All trucks entering and leaving the prison go through an electronic heartbeat scanner strong enough to detect a mouse hidden in the back. An officer, counselor or even inmates with special work details place their hands on a screen that reads their palm prints. Inmates will spend much of their time in the day rooms and TV rooms. In the TV rooms, two mounted sets will show different programs during viewing hours. Unlike most TV rooms in the nation's prisons, this one will be silent.
Inmates can plug headphones into jacks in the day-room tabletops.
The reduced noise level will help maintain order, Schiedler said. When that gets old, similar jacks beside each cell's bunk allow inmates to hear pre-approved radio stations. Every cell door opens and shuts automatically every hour, so inmates can enter and exit. Inmate orderlies deliver the food carts to the housing units three times a day, the only new faces the 96 men see on a given day. So-called pod feeding is not new.