Male guards will still supervise female prisoners outside their housing block.

An alternative is "direct supervision", in which officers work within the pod and directly interact with and supervise prisoners, who may spend the day outside their cells in a central "dayroom" on the floor of the pod.

In the future, officials said, newly constructed prisons will be owned by the Federal Government so that construction costs will not be covered by the daily reimbursement for supervising prisoners.

Brian Cassidy, another supervisor, said Specialist Graner sometimes supervised prisoners on death row and performed "on a professional level at all times."

Many of the disciplinary measures then used by state employees and supervising prisoners are now illegal.

Probation staff also supervise prisoners who have been released on a life licence (usually after they have served part or all of a life sentence).

The new prison, designed by Robert Abraham and costing £186,000, was circular in plan (following Jeremy Bentham's 'panopticon') so that warders could supervise prisoners from a central point, and had a capacity of 900 prisoners.

They are often used to hassle the protagonists, or other duties such as supervise prisoners.

However, there were only four of these, and their role was restricted to supervising prisoners in work and vocational activities, rather than the disciplinary roles undertaken by the more controversial 'convict warders' employed in many other gaols.

In 1944, Poulan was supervising German prisoners cutting pulpwood in East Texas.