In my view, prisoners should have access to (more or less) all the books they want, all the movies they want, all the games they want, and all the video calls home they want, all delivered to the comfort of their own private cell. Balancing this, prisoners should have no interaction with other prisoners — your human interaction comes through the video chat or through your appointments with guards, prison therapists, and so forth.
Basically, imagine a dull weekend spent entirely inside your hotel room; now imagine it lasts a lot longer. The room is big enough to exercise in, it has natural light, maybe a caged balcony to get fresh air — it’s just like a hotel except everything is bolted down and you’re not allowed to leave.
Preventing interaction between prisoners solves most prison problems, and also enables the number of guards to be massively reduced, compensating for the extra cost of the larger cells and all the entertainment stuff.
Basically, imagine a dull weekend spent entirely inside your hotel room; now imagine it lasts a lot longer. The room is big enough to exercise in, it has natural light, maybe a caged balcony to get fresh air — it’s just like a hotel except everything is bolted down and you’re not allowed to leave.
Preventing interaction between prisoners solves most prison problems, and also enables the number of guards to be massively reduced, compensating for the extra cost of the larger cells and all the entertainment stuff.