As a resident of Palm Desert, CA, I have been calling for this for years. The desert between Indio and Blythe along the I10 corredor is vacant. You could locate a prison halfway between these two communities and 10 miles north or south of the interstate.
The prisoners would live in non-airconditioned tents surrounded by three barbed wire fences and lots of sensing devices. Their job each day would be to move sand from Point A to Point B. Then reverse the process the following day. No TV, no workout equipment, and plain food.
I will bet that very few would ever want to come back again, and the state would save a bundle in the cost of housing prisoners. But we will never see the day because the bleeding hearts in state government would never allow it.
You cannot house long-term prison inmates in the same conditions as short-term jail prisoners. Regardless of the legal issues of cruel and unusual, you have a long record of prison riots in this country with conditions being the major factor.