I also read Newton's books and I always see the common things and not the differences, so I see a lot of commonalities between his work and that of Monroe et. al.

Note that all you state about the prison planet meme is an interpretation. It can all be influenced or formed by pre-existing belief systems we hold and a kind of extrapolation or projection from our human state to the nonphysical. So I am not sure if the esoteric saying of 'as above so below' is really accurate here.

It might be a prison for the human avatar but that does not mean that you are/were forced to come here (including the amnesia which is part of the ruleset in this game). Our Higher Self / Oversoul might have a complete different overview (another term by Monroe) and it might be viewed as a kind of 'game' (maybe for educational purpose, hence the "Earth school" model which is also proposed by M. Newton and many others).

The real YOU is not the avatar (incarnate human). The real YOU is the guy behind the computer playing the virtual reality game using the avatar. Each game played is a 'field trip' incarnation. You (the real You) can maybe decide yourself if you start another game level of the same game or try another game (= incarnate in another planet/dimension) or not play at all (stay with Source).