Living in the House of the Dead

Depends on what you mean by “prison”

Generally speaking, the whole tribe, with the exception of a few unquenchably cheerful souls, who for that reason enjoyed universal contempt, was sullen, envious, terribly conceited, boastful, touchy, and preoccupied in the highest degree with forms. The capacity not to be surprised by anything was the greatest possible virtue. They were all vitally concerned about one thing: what sort of figure they cut. But not seldom the most arrogant bearing changed with the speed of lightning to the most pitiful. There were a few genuinely strong characters, but they were simple and did not pose. But, strangely enough, some of these really strong people were superlatively, almost morbidly, conceited. Generally speaking, vanity and outward appearance were only the foreground of the picture. The chief part was corruption and terrible perversity. Backbiting and. scandal-mongering went on ceaselessly; this was Hell, the nethermost pit and the outer darkness. But against the home—made laws and accepted[12]customs of the prison none dared to stand; everybody submitted. There were some rugged and unyielding characters who found it difficult and had to force themselves, but-they did submit. Some who came to the prison had burst all bounds, broken through every restraint, when they were free, so that in the end their very crimes were committed, as it were, not of their own volition but as though they did not know why they acted so, as though they were delirious or possessed; the cause was often vanity, raised to the highest pitch. But with us they were immediately put in their places, in spite of the fact that some of them, before they came to us, had been the terror of whole villages and towns.
p. 12-13

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Memoirs from the House of the Dead - 1861