[DanaC]

Additional thought: why do we want prisons to be some kind of hell? Do we value our freedom so lightly, that the loss of that alone seems a trivial punishment?

Prison is the fundamental loss, temporarily for most, of personal autonomy. Coupled with absolute and enforced stasis. The door stays closed unless someone else opens it; it stays open unless someone else closes. The time the light goes on and off, the time to shower, the time to eat, what you eat and how often you eat, who you see, when and how often you see them, how many toilet rolls you get to use, how often your hair is cut, whether you can see a doctor, what books you are allowed to read.

And all in the context of a profoundly dangerous community, equally bored and ready to impose themselves on others.

I had a couple of friend years ago (I probably mentioned them on here before). Nutty Paul and Little Pete. I recall a conversation with them that has stayed with me ever since. They were sharing stories of their various prison stints and they both talked about the way that first night after sentencing hits you when you are sent down. When the door closes and the lights go out. They talked about being able to hear some guys crying, a few really freaking out with a kind of claustrophobia.

Paul was without a shadow of a doubt the hardest and most dangerous individual I have ever met. He was a good mate, and in the right mood he was brilliant company, but he could be a fucking animal. And he said he cried the first night, the first time he was sent down for real (rather than the in and out of the juvenile system).

You don't need to make prison hell. Trapped in one place with several thousand other troubled or dangerous people and held in check by a system deliberately and consciously designed to remove your individuality, for years, is its own hell.