See post 31.
I see that now, thanks.
I have spent more than my fair share of time in jails and prisons around this country (not as a guest), and I’ve never saw one that I thought could be even remotely described as pleasant.
Leaving aside StarTraveler’s comments about the basic infringement on a prison’s right to free locomotion (and I think they are quite accurate), jails and prisons are horrible, awful places, where the inmates are treated little better than cattle. They dehumanizing and degrading and notion that they are comfortable is one usually put forth by someone who hasn’t ever been inside an active prison.
Certainly some are worse than others. Jails are usually the worst (because of the overcrowding and generally unsanitary conditions); prisons are better. And while minimum or medium security inmates typically don’t have to fear for their life from prison gang activity, it’s by no means a vacation where everyone goes out to the yard and plays horseshoes after dinner.
I recently worked to get a man out of prison after fifteen years of wrongful incarceration. He wept like a baby at the hearing when the judge released him. I’m not sure that he would describe his time in prison with the “lunchrooms, yards, and exercise rooms” as a positive time in his life.
N.B. - In your world, this man would have been dead ten years ago, executed at the hands of the state.