When the prison banned board games, we played chess in our minds
I'm hoping there's some broad reform coming for jails and prisons in the US.  Currently, there's no uniformity in the way prisoners are treated.   It's not unusual, in the US, for a prison to have no television, no books, little actually edible food, limited human interaction, etc.  You can't even write a letter if you don't have someone on the outside funding your commissary account.That setup, of course, just ends up being a gladiator school and/or permanent psychosis camp.