In the UK it costs the taxpayer about $60K per year per prisoner to keep them locked up, according to official figures. However if you take the overall annual budget for the prison service and divide by the number of prisoners I think the figure is closer to $100K. I’ve often wondered what the cost might be to house that population somewhere else, somewhere less expensive, like Turkey or Greece.
At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
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Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
#22former inmate here. I remember having to discharge nearly 30 grand in bankruptcy my second day out of the klink because I couldnt honest to god afford anything. I'd moved back in with an old roommate and was going to trade tech school.
other things that cost money include: soap, toilet paper, toothpaste, and basic analgesics like aspirin. phone calls are around $9 a minute. a letter is around $4. if you had an accident or need serious medical care it will be billed to you during your stay and comes out of your commissary.
oh and any supervised release after your sentence? that costs money too.
Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
#23Every day I find new reason to believe the American penal system unconscionable. Not only is slavery permitted, the US is the subject of the ire of the United Nations over it (the ILO, specifically). For-profit prisons with state minimum occupancy clauses. Charging prisoners for their time there. And one of the highest incarceration levels and worst recidivism rates in the world. What exactly is the point of any of t…
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First of all, conceding that 5% of people in jail could be wrongfully imprisoned should be MORE than enough reason to want to tear the entire system down.
Second, many of these "crimes" had no victim, so maybe it's not the people living their lives who are at fault, but rather an overzealous government who imprisons otherwise free people for doing no harm other than some abstract "moral" rule-breaking.
Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
#24Every day I find new reason to believe the American penal system unconscionable. Not only is slavery permitted, the US is the subject of the ire of the United Nations over it (the ILO, specifically). For-profit prisons with state minimum occupancy clauses. Charging prisoners for their time there. And one of the highest incarceration levels and worst recidivism rates in the world. What exactly is the point of any of t…
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I believe it’s reasonable to assume that far more than 5% of people behind bars are actually innocent.
I was raised by two career long LEOs and if even a small fraction of other LEOs were as bad as my folks, it would be safe to assume that there are a lot of innocent people behind bars.
Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
#25In the UK it costs the taxpayer about $60K per year per prisoner to keep them locked up, according to official figures. However if you take the overall annual budget for the prison service and divide by the number of prisoners I think the figure is closer to $100K. I’ve often wondered what the cost might be to house that population somewhere else, somewhere less expensive, like Turkey or Greece.
I’m sure Turkey and Greece would love that.
Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
#26In the UK it costs the taxpayer about $60K per year per prisoner to keep them locked up, according to official figures. However if you take the overall annual budget for the prison service and divide by the number of prisoners I think the figure is closer to $100K. I’ve often wondered what the cost might be to house that population somewhere else, somewhere less expensive, like Turkey or Greece.
Outsourcing prisons to cheaper authoritarian countries sounds like a bad idea.
Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
#27The next step would be to charge electricity for the electric chair, analogous to the time tested "bullet fee":
Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
#28Wealth inequality has grown to such levels that the poor can't even afford to go to prison these days.
Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
#29In the UK it costs the taxpayer about $60K per year per prisoner to keep them locked up, according to official figures. However if you take the overall annual budget for the prison service and divide by the number of prisoners I think the figure is closer to $100K. I’ve often wondered what the cost might be to house that population somewhere else, somewhere less expensive, like Turkey or Greece.
This is the sort of thinking that had the UK export criminals to Australia, no?
Re: At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
#30>All but two states have so-called “pay-to-stay” laws that make prisoners pay for their time behind bars What? Had no idea about this whatsoever and I consider myself a well-read person. Damn.
I too knew nothing about this and honestly find that frightening. How many other grotesquely perverse laws are on the books? Someone needs to create a hall of shame for these laws index by federal and for every state. This is perverse on so many levels. It’s not only ongoing punishment but it disincentivizes people from getting their lives in order and probably increases recidivism rates quite a bit. So in the end I…
Sadly, it gets much worse the more you look into it.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/17/pennsylvania...