Alexis de Tocqueville just touched on America's penal institutions in the first half of his work Democracy in America:

A few years ago some pious people undertook to make the state of the prisons better. The public was roused by their exhortations and the reform of criminals became a popular cause.

New prisons were then built. For the first time the idea of reforming offenders as well as punishing them penetrated into the prisons. But that happy revolution in which the public cooperated with such eagerness and which the simultaneous efforts of the citizens rendered irresistible could not be accomplished in a moment. Alongside the new penitentiaries, built quickly in response to the public's desire, the old prisons remained and housed a great number of the guilty.  These seemed to become more unhealthy and more corrupting at the same rate as the new ones became healthy and devoted to reform. This double effect is easily understood: the majority, preoccupied with the idea of founding a  new establishment had forgotten the already existing ones.....And beside some prison that stood as a durable monument to the gentleness and enlightenment of our age, there was a dungeon recalling the barbarities of the Middle Ages (249-250)*

He wrote this in about 1835.

I came across a site dedicated to a PBS movie called Prison Town first aired July 24th, 2007:

Stories like these are increasingly common in rural America where, during the 1990s, a prison opened every 15 days. The United States now has the dubious distinction of incarcerating more people per capita than any other country in the world. Yet this astonishing jailing of America has been little noted because many of the prisons have opened in remote areas like Susanville. Prison Town, USA examines one of the country's biggest prison towns, a place where a new correctional economy encompasses not only prisoners, guards and their families, but the whole community.  http://www.pbs.org/pov/prisontown/film_description.php

See, my point is that the public became aroused again toward the end of the 20th century. Only this time not by 'pious reformers' but by fascists beginning in the Nixon Administration calling for LAW & ORDER and in the Reagan Administration calling for A WAR ON DRUGS.

So we came to a point as a direct result of this new public cause that we were opening a new prison every 15 days.  Is that not amazing? And the new prisons sit alongside the ancient prisons that are nothing but 'dungeons recalling the barbarities of the Middle Ages' once again.

On a lighter note but related to this discussion, I found this at the Daily Beast:

R. Allen Stanford isn't adjusting well to life in prison. According to the New York Post, Stanford--the alleged mastermind behind a $7-billion Ponzi scheme--has complained in court papers that life in his jail cell in Texas is "oppressive." Stanford says that the cell he is sharing with eight to 10 other inmates in Conroe, Texas, starts to boil when outside temperatures reach 100 degrees. "The cell has been without air conditioning for at least a week," the papers say. "There are no windows for light or ventilation, and the conditions are intolerable." Stanford's lawyers have requested that he be transferred to a prison in Houston. Read it at New York Post

I say lighter note, because I am a mere mortal. And I ponder the pain and suffering (along with deaths most probably) that is represented by the figure Seven Billion Dollars. The amount of suffering this man caused is really cannot be properly gauged.

And here he is in Conroe Texas boiling in an environment where the thermometer reaches 100 degrees. No windows or ventilation.  How on earth did this man who plead not guilty and is awaiting trial end up in this hell hole anyway?

A judge denied Sanford bail because he was deemed to be a flight risk. Stanford, 59, pleaded not guilty to criminal charges and also has denied any wrongdoing in a civil lawsuit against him. The feds claim Stanford allegedly defrauded some 30,000 investors.

Bloomberg News reported that the SEC claims Stanford allegedly skimmed $1.6 billion in personal loans from his Stanford Financial Group. The feds claim he invested billions of depositor funds in inappropriate real estate and private-equity ventures and not in conservative, liquid assets that he said backed the CDs.

We watched Madoff sitting in his ten million dollar mansion. We witnessed Scooter running around town like any bon vivant in his two thousand dollar suits while he awaited trial for years--if memory serves.

But something really grabbed here. I mean, I laugh at this Stanford's pain because he is getting what I feel he deserves. I laugh at him because he is not getting what he thinks he 'deserves' as a member of an oligarchy that never really gets what it deserves. Hahaha

I laugh at him because I can see a discussion between he and his cell mates discussing how 'important and complex' his legal case is.  And some guy in on a cocaine sting would just sit quietly smiling at this monster. Oh yeah, I had a complicated case also. Hahahahahah

But more importantly, if we could get more of these rich ass felons in prison under a new prosecutorial standard, we might actually have prison reform in this country. If the most entitled of us ended up in these hell holes the media might pay some attention. Who else is out there who can get the message out that in Conroe Texas an inmate resides in an oven with no windows or ventilation?

"For part of the time last week, they were in total darkness," DeGuerin wrote in court papers.