Prisons make for a great story focus: perhaps your heroes have been tasked with bringing someone to justice, or maybe they have been falsely accused of heinous crimes? Maybe you wish to tell a darker story, full of anti-heros and ne’er-do-wells. Either way, a good prison starts with a good name, so why not take a look at the list below for inspiration:
Good Prison Names
A good prison name tells the reader or player immediately that a prison is what they are encountering. But it is also important to give it a sense of character with a defining descriptor too.
- Bouldergate Work Camp
- Nightstone Asylum
- Silver Lining Max Security Prison
- Woodford Detention Center
- Obsidian Dungeon Institution
- Black Garden Institute
- Cold Heart Prison
- Scarlet Mountain Penitentiary
- Wild River Institute
- Mallhaven Institution
- Broken Hill Regional Prison
Frost Mountain Prison
The terrifying frost mountain prison delights in torturing its inmates by keeping them just warm enough to stave off frostbite. But the threat of it will always remain to keep them in check.
- Oak Creek Prison
- Outcast Max Security Prison
- Blackford Correctional Facility
- Frost Mountain Detention Center
- Doveport Prison
- White Garden Juvenile Holding Center
Turtle Bay Low Security Prison
The Turtle Bay LSP is a correctional facility in a port city that encourages re-education through labor – the building of ships.
- Nightmare Work Camp
- Doveport Institution
- No Refuge Penitentiary
- Broken Mountain Institute
- Last Door Asylum
- Rotten Creek Penitentiary
Scary Prison Names
Scary Prison Names take a lot of their cues from good prison names but with one important caveat: they must be spookier! Here’s a few to really set in a sense of dread.
- Dark Portal Prison
- Last Rites Max Security Prison
- Stillwater Max Security Prison
- Wild River Correctional Center
- Purgatory Juvenile Holding Center
- New Chance Penitentiary
- Wargate Penitentiary
- Time Out Regional Prison
- Black Fortress Work Camp
- Howling Fjord Max Security Prison
- Grimway Max Security Prison
Boarwood Work Camp
How scary can work camp in a woods be? Ask the prisoners at this correctional facility how much they enjoy chopping lumber when the danger of attack from demonic thistleboars is ever present.
- Wallbottom Detention Center
- Black Tower Low Security Prison
- Frozen Desert Prison
- Long Wait Holding Center
- New Chance Penitentiary
- Desperation Detention Center
- Frenzy Cay Work Camp
- Doveport Juvenile Holding Center
- Rotten Creek Juvenile Holding Center
- Shadow Citadel Work Camp
- Wasteland Correctional Facility
Edgeville Max Security Prison
Deep inside the lowest layer of the sewers of Baldur’s Gate lies a small metal door leading to a winch operated elevator. At the bottom of the 200 meter shaft sits the Edgeville Max, where the most depraved of criminals and otherworldly abominations are monitored by the city’s elite guard.
- Shadow Citadel Correctional Facility
- Black Castle Holding Center
- Wormwood Regional Prison
- Silverbay Institution
- Tortoise Isle Institution
Funny Prison Names
Not all prisons need to be doom and gloom, there’s plenty of chance to find humor in the institutions by using names that utilize puns or irony like ones listed below.
- Blackport Work Camp
- Wrong Path Penitentiary
- Primary Rehabilitative Institution Saving Outlandish Ne’erdowells
- Jailhouse Rock
- Greybar Inn
Steylongue Prison
The Dwarves of the CragHammer were exceptionally pleased with themselves for coming up with the name Steylongue Prison – and indeed they have invited many a criminal to do just that.
- Badbed Prison
- Bronzefield Juvenile Holding Center
- Atonement Penitentiary
- Riverbend Juvenile Holding Center
- Illwood Holding Center
- Hot Spring Juvenile Holding Center
- Thunder Bay Institute
- Prettylong Penitentiary
- Paladin’s Pass Penitentiary
- Penal Province
- Murder Hobo Hotel
- Rehabilitation Center for the Chaotic Stupid
- The End
The Clink
A prison built by a governor who thought that giving such a building a name would only serve to undermine its grim purpose. Unfortunately for him it soon became known by the rather quint nickname “The Clink” instead.
- Doveport Regional Prison
- Ghost Isle Juvenile Holding Center
- Saltwater Detention Center
- Nightstone Holding Center
- Firevault Work Camp
- Rockwood Correctional Facility
That’s it for our list of prison names! Hopefully there’s something in our sampling that you can take forward to your own games and stories. Be sure to share the article with a friend and comment your personal favorite name down in the comments below!