# What would happen to prisoners during a nuclear war and its aftermath? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 28, 2023, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-to-prisoners-during-a-nuclear-war-and-its-aftermath/992205 "2023-10-28T01:47:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2023, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-to-prisoners-during-a-nuclear-war-and-its-aftermath/992205/21 "2023-10-28T17:50:40Z")
Well, first, the OP says “full scale nuclear war”. Under those circumstances, many prisons, being more removed from major population centers in general, are going to be the lucky/unlucky ones depending on whether you think surviving or dying quickly is “lucky”. I figure in the immediate aftermath, everyone is going to be looking for themselves, their families, and trying to find a place of safety. A prison -might- look good for the last, but the power grid is going to be down (forever) and outside of a very few areas where the climate and supplies of local water are just right, are utterly and totally unsustainable. Whether or not there is a power-free lockdown option for the cells (once any emergency on-site power is exhausted) means that there may be a short term moment of freedom for the prisoners, possibly with existing cliques sharing power, trying to find supplies or safety, or just freaking anarchy and escapes, it’ll end pretty fast as it will for most survivors - no real long term supplies, no likely probability of growing food (due to toxic soil from fallout or nuclear winter), certainly no effort to rescue such by any remaining military/governmental successors as being a very low priority in terms of continuation of order/state. And then they die. And you die. And possibly the species dies. Now, the question is if our OP @Cmyers1980 is just curious about the _short-term_ between the immediate exchange and the death of most living persons on the planet, the rest of the thread hits most of those option, IE neglect, benign or otherwise followed by escapes or death. Or if the OP wants to consider the scenario of a _limited_ exchange, say a few dozen to the low hundreds of nuclear weapons, that might be different. In the the limited case, with martial law and a general breakdown of more civilized society, I could see prisons repurposed to secure facilities and prisoners becoming literal chain gangs of forced labor being worked to death as ‘expendable’ (at least Max and Supermax lifer prisons). But that’s not the OP as written. Enjoy your Halloween nightmare fuel! ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2023, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-to-prisoners-during-a-nuclear-war-and-its-aftermath/992205/22 "2023-10-28T19:52:14Z")
I once read a story set in Great Britain where nuclear war broke out in the 1980s. It was more about the lead-up than the aftermath. Apparently the Home Office secretly classified all prisoners into 3 categories; those to be released to fend for themselves, those to be used as forced labour, and those to be summarily executed. ---
**Author:** ![Cmyers1980](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyers1980/32/11814_2.png) [@Cmyers1980](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cmyers1980)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2023, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-to-prisoners-during-a-nuclear-war-and-its-aftermath/992205/23 "2023-10-29T01:34:34Z")
I had an idea for a film called Kings of Hell where a group of serial killers escape from prison during a nuclear war and roam the ensuing wasteland. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2023, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-to-prisoners-during-a-nuclear-war-and-its-aftermath/992205/24 "2023-10-29T02:23:02Z")
So you’re looking for a fictionalized version of a post-nuclear war prison scenario. That’s quite a bit different, in that we tend to, in fiction, underestimate the consequences of even a limited nuclear exchange. Not sure if you’d want to solicit such input -here- though, as IRL any information shared / created here may well be partially or completely owned by the PTB. But INAL or even a mod/administrator, and could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-to-prisoners-during-a-nuclear-war-and-its-aftermath/992205/25 "2023-10-30T02:19:42Z")
Most prisons aren’t in urban areas or near targets for nuclear weapons, so they’d probably survive just fine. But the question would be what to do with them when food starts getting scarce or the able-bodied people guarding them are needed elsewhere? I would imagine that minimum and maybe medium security non-violent prisoners would be let loose, but I suspect that violent prisoners and maximum security prisoners would be in a tough spot. No post-apocalyptic community is likely to feed that sort of prisoners, nor are they likely to let them out either. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-to-prisoners-during-a-nuclear-war-and-its-aftermath/992205/26 "2023-10-30T03:00:02Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I would imagine that minimum and maybe medium security non-violent prisoners would be let loose, but I suspect that violent prisoners and maximum security prisoners would be in a tough spot. I would imagine that people that _used_ to be in Personnel might not be loyal enough to stick around during such an extreme situation, so who is going to access this information and make these decisions? Oh, and if this info is on their computers or in cloud storage, there is a damn good chance _nobody_ can access it anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-to-prisoners-during-a-nuclear-war-and-its-aftermath/992205/27 "2023-10-30T13:18:47Z")
I could see where the last remaining guards may let most people they know well as non-violent go but then let the ones that they always hated either die of starvation or just plain shoot them. I wouldn’t want roving bands of Mad Max type gangs roaming the area the where I live. Who would? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2023, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-to-prisoners-during-a-nuclear-war-and-its-aftermath/992205/28 "2023-11-01T15:18:49Z")
I would imagine it would be a pretty high-level pass based on the general security level of the facility. If it’s a minimum security prison farm/camp, then they’d probably either let the inmates go, or keep them imprisoned and keep them working the fields. Medium security, I’d think they’d generally let them go. But a maximum security/supermax/death row type facility? I think those people would likely die in their cells if something like this happened. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2023, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-to-prisoners-during-a-nuclear-war-and-its-aftermath/992205/29 "2023-11-01T15:21:38Z")
A lot will be based on the guards feeling they can open the doors and get safely away from the group of people who hate them with a burning passion and think they have a short time to live anyway. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2023, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-to-prisoners-during-a-nuclear-war-and-its-aftermath/992205/30 "2023-11-01T16:07:37Z")
Do they? I know the prisoners and guards hating each other is the common portrayal in shows like Orange is the New Black, Oz, and Wentworth, but I’m not so sure it’s like that in real life. If the nearby population centers are radioactive holes in the ground, I wonder if the guards might not let them out to join forces against the elements since it’s unlikely they’d be facing other groups of people. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2023, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-to-prisoners-during-a-nuclear-war-and-its-aftermath/992205/31 "2023-11-01T16:25:11Z")
I don’t think every prisoner is going to run amok shouting “Kill all guards!”. As I said it will be about the guards own feeling about their personal safety, and perhaps the safety of the general public. Facilities that have plans for such events might release non-violent prisoners quickly and then use what resources they have to maintain control of the rest or give them a chance at survival. I don’t expect that to work out entirely according to plan once the word of a nuclear attack is out and sirens are blaring, and people in all sorts of situations are panicking. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-to-prisoners-during-a-nuclear-war-and-its-aftermath/992205.md?page=1)