TIL 40 states in the US charge you $20-$80 a day for being incarcerated in prison. ( en.m.wikipedia.org )

Very weird that I am so old and have literally never heard this mentioned in a TV show or book or movie or anything.

In four out of five states, if you go to prison, you are literally paying for the time you spend there.

As you can guess, this results in crippling debt as soon as you're released.

The county gets back a fraction of what they hold over your head the rest of your life until you commit suicide(or die naturally and peacefully with the sword of damocles hanging over your head).

$20-$80 a day according to Rutgers.

Counties apparently sue people and employ wage garnishment to get back the money that majority of people obviously cannot pay back.

https://www.rutgers.edu/news/states-unfairly-burdening-incarcerated-people-pay-stay-fees

CCF_100 ,

What do they do if the incarcerated people are unable to pay the fee? Do they just let the debt add up? That's awful...

LemmyKnowsBest ,

Counties apparently sue people and employ wage garnishment to get back the money that majority of people obviously cannot pay back. For the rest of their lives until they commit suicide (or die naturally and peacefully with the sword of damocles hanging over their heads).

LemmyFeed ,

Sounds like good incentive to not have a normal tax paying job and rather maintain under the table and/or illegal ways of making money.

Varyk OP ,

That Rutgers article says that they literally take people with a debt to court, or they take money from your wages while you're working, assuming of course that you can find a job after you get out.

harrys_balzac ,

In Utah, you get charged fees by the day if you've been charged and/or convicted of a misdemeanor. No charge if it's a felony. They figure they'll get their moneys worth if the inmate goes to work at Utah Corrections Industries.

Varyk OP ,

Even if you're just charged, or you have to be convicted and in prison?

harrys_balzac ,

Charged. No fees for prison. Just county/local jail.

ObsidianZed ,

Lazy criminals just need to get a job.

/s

BreadOven ,

System of a down - Prison song.

Varyk OP ,

Someone actually copied and pasted the lyrics here somewhere, if you go looking.

https://lemmy.world/comment/9798055

There

BreadOven ,

Nice, I didn't see it before. Must have missed it.

Ookami38 ,

One of my go-tos for karaoke.

BreadOven ,

Nice.

reverendsteveii ,

not sure which ones, but at least one charges you per day for the length of your sentence even if you're let out early

dream_weasel ,

I thought last I heard about this that the bills for this weren't usually called for payment unless you were suing them for something. Could be mistaken

RunawayFixer ,

It's state dependant.

This article has a few Connecticut examples of the cruelty of the system and some background, from before Connecticut mostly abolished the pay to stay practice (thanks to democrats): https://apnews.com/article/crime-prisons-lawsuits-connecticut-074a8f643766e155df58d2c8fbc7214c

So apart from coercing inmates to do for profit work for pennies (other countries would call it slave labour), some inmates also get to pay for the privilege on top of that.

Here's a more comprehensive article on how inmates and their families are being milked in the USA : https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/americas-dystopian-incarceration-system-pay-stay-behind-bars

filister ,

Isn't the US famous for their prison for profit, where prisons are privately owned and states need to pay if there are fewer incarcerated people inside?

To me, this sounds straight from 1984.

Varyk OP ,

Yeah, the states is the most country with for-profit prisons, and not coincidentally incarcerates the 6th highest percentage of its population of any country, just about half a percent of the total population at any time, or somewhere under 2 million people.

But boy howdy, do those percentages change when you control for economic class and ethnicity.

PsychedSy ,

It's less than ten percent of federal prisons. Police unions (including correctional officers) have a greater impact.

Psychodelic ,

I don't remember prisons being mentioned in 1984. They just vaporized people and then acted like they never existed

Today ,

I have a friend who was in. Outrageously expensive! Paid 'rent', paid for various classes he was required to take, and paid for each mandatory random drig test. Plus, what they have to pay for phone calls is crazy!!

Varyk OP ,

Yeah that is totally crazy.

I've obviously heard from movies and stuff that you have to pay for your phone calls, but not once have I sienna depicted prisoners paying for their jail time and paying for the classes they take prison.

It's totally insane

PineRune ,

$12 for a 15 minute phone call, more if it's considered long distance.

elvith ,

Let me guess - long distance is if it's outside the prison? /s

olav ,
@olav@theweird.space avatar

@Varyk @Today I think it's forgiven if you take the job making license plates at $2/hr sometimes $2/day

Varyk OP ,

You mean the prison forgives your prisoner debt if you make license plates?

olav ,
@olav@theweird.space avatar

@Varyk I didn't say that. AFAIK you're mostly down to having friends send you money for soap and toothpaste

Varyk OP ,

What do you mean by your comment "I think it's forgiven if you take the job making license plates at $2/hr sometimes $2/day"?

olav ,
@olav@theweird.space avatar

@Varyk ultimately they want the slave labor for the companies they contract with.

I mean even when it's not a corporate "for-profit" prison it's still for-profit by the government. Even in California

Varyk OP ,

I'm missing something, because all of your comments are way out of context.

Were you trying to respond to somebody else initially?

PineRune ,

They will pay prisoners pennies an hour for hard labor, which offsets their "rent." Those that don't work not only get punished in prison for disobedience but get riddled with debt afterward.

Varyk OP ,

What the heck? Is this your alt account, olav?

PineRune ,

No, I'm just chiming in.

jpeps ,

On release: "you've paid your debt to society, now pay your debt to the prison!"

w2tpmf ,

They're trying to build a prison
They're trying to build a prison
Following the rights movement, you clamped on with your iron fists
Drugs became conveniently available for all the kids
Following the rights movement, you clamped on with your iron fists
Drugs became conveniently available for all the kids
I buy my crack, my smack, my bitch right here in Hollywood
(Nearly two million Americans are incarcerated in the prison system, prison system of the US)
They're trying to build a prison
They're trying to build a prison
They're trying to build a prison
(For you and me to live in)
Another prison system
Another prison system
Another prison system
(For you and me)
Minor drug offenders fill your prisons you don't even flinch
All our taxes paying for your wars against the new non-rich
Minor drug offenders fill your prisons you don't even flinch
All our taxes paying for your wars against the new non-rich
I buy my crack, my smack, my bitch right here in Hollywood
(The percentage of Americans in the prison system, prison system, has doubled since 1985)
They're trying to build a prison
They're trying to build a prison
They're trying to build a prison
(For you and me to live in)
Another prison system
Another prison system
Another prison system
(For you and me)
For you and I, you and I, you and I
You and I
They're trying to build a prison
They're trying to build a prison
They're trying to build a prison for you and me
Oh, baby, you and me
Oh
Oh
All research and successful drug policy show that treatment should be increased (Oh)
And law enforcement decreased while abolishing mandatory minimum sentences (Oh)
All research and successful drug policy show that treatment should be increased (Oh)
And law enforcement decreased while abolishing mandatory minimum sentences
Utilising drugs to pay for secret wars around the world
Drugs are now your global policy, now you police the globe
I buy my crack, my smack, my bitch right here in Hollywood
Drug money is used to rig elections and train brutal corporate sponsored dictators around the world
They're trying to build a prison
They're trying to build a prison
They're trying to build a prison
(For you and me to live in)
Another prison system
Another prison system
Another prison system
(For you and me)
For you and I, you and I, you and I
You and me
They're trying to build a prison
They're trying to build a prison
They're trying to build a prison for you and me
Oh, baby, you and me

Varyk OP ,

Yeah that's a good one.

You can separate the lines so it's not all clumped together by adding double spaces at the end of the line.

I had to do that once when I posted a message like this, haha.

I felt like a dingus tapping out all the spaces, but it was very satisfying when it was properly formatted.

w2tpmf ,

You can separate the lines so it's not all clumped together by adding double spaces at the end of the line.

I'm fully aware of this and saw what it did when I pasted it in....however...

I felt like a dingus tapping out all the spaces

I was also aware of this before I even began to, so I didn't bother.

Varyk OP ,

Did you see that slash trick
another commenter says

if you throw a after a line
all of the following lines will be

Automatically formatted
Correctly
For song lyrics
Not this one though

Oh, but you still have to throw a after every single line.
\

w2tpmf ,

I literally copy/pasted the thing in two clicks and had zero interest in spending time making edits.

leanleft ,
@leanleft@lemmy.ml avatar

Indicative of a failed system OR a abusive system.
Pick one.
There are no other explanations.
Pick one.

Varyk OP ,

There are definitely other explanations, and neither of those are helpful or tell the whole picture.

YeetPics ,

I feel the same way about media control and social punishments for thought crimes.

Dkarma ,

"social punishments for thought crimes."

You mean consequences for what you say?

$1000 says your post history shows you to be a completely horrible person.

fruitycoder ,

It only makes sense if you think of criminality as some baked in trait in someone or see hurting criminals as the goal in some twisted sense of justice.

Mango ,

Abusive. Been there. Got abused.

Potatisen ,

The US is in free fall. Kinda crazy to see how passive the people are there.

Varyk OP ,

Americans are protesting and many are getting physically assaulted and arrested for protests everyday, and there are many civil rights and labor rights groups constantly bringing lawsuits against the government, actively changing policy.

Anticorp ,

Unfortunately the government has been very busy snatching up essential liberties and writing bullshit laws, and it's almost impossible to keep up with the protests and lawsuits. The politicians get paid to be there, and can spend all of their time on legislation. Once they pass something, boom, it's in effect. Then it costs organizations and citizens tons of time and money to protest and appeal what was so easily done by the legislators.

Varyk OP ,

Fortunately, there are a lot of people who don't give up because stuff gets hard.

Anticorp ,

True, but we're losing ground.

Varyk OP ,

And gaining ground in other areas.

It's the long and arduous process of fighting for and maintaining civil rights, nobody is going to snap their fingers and make everything better.

Sir_Kevin ,
@Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

So many people get a hard-on about the 2nd Amendment but they're all too spineless to invoke it.

Mango ,

What can I do?

MonkderDritte ,

Obligatory Incarceration in Real Numbers

Sam_Bass , (edited )

So they can sponge off any legal judgements you get for false imprisonment

Diplomjodler3 ,

Very weird that I am so old and have literally never heard this mentioned in a TV show or book or movie or anything.

I don't think that's weird at all. But it certainly says a lot about the US media landscape.

Varyk OP ,

I've also never met anyone in real life who has ever heard about this.

And at this point I've texted everybody I know.

How did zero people ever in my whole life know this?

Like I know lawyers, and we've occasionally talked about how terrible the prison situation in the United States is, it's crazy that not one of them mentioned that prisoner is also have to pay to stay.

Ever.

Charging a prisoner to stay in jail seems like one of the cruelest parts of prison, now that I know about it.
That seems crazy.

And that's what literally everyone I have told is saying.

"That's crazy." And it is. It's crazy

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • [email protected]
  • kbinchat
  • All magazines
    •