http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKIYE4NbuRY
This episode reveals the engineering breakthroughs behind one of the world’s most secure prisons.
Holding over 1400 of America’s most dangerous prisoners North Branch Correctional Institution is claimed to be the most advanced prison in the US. Over two thirds of the men at the prison have killed and most dream of escape. They are locked up in cells able to withstand bomb blasts and the prison is brimming with technology designed to keep them secure and safe from each other.
But North Branch Correctional Institution wasn’t designed and built in a day.
It stands on the shoulders of historic engineering achievements that have allowed it to grow so secure. This film charts the stories of four historic innovations, embodied by landmark facilities — giants of the prison world.
One by one — traveling up the scale — this film reveals the incredible stories behind these machines and the inventions that drove them ever more secure. four ingenious leaps forward that enabled prisons to become SAFER, TOUGHER and BIGGER.
The film investigates how designers of London’s most infamous prison, the Tower of London, needed to fortify the perimeter after a daring escape. The film explores the development of a comprehensive surveillance system at Eastern State Penitentiary that watched over the US’s most notorious criminals including Al Capone. The system kept inmates safe from each other, and the guards secure. At the prison of Alcatraz Island a former inmate and guard explain how remote control doors made of toughened steel were impossible to hack though, but how weaknesses in cell design were exploited by prisoners in one of the most audacious and infamous escapes of all time.
At every stage the film shows how each invention and lesson is applied to North Branch Correctional Institution as it follows the day to day running of the prison. The film finds out from the prisoners themselves what it’s like to be locked up inside one of the world’s most secure prisons. It meets the guards who monitor inmates 24 hours a day and explores the defenses that make the perimeter impenetrable. The latest in riot control equipment is put to the test as we see the effects of non-lethal weapons such as pepper spray and Tasers on unlucky volunteers.
Stunning CGI animation brings the four innovations and landmark prisons to life. Combined with practical demonstrations this film provides the ultimate explanation of how ingenious technology enabled the prison to evolve into one of the most secure facilities in the world — North Branch Correctional Institution.
Bernd Pulch 