In reference to a card in the game of Monopoly which allows a player to leave the jail square, the phrase get-out-of-jail-free card, also get-out-of-jail card, denotes something that enables a person to evade punishment, adverse consequences or an undesirable situation.
This phrase sometimes occurs in connection with release from, or avoidance of, actual incarceration. The following, for example, is from a letter to the Editor published in the Northwest Herald (Woodstock, Illinois, USA) of Saturday 17th June 2023:
Former leaders do not get a “Get Out of Jail Free” card for crimes because they once led the government. Holding Trump 1 accountable doesn’t represent a two-tiered justice system. The indictment is an easy read. Read it for yourself and replace his name with anyone else’s. Look at the facts objectively and then decide if that person should be prosecuted. Not prosecuting him would be political. Prosecuting him is indicative of a justice system that works.
1 Donald Trump (born 1946), 45th President of the USA from 2017 to 2021.
The earliest occurrences of the phrase get-out-of-jail-free card, also get-out-of-jail card, that I have found are as follows, in chronological order:
1-: From Welcome to our City, by Clarissa Start, published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, Missouri, USA) of Wednesday 13th July 1938:
All local brides and newcomers to St. Louis will vouch that our Southern hospitality still reigns supreme.
[…]
Take the case, for instance, of a newcomer to one of our suburban communities, who reports with pleased astonishment that since moving here she has been visited by no fewer than three of four “official welcoming hostesses,” each armed with baskets of samples, premiums and the like […].
[…]
Mrs. New-to-the-City should be happy about the whole affair and doubly happy at being a resident of such an open handed community.
The other additions we could suggest to her equipment would be:
1. A Get-out-of-jail card similar to the one received in the game of Monopoly.
2. A picture of the tentative Riverfront Memorial.
3. A copy of “Gone With the Wind” to read while riding downtown.
4. An additional book to pass the time on the return trip.
5. A pair of shin guards to be used on bargain days and other civic occasions.
6. A ham sandwich to go with the beer.
7. A personally conducted tour to see Art Hill in the moonlight, preferably with guide furnished by local escort bureau.
2-: From The Fifth Column, by Cliff Reisig, published in The Eagle 2 (Chadron, Nebraska, USA) of Monday 24th September 1962—the following is about college registration:
One day we arrived on campus, rosy-cheeked and innocent of the impending chaos.
Suddenly all was confusion, a sea of beanie-headed kids milling around like National Guardsmen lost on maneuvers. We were suddenly besieged with all kinds of tests. There were tests of Basic Intelligence, tests of Reading Skills, English Placement tests, Aptitude tests, Ink-blot tests, tests to see if we could find the dormitory on a cloudy day. We were given great stacks of cards to fill out, get signed, and turn in. We somehow managed to write English Composition 101 in a space ½ in. by ½ in. and felt pride at our accomplishment. But after we stood in line four hours only to discove [sic] that the Get Out of Jail Free card was filled out incorrectly, we were humble in our stupidity.
2 The Eagle is the student newspaper of the Nebraska State Teachers College, Chadron, Nebraska.
3-: From Pre-Semester Enrolment Game Runs From 3 to 24 Hours Per Contestant, by Glenda Howell, published in The Oklahoma Daily 3 (Norman, Oklahoma, USA) of Thursday 24th January 1963:
Members of the OU student body are currently enjoying from three to twenty-four hours of that fascinating pre-semester game—Enrolment. We know the rules from experience:
Throw dice and advance to Field House.
Draw Stop Card.
Go directly to Ad Building, do not pass Union, do not collect orange cards.
Pay banker fifteen dollars for library fine.
[…]
Advance to Sectioning at 4:55 p.m.
Throw doubles on first roll or miss one turn in three-deep line for English J Test (Get Out of Jail Free) card.
3 The Oklahoma Daily is the student newspaper of the University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma.
4-: From Senators’ Priority Makes Elevator Rides ‘Iffy’, by Jenk Jones Jr., Tribune Washington correspondent, published in The Tulsa Tribune (Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA) of Friday 1st March 1963:
At the time the rush for the floor is on, a rider can go up and down like a yo-yo.
Coffee that starts the trip scalding hot can wind up iced before its holder reaches her desk.
A Senate elevator is worse than being in the pokey in “Monopoly.” You don’t even have a “Get out of jail, free” card.
5-: From the Sunday Times Advertiser (Trenton, New Jersey, USA) of Sunday 15th January 1967:
Get Out Of Jail Free Card Needed
By ARTHUR SMITH
Staff WriterIt may be hard getting out of the Mercer County Jail, but it is easy getting in.
In fact, both of the ease of getting in and the difficulty of getting out are problems bothering Freeholder Clifford W. Snedeker, chairman of the county’s new department of correctional institutions.
“All a cop has to do to put someone in the jail is identify himself and give the warden a little slip of paper stating the person’s name and the charge against him,” Snedeker said.
If the person in question is a drunk, and the officer doesn’t know his name, he is simply admitted to the jail as “John Doe.” Then the jail personnel attempt to discover his identity later.
The other feature worrying Snedeker is the fact that the jail has no fire evacuation plan, “and our guests are locked in and can’t get out.”
The fear that Mercer could experience a jail disaster similar to the fire that claimed eight lives at the Ocean County Jail in August of 1959 is behind Snedeker’s concern.
6-: From the Concord Transcript (Concord, California, USA) of Wednesday 5th July 1967:
Judge Finds Bail System ‘Unfair’
By ART MILLER
Transcript Staff ReporterGo to Jail. Go directly to Jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.
The main difference between Monopoly and real life in Contra Costa County is that your Get Out of Jail Free card comes in the form of being released on your own recognizance (OR). If you’re not fortunate enough to possess a free OR pass, you must contend with the problem of bail to regain entrance to the outside world.
7-: From NFL Split Four Ways (It Still Adds Up Packers), by Jerry Izenberg, published in The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida, USA) of Sunday 10th September 1967:
The National Football League consummated 41 player trades between the spring thaw and the early phases of its exhibition schedule.
[…]
Players were traded even up, two-for-one, three-for-one, two-for-two and in some cases for players still in college. Vince Lombardi, the old man of Green Bay’s mountain, collected so many draft choices in return for warm bodies, that in the future he is going to be trading for generations of fullbacks yet unborn.
It was fascinating. A man trying to keep track of it all is stuck with the thought they really aren’t getting ready to play football. What they are doing is laying the ground rules for the world’s largest Monopoly Game.
But if this is Monopoly then the brothers are wasting their time because the man who invented the game, Vince Lombardi, has the board covered from every angle. Vincent owns the Boardwalk and Park Place, he has stashed away three get-out-of-jail-free cards and nobody is going to pass GO this year because Vincent has straddled that square with a wall-to-wall barrier of talent.
8-: From the caption to the following cartoon, published in the Independent (Long Beach, California, USA) of Friday 1st December 1967:
Get Out of Jail Free Card
In this cartoon, the President of the USA, Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973), and the Vice President of the USA, Hubert Humphrey (1911-1978), are left standing in the jail square (renamed Vietnam [War]) of a Monopoly board, while Robert McNamara (1916-2009), the Secretary of Defense, is being released from that jail square in order to become President of the World Bank.
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