What is the difference in a maximum security prison and a medium security prison?

Prisoners that fall into the Medium Security group may sleep in dormitories on bunk beds with lockers to store their possessions. They may have communal showers, toilets and sinks. Each dormitory is locked at night with one or more correctional officers supervising, there is less supervision over the internal movements of prisoners. The perimeter is generally double fenced and regularly patrolled.

In a Maximum Security prison, all prisoners are housed in individual cells with sliding doors that are controlled from a secure remote control station. Often prisoners are confined in their cells 23 hours a day, but in some institutions prisoners are allowed out of their cells for most of the day, and when out of their cells, are always kept in the cell block or an exterior cage. Movement is tightly restricted through the use of restraints and escorts by correctional officers.

Take a virtual tour of a maximum security prison, compliments of the State of Virginia: http://www.vadoc.state.va.us/facilities/...

bars on cells

what do you think?

In a maximum security prison security is much tighter. No one is allowed to interact with prisoners and all communication is through a correspondence or over a telephone. Also, guard are allowed to shoot at will if they catch some one running off.

Max you locked in a little bitty cell never get out.
medi they let you out of you cellfor a little bit.

Thicker bars

Maxiumum is for high risk, very dangerous prisoners. Also they have death row. Medium is for typical criminal, not high risk, but sometimes dangerous.

Max is for prisoners that have escaped or attempted to escape in the Past.. Medium security Is Just as bad as the other place. But the prisoners haven't tried to escape as of yet...They have a Hole they will put them In too.
They have a Max in Colorado That is Sub-terrain(Underground)No windows-no sunlight-no way out..

Degree of security. Maximum Security prisons are more secure than Medium Security prisons. Some prisons have maximum- and medium-security wings within the same compound. The maximum security prisons are also more often used for violent inmates who cause problems and/or fights among the genearl prison population.

Due to prison overpopulation issues, though, a lot of non-violent offenders end up in maximum security, and many violent offenders and problem inmates end up in medium security prison wings.

The difference between them has to do primarily with the perimeter security levels. At Max, you have many armed guard towers, at least two perimeter barriers, a roving patrol in the No-mans-land between the barriers. Most medium joints have a single barrier, and less armed coverage. Until you get to super max, they are much alike inside.

Simple - MORE people will be held accountable when someone escapes from a Maximum Security Prison, compared to the number of people who will be in trouble if that happens in a Medium Security Prison.

a medium and max have little outward difference.

There are many levels higher than max, high mx, super max, protective custody and more and the such.

With that you need to be much more speicif as to what difference you want,

In a Maximum Security, the Offenders have less freedom. They are usually locked in a cell 23 hours a day, they get out an hour a day for rec. They can have visitors, usually it is through a glass partition. A medium security prison, Offenders are allowed in the common area of their housing units, they can have contact visits (meaning they can hold their children, hug their families, hold hands), they can go to a dining hall for meals, they go to school, and have jobs within the Correctional Facility.

Some of the answer are some what correct.A Max they are locked in seperate cells but they do have some movement in PODs Only those locked up in Segresstion are not allowed to interact with the rest of the population. SEG is for those Inmates who have violation on them while serving time. And yes they will be shot at if attempting escape. MIN is open bay type prison and inmates can pretty much come and go inside the prison till lock down time