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Private prisons are a big thing in the US.
2 judges recently got prison themselves for rigging sentences to send juveniles to a private prison in exchange for kickbacks.
Some jurisdictions do sell slave labor to generate income.
Shithole America.
davidual-
Private prisons are a big thing in the US.
Oh I’ve known about private prisons for decades. Problem is, every bit of coverage I’ve seen or read has portrayed them privately run normal prisons, that are paid hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars per prisoner because the state can’t cope with the numbers or has privatised that sector of the justice system. What I discovered this week is that, if you have the money and connections, you can spend your incarceration in a separate private facility surrounded by other paying inmates. You’ll have access to a more comfortable cell block, better medical care, better trained guards, better facilities, more recreation possibilities, potentially more lenient visitation schedules…. All because you had the cash to pay for it. Meanwhile, people who don’t have the cash are treated like wild animals, and then some states try to charge them for the experience.
Fuck. That. All of that.
Muc-ed-off
I started writing a response and it kept branching out into really depressing aspects of current US society and possibly human nature. There’s just too much to unpick.
I don’t agree with convicts being made to pay for their stay in the current system. If costs are so high they need to pay for their stay, useless incarceration as it is needs to be reassessed. Etc etc etc.
$249 a day is $90,885 a year, £77,500. It’s not about recovering costs, they’ve designed a system that creates lifelong, legalised slave labour; that preys on the vulnerable (whether convicts or not); and that actively chews away at the foundations of a safe, functional society/economy/country.
Fucked isn’t strong enough a word.