It is a thought-provoking commentary that in the Book of Mormon, other than tents, there are more references to prisons than any other structures. Within these numerous prison accounts, prisoners are often bound with cords (Mosiah 7:7–8; Alma 8:31; 14:22–23; 20:30; Hel. 9:9). This may suggest that the prison structures were not strong nor secure, requiring the binding of prisoners to prevent escape. For example, in the land of Lehi-Nephi, Ammon and his brethren, Amaleki, Helem and Hem, were “surrounded by the king’s guard, and were taken, and were bound, and were committed to prison” (Mosiah 7:7; see also Alma 20:3). After “they had been in prison two days they were again brought before the king, and their bands were loosed” (Mosiah 7:8). This is the same prison that some 90 years later Nephi and Lehi were “cast into … yea, even that same prison in which Ammon and his brethren were cast by the servants of Limhi” (Hel. 5:21). Within this prison, “Nephi and Lehi were encircled about with a pillar of fire” (Hel. 5:24). They expected the fire would “take hold upon the walls of the prison,” but it did not, suggesting the prison walls were made of wood (Hel. 5:44). The “earth shook exceedingly, and the walls of the prison did shake as if they were about to tumble to the earth; but behold, they did not fall,” again suggesting the walls were made of wood and not stone, because the wood would absorb more of the shaking energy than would stone (Hel. 5:27). In the land of Zarahemla a prison’s walls were “rent in twain” allowing Alma and Amulek and later the Three Nephites to escape (Alma 14:27; 3 Ne. 28:19; see Ether 12:13). Renting in twain (breaking into two pieces) suggests these prisons were made of wood. The Three Nephites were also held in the “depths of the earth” in pits, but no pit was “sufficient to hold them” (3 Ne. 28:20). In the land Bountiful, the Nephites guarded their Lamanite prisoners “within a wall which they had caused them to build with their own hands” (Alma 53:5). At that time, the Nephites “did cause the Lamanites to labor until they had encircled the city of Bountiful round about with a strong wall of timbers and earth, to an exceeding height” (Alma 53:4). The “exceeding height” was a “height of a man” (Alma 50:2). No stone construction is mentioned in these prison accounts.