Prisoners here are typically first time offenders that are not likely to be of any danger or a threat to escape. Most of them take advantage of the facilities training programs, education, and counseling. Medium security prisons are a step up from minimum ones in that they exercise more security practices. Head counts, surveillance, and a barbed wire fence are a few of the measures one might observe in this type of confinement. They should however not be confused with maximum security for reasons such as shared living quarters and working without constant supervision. Traditionally, maximum security prisons are made up of a lot of high tech security as they house many of the nation's more dangerous offenders. Prisoners of these facilities are under constant surveillance by both officers and closed-circuit television. They live in rows of individual cells where one officer is able to watch over many of them at once. In the case of an escape attempt, the perimeters of these prisons are surrounded by either double or sometimes triple walled structures. There are also more modern day maximum security prisons such as the Oak Park Heights prison here in Minnesota. These still use the same maximum security but try to emphasize that prisoners are in prison as punishment and not for punishment. According to Lynn Dingle the acting Warden at Oak Park Heights, "Although inmates are under constant surveillance, prisoners do get choices in daily activities such as recreational sports, working, getting educated, or getting treatment [2]." The last major type of prison is the supermax. These are dedicated for the worst criminals as a "lock them up and throw away the key" type of institution. Here prisoners are locked up for 23 hours of the day and can only leave their cell if in handcuffs and accompanied by three guards. They are very dangerous places not only for the officers but to other inmates as well.
