http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-05-17/prison-tourist-attractions/55048870/1 This article elaborates on the fact that prisons are becoming tourist attractions. In fact the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia visitor number increases “by double-digit percentages every year for the past 10 years.” Many prisons have tours that are made up of curious people, history buffs, and even ghost hunters. Some tours even offer “a ghost hunting class an overnight paranormal investigations.” The article even claims that “the prisons trade on formerly famous guests.” At the end of the article they included a quote from a tourist to the 7-Block of former state Prison of Southern Michigan in which he says “I loved it. I loved the way it looked like the prisons you see on TV, but you can see it in person.” In Michelle Brown’s book The Culture of Punishment: Prison, Society, and Spectacle she comments on how media portrays prisons in a completely inaccurate way and that the prisons tours give a wrong depiction of how prison really is. So this commercialization of prisons is giving an skewed version of what prison is really like. Do you think it is wrong for companies to commercialize the prison experience and use it as a from of revenue? Do you think it is wrong to have ghost tours and other meaningless events in a place where so many people suffered? Is it creating a idea of prison and punishment in the minds of tourists that is completely different from the one that is actually occurring?

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