I m guessing you guys have never been to the big house. You simply can't run a prison yard that way.
Sure, there's prison in Thailand that gives the inmate once a month showers via fire hoses, and SWAT teams is required to enter the jail because the inmates WILL attack. But that's Thailand. This is America. There's plenty of bleeding heart liberals that will swamp the district attorney, senator, governor with human right violation lawsuits.
Inside the prison will be worse. People can only be pushed so far before they resort to extreme levels of violence. Especially those already violently inclined. There WILL be daily riots. You'll have to double the prison guards (which get paid about $120k a year after overtimes since they work 12 hour shifts ). Those guys will have to have extra protection gear for those guards at ALL time because they will be attacked by prisoners much more frequently. Death count will sky rocket for both inmates and guards. That means funeral cost and compensation for the guard's family as well as funeral for the inmate .. unless you want to save money just toss their bodies in a ditch and be done with it.
Whatever you save on the 50c to $1 that it actually cost for an inmate's meal will quickly be paid back in other ways.
And btw, 'early release' program is what actually keeps SOME of the inmates in line and is actually the biggest trap to re incarcerate the inmate for a MUCH longer period of time for violations. Try keeping order in a prison yard where good behavior counts for diddly.
This is just a lil rant. I know most of you guys are mostly kidding.
BTW, you guys should watch this movie called `Felon` (
imdb ) . Its a great movie about prison life. It also makes a great case to why the 5 year rule proposed by Quickurt would never work.