Shawshank Redemption

Something dawned on me one day.  A lot of stories either start, take place entirely, or spend some time in a prison.  It could be any genre too.  So, what is it about the prison setting that draws people to it?

In terms of fantasy adventures, this is a common place for the heroes to meet each other and develop a mutual goal.  That would be escaping or survival.  I think this would carry into any genre.  People find themselves in the same situation and will band together to increase their chances of survival.  Sure, you can have different factions appear in a prison and some people will be loners by nature.  Still, you tend to see some type of society appear with currency, hierarchy, and rules.  At least in fiction since I’m not sure how prisons work in the real world.

Another aspect of the prison story is that the readers are made to feel sorry for the protagonists.  Maybe they were falsely imprisoned or their crime wasn’t horrible enough to devoid their humanity.  It could even be that there are eviler (That’s a word!?) people around, so they are ‘heroic’ by comparison.  Either way, there is a level of sympathy for the person being in prison.  So, the readers root for them to either regain their freedom or at least survive in some semblance of peace.  This is a universal desire regardless of your situation too, so it touches on something at our core.  I mean, we all wish to be truly free, survive, and live in peace.

From the other side of the scenario, you can have a story about the guards who are there to do their job.  This might be easier to relate to since they aren’t criminals and are usually only depicted as corrupt when their the villains.  Prison guard is a job that one can see comes with a lot of stress and danger. Another position where one hopes for survival, especially if the inmates take over.  Even if it’s not that dire, you can use the setting for a psychological tale examining human nature.  Can one be a guard and still see the prisoners as full humans?  Is sympathy allowed?  It is probably easier to figure out in the real world, but not when you barely know about it.

I think the setting appeals to readers as well because it’s a place that most don’t want to find themselves.  It isn’t like being in a natural disaster or a dystopian landscape because ending up in prison is a real world possibility.  Sure, we all follow the rules and do our best not to get arrested.  Living a normal life means you don’t get in any trouble, but the threat is always there.  Not even on a conscious level, but a subconscious one that urges us to stick to the rules.  A story taking place in prison makes us consider how we would handle the situation and subtly accept that it’s entirely possible.  Maybe this is a bit farfetched, but I think it does have some basis in truth.

Personally, I like the prison story in small doses or based more in reality.  I’ve seen a bunch where it drags on for a while or the guards are cartoonishly corrupt.  I prefer it to be used as a starting point or a temporary situation the heroes have to escape.  Although, I do enjoy stories where the prison is taken over by the inmates or there is some other disturbance, which turns it solely into a setting.  This is probably why I haven’t really tried a prison story yet.  My heroes tend to be temporarily captured and put in a dungeon or made into a slave until they escape.  I believe one of my series does have a prison setting at one point for a good chunk of a story, but it’s not the full thing.  Not sure why I can’t get heavily into such a setting.

What do other people think about prison setting stories?