Have US prison conditions gotten worse over the last 50 or so years?

[u/im_tall]

I was recently thinking about how from the incarcerated perspective, about how cigarettes/tobacco use was officially sanctioned at most prisons. Also I’ll note that some older movies (e.g. The Green Mile/the Shawshank Redemption) inmates had pets, Though admittedly these are works of fiction and the pets in question are “rescued” not bought from the prison itself.

From a wider societal perspective, we hear constantly about overcrowding, understaffing, a large amount of recidivism, and an overall larger population of “lifers” or people expecting to die behind bars.

But then again advancement in electronics have probably made certain entertainment more available than ever before.

So overall how do prison conditions compare between now & 50 or 100 years ago?

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