inside America's hi-tech jails Thousands of the most dangerous criminals in the USA are now held in 'New Generation prisons, where every movement is monitored by computerised control systems. The wardens claim to have reduced rioting and gang violence against both staff and inmates.
But the price is high. Prisoners complain of almost total isolation inside their cell blocks: 'I feel like I'm buried alive in here.' And at least onejailhas been the victim of its own technology- when inmates took it over to escape from Death Row. As the Home Office plans
Britain's first New Generation prison, Gerry Northam finds that even electronic jails are only as good as the people who run them.
Researcher ANDREW RUTHERFORD Producer DAVID HARDING