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

Reports also describe people in prisons and jails around the country being routinely beaten, among other abuse. — Claire Healy, Miami Herald, 2 Oct. 2026

The lawsuit over healthcare for incarcerated people covers Arizona’s nine state-run prisons but not the nearly 10,000 Arizona inmates held in private prisons. — Jacques Billeaud, Los Angeles Times, 2 Oct. 2026

As cryptocurrencies code-conjure themselves into being and a performative utterance can fix the price of a stock if uttered emphatically enough, arrest data is used to forecast the stock valuation of private prisons. — Sophie Landres, Artforum, 1 Oct. 2026

The vice president also blasted Nixon, who is in an uphill race to defeat Moody, for supporting defunding the police and abolishing prisons. — Mabinty Quarshie, The Washington Examiner, 1 Oct. 2026

Many commenters are concerned about the lack of due process and the financial interests tied to private prisons. — Julian Mark, Washington Post, 1 Oct. 2026

Someone still has to make arrests and run the prisons, and autocrats can buy loyalty by offering supporters state jobs. — Seva Gunitsky, Foreign Affairs, 1 Oct. 2026

Sentence lengths have increased in that time, keeping people behind bars for longer and outstripping the number of new prisons being built, even as overall crime rates have fallen during the last decade. — Issy Ronald, CNN Money, 30 Sep. 2026

Israel is currently holding 36 journalists in its prisons, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, an NGO working for prisoners' rights. — Frank Andrews, CBS News, 28 Sep. 2026