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>In the bookJurassic Park, and in the movies based on it, one concern was the dinosaurs escaping
Similar reasoning supports the idea of off-planet penal colonies. There was one in Alien 3. Colonial America was actually a penal colony before Australia was. Transport of the prisoners would have to be cheap in order for it to be worthwhile to use them as indentured servants in space. It might be cheap enough to pack them into Sea Dragons in breathable liquids and launch them at high gees (the breathable liquids protecting them from the g forces -- say, 20 gees or so) to minimize gravity losses.
You could even make a business out of it, charging money to take the prisoners off of another party's hands. California, for example, might be willing to pay a lot to get its lifers off of its hands.