> I've had several friends serve federal minimum-security time, a
> routine punishment for certain political offenses like vandalism of
> federal property. Many such prisons dispense with security measures
> like fences; a friend sent to one in Pennsylvania joked that she would
> have preferred a longer sentence, as prisoners serving for two or more
> years were eligible to be trained as EMTs for service in the
> surrounding communities. Minimum-security is really based on the
> assumption that the judicial disincentives for escape will suffice.
>
> One ex-con of this sort opined to me that minimum-security
> imprisonment is the most psychologically taxing form, as the one
> preventing the prisoner's escape is the prisoner him- or herself.
>
>
Foucauldian field day available here... I guess that might be better than a
field trip to a minimum security prison with Foucault... (yeah, yeah, yeah,
I know he's long dead...)