It's the year 2050 and the American justice system has failed terribly. The prisons are filling up faster than they can build more, and laws are mandating ridiculously long prison terms for petty crimes. Lawmakers were trying to deter would-be crimimals, but the laws have backfired and worsened the problem. Most state prisons are 30% over capacity, and inmates are sleeping in the halls and on tables and benches because all bunks are taken.
Recently, a few states have adopted a new policy to slow down the number of criminals entering the prison system and to securely release non-violent offenders to home arrest in a way they cannot escape. Officially the program was named the Multiple Offender Re-entry Plan by Having Physical Features Visibly Transformed to Allow for Easy Optical Recognition, or MORPHPFVTAEOR for short. Criminals began to refer to the program as "MORPH" because of what happens to those who go through it.
The previous house arrest program had been ineffective because offenders would cut the ankle bracelets off or hack them to give faulty data. If someone ran away, it was difficult to capture them again. Also the public complained that just sentencing someone to house arrest wasn't a harsh enough punishment. MORPHPFVTAEOR promised to fix these issues.
MORPH is currently voluntary, but legislation is investigating the possibility of making this into an option for the courts to sentence in the future. When a nonviolent inmate arrives in the prison, they are given the option to choose the MORPH program. Inmates that opt in are taken to a room where they undress and step into "3D printer" of sorts. The 3D printer can "print" on the person's skin with permanent body paint. It can also change the person's physical features by 3D printing tissue directly onto the body. The body paint and modifications can only be removed by a 3D un-printer system owned by the Department of Justice, which prevents criminals from being able to remove it themselves. In addition to this, the inmates must wear a collar with a GPS tracker. If the inmate leaves his geo-fence or attempts to remove the collar, it will cause him to behave like whatever creature he is MORPHd into.
Currently each state has selected different forms to MORPH inmates into. The Federal requirement is that the change has to be obvious or unusual enough that someone could spot an offender in public. Some states have chosen to MORPH criminals into animals, painting the body and changing the facial structure to match. Ears and tails can be added. Other states have painted inmates as cartoon characters or fictitious creatures.
These inmates did not realize the struggle they would go through or the stigma they would endure for entering the MORPH program. Here are their stories: