Chapter Three- Designing and Building The New Prison
The funds had been voted on and approved to build the new prison and staff it appropriately 300 officers. It was to hold up to 1500 inmates, and I had devised some innovative ways to come in under budget. There would be a “super-max" section where inmates would be sent for rules infractions that could hold up to 500 inmates in 500 hundred 6’x9’ solitary “hard cells. The inmates sent there would be confined for 23 ½ hours per day, with 30 minutes in a 4’x4’ “outside exercise" area attached behind each cell. The area had 12’ walls and the only thing “outside" about it was the open sky above the walls. Showers would be given for 10 minutes twice weekly, when the convict would be fully shacked. The 10 minutes would come off the exercise time.
The remaining inmates would all be housed in 50 person open dorms, similar to military barracks. It could be run efficiently with less staff that way, and would also help these cons learn to get along better with other human beings.
I decided that inmates would be classified in three groups….medium security, close security and maximum security. Medium security inmates would wear black horizontal prison-striped dresses, close would wear orange striped ones and the max inmates would wear red striped coveralls. Medium and close would be housed in dorms, with tighter security in the close dorms. Of course maximum security inmates would be confined in the super-max building. Classifications were for one year periods, reviewed on the inmate’s prison arrival anniversary
