Well, the future is officially here. According to the BBC, this March a prison in Pohang, South Korea will begin using robots to patrol the jail and monitor inmate behavior, starting with a one month trial period, in an effort to ease the workload on human guards. The robots are apparently equipped with sensors that detect violent behavior or risk of suicide — we’re not sure about how a robot could detect severe depression brought on by incarceration, but we’re no scientists. “As we’re almost done with creating its key operating system, we are now working on refining its details to make it look more friendly to inmates,” said the head designer, Professor Lee Baik-Chu, of Kyonggi University. But we must say, the five foot tall machines look pretty darn cute to us. At least, we definitely can’t imagine them knocking on the cell bars with a nightstick or anything. In other news, though it seems a little contradictory, the South Korean is also building a Robot Land theme park scheduled to open in about two years — so basically, it would be as if Mickey Mouse was also your jailer when you did a bad thing. Try explaining that to the kids!