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

The Israeli Supreme Court earlier this year ordered the government to resume sharing such lists and allowing the ICRC to visit detainees in Israeli prisons to assess their conditions. — ABC News, 25 Oct. 2026

Flávio has promised to designate major criminal factions as terrorist groups, expand prisons and lower the age of criminal responsibility. — Alessandra Freitas, CNN Money, 25 Oct. 2026

The history of castles is, of course, also filled with gruesome details, and some of the most famous fortresses served as prisons and sites of torture and execution. — Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 25 Oct. 2026

And eight countries have their own maximum-security prisons in the works. — Jack Nicas, New York Times, 23 Oct. 2026

This includes, but isn’t limited to, select medical staff at state prisons and hospitals as well as cooks. — Graham Womack, Sacbee.com, 21 Oct. 2026

Abuse of power seems particularly likely when male guards are put in charge of female prisoners, yet precisely this dynamic is the reality in many American prisons. — Judy Berman, Time, 21 Oct. 2026

For several years, people in custody, advocates and local media have sounded the alarm about the dangers posed by extreme temperatures in Pennsylvania’s state prisons. — Jaquelyn Jahn, The Conversation, 16 Oct. 2026

At prisons, schools, and recovery meetings, people recognize a Trejo character first and then listen to the man’s own story. — Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 15 Oct. 2026