay for primary care services inside jails and prisons. — Julie Wernau, NPR, 22 July 2026

Munoz and Martinez were both in custody at the time at separate state prisons, but used contraband cell phones to communicate. — Sean Emery, Oc Register, 22 July 2026

Birch said he was moved around between prisons as the years passed. — Edmund H. Mahony, Hartford Courant, 19 July 2026

With more than 93,000 women released from North Carolina state prisons and county jails annually, few homes like the one near Charlotte’s Sugaw Creek neighborhood exist. — Amber Gaudet july 18, Charlotte Observer, 18 July 2026