behind bars
prep_phrase1
Figuratively, Idiomatic In jail, in prison.
- There is one kind of prison where the man is behind bars, and everything that he desires is outside; and there is another kind where the things are behind the bars, and the man is outside.1905 April–October, Upton Sinclair, chapter XXVII, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 26 February 1906, →OCLC:
- Some 460,000 Americans are behind bars for drug offenses--a tenfold increase over 1980.2001 May 7, Margot Roosevelt et al., “The War Against The War On Drugs”, in TIME, archived from the original on 01 Feb 2012:
1 more example
- Leading Jordanian exponents of the Salafi-jihadi world view, such as Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, are now behind bars or silent, fearing arrest by the powerful mukhabarat secret police.2014 November 27, Ian Black, “Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 06 Mar 2019: