Autonomous Prison

Imagine that there's a prison with not much of a bad history. The prisoners select an individual to basically rule over them, and he recruits several prisoners who have a history of good behavior to assist him. The guards still serve the role of making sure that nobody escapes. However, under the leadership of the prisoner-led administration the prisoners become largely autonomous (of course, the prison warden gives his consent to this arrangement, which exists as long as the prison maintains a decent reputation).
Thoughts?

Dassault Papillon: I feel this would be abused. Criminals with criminal intentions can still act "good." It wouldn't take much to turn on a man after buttering him up. Escape would then be essentially painless.