Dreaming Lens: Were you in jail? Was someone else? Were you visiting a jail? Were you in a cell? Why were you imprisoned?
Personal Focus: When you break the law, you go to prison. And while you have to engage in criminal activity to find yourself in jail in real life, the idea of being imprisoned by something can easily apply to any number of circumstances where you feel bound to some person, place, or thing in a way that feels severely constricting. In fact, the phrase “like a jail sentence” is often used in casual conversation to refer to anything that obligates a person beyond their comfort level.
There is a difference between jail and prison, which may be significant, especially if the dream was clearly taking place in one or the other. While they have very similar sensibilities, a jail is where someone is taken when they are suspected of committing a crime or when the crime is of low severity. Prison is where convicted criminals of more serious crimes are sent to pay their debt to society. If this distinction is made clear in your dream, recognize that jail is a more temporary form of bondage. Prison indicates that a more serious matter is being expressed.
At the core of the symbolic meaning of prison is what you did to get there. The inciting incident that ends in jail time is always a choice that may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but has consequences resulting in the removal of freedom and comfort in some area of your life. When this environment plays prominently in a dream, examine your life for where you may be feeling that a decision you made in the past is feeling like something you can’t escape in the present. [1]