A Look At Utah’s Supermax Security Prison

Follow us here, but have you ever seen the show 60 Days In? It's a great show that we like to watch now and then (you can currently watch it on Netflix) and the premise is made for TV: average people versus prison.

Well, sorta.

The everyday person isn't built for prison

And they shouldn't be - no one should. If you're built for prison, we're not only sad for you but we're praying for you. The show 60 Days In gives viewers an undercover look at life in prison in some of the most broken prison systems in the country.

The people going undercover range from former law enforcement to your everyday person who works an 8-5, hoping to improve the system. They're tasked with finding and reporting issues within the prison to the warden... all without getting caught.

Since seeing this show, we've had an unusual fascination with what life is like behind bars. Would we ever want to be behind bars?

Of course not.

But, it did have us wondering what's going on just five hours from Boise at Utah's relatively new billion-dollar prison.

That's right -  a billion.

Utah's supermax prison opened just two years ago and unfortunately has faced several challenges along the way. Even more interesting, we learned that inmates from the old prison actually helped build the new one.

Isn't that bad luck... somehow?

The new prison is designed to focus on mental rehabilitation as much as it's focused on keeping the inmates inside. It's a unique approach and one that has many still wondering... does it work?

As you can see, there are quite a bit of issues from within the prison... do you think the design and approach of the prison is the reason behind the issues?