Minimum-security institutions such as Boron are often referred to as country club prisons or Club Fed; officially they are categorized as Security Level No. 1 institutions, the least guarded in the federal prison system.

There were only seven such facilities in the country, and Boron was the only self-contained Level 1 institution in California.

The prison had no walls, fences, bars, gun towers or guns.

What could go wrong? Surprisingly, very little.

Incarceration at the Federal Prison Camp at Boron was more a state of mind than a state of siege…