But the burden of shame had shifted squarely from the prisoners to their wardens.
Long before that, prisons were turned into "correctional facilities" and their wardens became "superintendents".
The prisoners hated their wardens and feared the guards, and on the surface of things, the autocracies were there to stay.
Because Kennedy is most often the decisive vote on the Court, that invitation should be welcome to the thousands held behind steel doors, if their wardens allow them to read of it.
Inmates in a women's prison near the Chinese border are said to have experienced a "collective mass psychosis" so intense that their wardens summoned a priest to calm them.
In a nation where status, whether from money or political power, buys almost anything, the high and mighty accused of crimes against the public fisc, or treasury, get no special treatment here, their wardens say.
Never mind that most Americans, too, would go to considerable lengths to avoid being stripped naked in captivity and set upon by barking police dogs held by their wardens; and never mind that such treatments are — under any possible interpretation — violations of U.S. law and military doctrine.
When I read of "wildlife sanctuaries" I wonder how far their wardens are prepared to go, by way of managing those species which, if left to themselves, can turn a viable habitat into a desert - grey squirrels, for instance, roe deer, Canada geese, or cormorants.
Their Wardens were given the power to enter any printing premises, destroy illegal works and imprison anyone found manufacturing them.
