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

Authorities said key fugitives in the case include Dimitri Hérard, ex-head of security at Haiti's National Palace, who escaped two years ago after a powerful gang federation stormed Haiti's two biggest prisons. — Evens Sanon, Arkansas Online, 21 Sep. 2026

The goal, advocates say, was to get individuals struggling with addiction treatment while reducing overcrowding inside state prisons. — Hannah Fry, Los Angeles Times, 18 Sep. 2026

Other positions of the Democratic Socialists of America party that have come under fire in the 2026 election cycle have included abolishing the Senate, closing prisons, and having corporations become owned by the government. — Tracy Grant, Encyclopedia Britannica, 18 Sep. 2026

Its prisons still hold political dissidents, and the machinery of execution continues to be used against protesters. — Pegah Banihashemi, Chicago Tribune, 18 Sep. 2026

Crews and his company Wayne Halfway House run all three of the state’s highest-security youth prisons. — Paige Pfleger, ProPublica, 18 Sep. 2026

Texas lawmakers have approved hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years to expand air conditioning in state prisons. — Tiffani Jackson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 16 Sep. 2026

Nayib Bukele, the autocratic leader of El Salvador, went on Tucker Carlson’s show to defend his own program of mass arrests and packed prisons. — Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic, 14 Sep. 2026

In August, the Michigan House passed a legislative plan aimed at safety and transparency in the state's prisons following multiple inmate deaths. — Nicholas Lentz, CBS News, 6 Sep. 2026