Riften Jail is the lock-up for anyone who breaks the law in the Rift, built beside Mistveil Keep in Riften. Most visitors arrive in shackles, but a few quests bring you here voluntarily to chat with the inmates. Either way, it’s damp, guarded and full of skeevers – a true Riften experience.
What you’ll find
- The gatekeeper – a guard at the entrance only lets in people with official business. Persuade or bribe him, or pickpocket the key. Picking the lock instead earns a tiny 5-gold bounty and an attempted arrest.
- Prisoners – Sibbi Black-Briar, Threki the Innocent, Molgrom Twice-Killed, and Brand-Shei if “A Chance Arrangement” has been completed.
- The escape shadowmark – the cell you’re thrown into bears the Thieves Guild mark for escape next to a broken shackle.
- An evidence chest holding your confiscated gear.
- Riften guards on patrol.
Quests
Notable items
- The Real Barenziah, Book IV
- The Wolf Queen, Book III
- The Wolf Queen, Book V
Tips
Don’t trust the shadowmark: activating the broken shackle only sets the guards on you, and the wall it’s meant to open can’t be broken by any means. With the “Quick Hands” lockpicking perk, you can open most cells without upsetting the guards, then nap in them or help yourself to their contents. Sibbi’s and Threki’s cells stay shut even with a key. If the jail ever starts freezing your game on entry, players report that getting arrested in Riften respawns the guards and fixes it. Want in quietly? Lifting the gatekeeper’s key from his pocket skips the persuasion check, the bribe and that embarrassing 5-gold bounty.
Good to know
The broken shackle and the drainage sluice near the docks were clearly meant to form an escape route – it simply never got finished. The guards seem fine with that.
Details checked against community wiki articles and the Skyrim game files, summarised in our own words.
