But you are not autonomous if your prison is so full you can't let prisoners out of their cells.
In 1997, Mr. Roth pulled "Prisoners Out of Control" -- an hourlong special about violent prison rioting -- calling it "inappropriate for broadcast".
Now that the economy is suffering, there is talk of reforming the prisons, of reviving the discredited concept of rehabilitation, of letting some prisoners out early.
One heterosexual man said that he had sex with gay or bisexual prisoners "out of necessity" and had resumed exclusive heterosexual relationships since leaving prison: "I'm completely straight.
Clifford Sloan, Obama's newly appointed envoy to transfer prisoners out of Guantánamo, recently told PBS that he was sure the prison would be closed in the foreseeable future.
Prison numbers have been growing at a rate of more than 100 per week, but Clarke said he could halt the rise without letting any prisoners out before they had served their full sentence or scrapping short prison sentences.
"The demands became higher," said Steiner, and that included getting Taliban prisoners out of Guantanamo.
Later he declared that "I have let all the prisoners out of Newgate..
Once, he heard a priest, accompanied by guards, going from cell to cell leading prisoners out to be executed.
Mr. Helle made the translucent bodies of the naked, gassed prisoners out of hot glue that melted around wire frames.
By that time, the United States Marshals Service had already pulled all federal prisoners out of the jail.
