In reality, the DC currently has a sufficient number of prison beds to serve its needs. In reality, early release due to prison overcrowding was eliminated in December 1994. In fact, all inmates sentenced to life today will serve a life sentence in prison. For example, air-conditioning for inmates is not as distasteful to the public as some may believe, and even less distasteful to the media. And while the disapproval percentages for television and weightlifting privileges were barely more than half the sample for the general public, the news media viewed these activities much more favorably.
Inmates also work inside the prison doing laundry, cooking, cleaning and repairing prisons.
The DC does have chain gangs. Current DC squads work outside the secure perimeter of the institution on institutional property under the armed supervision of Correctional Officers. The inmates are shackled individually at the ankles and are not connected to each other in any manner for reasons of security and safety. Inmates have only limited access to television. No new television sets are purchased with taxpayers dollars.