The modern prison system was created in Benjamin Franklin's living room

The roots of America's sprawling prison system, which houses over 2.2 million inmates, go back to an idea hatched in Ben Franklin's living room.  In a recent story on America's toughest prison - the federal "Supermax" ADX penitentiary in Colorado - the New York Times included an intriguing anecdote:  At a salon hosted by Benjamin Franklin, a pamphlet was read calling for the construction of a "house of repentance," in which solitude could work to soothe the minds of criminals -- an enlightene...