Panama's Isla Coiba bears all the hallmarks of a perfect desert island: gin-clear water, powdery white sand, a fringe of palm trees against a backdrop of dense, unexplored rain forest. When I arrived on the island, the peaceful beach was scattered with a handful of travelers bobbing in the bath-warm water or taking lazy afternoon naps on the salt-encrusted hammocks.
Yet this island paradise harbors a dark past.
There were many elements of a prison on LOST. The island was protected from outsiders such as modern prisons. The island had "security systems" like the smoke monster to keep people on the island and in their place. The island had a warden, which was later revealed as "the guardian." MIB only wanted to "escape" the island like an inmate wants to escape prison. The island's harsh existence and danger was the punishment for those broken souls who happened to find themselves on the island.
A few of the characters really deserved to be institutionalized in a prison. But most had no outward signs of being criminals. For example, Rose and Bernard seemed to be a happy, older couple. The only problem they had was Rose's terminal cancer. One could argue that terminal cancer is a form of medical prison that a patient has to endure. Shannon was a spoiled brat who pawned an existence off her boyfriends and family members. Not necessarily the type of activities that would lead to a potential island prison death sentence. The same goes for Boone, who apparently did nothing wrong in his life except help out his half-sister, Shannon.
The concept of a country or culture sending away its "misfits" to an inaccessible island is not a foreign one. Lepers were shipped off to a specific island in the Hawaiian chain. Even political/war prisoners have been kept at Gitmo, outside of the U.S. federal prison system. The entire country of Australia started out as a British penal colony. "Out of sight, out of mind" is one way leaders deal with pesky social or political problems. But the LOST survivors don't seem to be a rambo-like group of rebels who threaten the very existence of the democratic, free world.
They were just missing persons. And there is a growing number of people who go missing every day. Some, by choice - - - running away from their debts, family, job, mental depression. Some, by force through human kidnapping and human trafficking. Some, the victims of violent criminal behavior. The latter can be a forced imprisonment, almost slavery, in an abusive situation.
LOST does not fit one mold in the prison context. It had elements of capture, imprisonment, and forced labor against one's free will. But there was no moral equivalent driving any personal behavior.
But the context of being a prison is still the mortar that fused together several plot lines.
