At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt

Post by arcticbull » Sat, Aug 27, 2022, 7:31 PM UTC

gruez wrote: post #52

arcticbull wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reality is that there are so many crimes in the United States that the set itself is uncountable. There have been a number of attempts to count. I guarantee you that you have, today alone, accrued enough legal liability to put you away for the rest of your life. Part of what makes this difficult to even count in the first place are bills like the Lacey act which makes it a felony for you to violate any other coun…

>What happens is the folks who end up in prison haven't accrued any more of less liability - instead they drew attention. >If you'd like to learn more I recommend Three Felonies a Day. [1] It's hard to take that book seriously when the book fails to state how the average person actually commits felonies a day. According to the top critical review[1], it doesn't seem like most of the people in prisons are because of t…

Post by rzazueta » Sat, Aug 27, 2022, 7:31 PM UTC

yeeyeeyee wrote: post #51

shakezula wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the time, supporters of these laws aren't brainwashed or stupid. They just prefer the status quo that these laws uphold, which tends to overlay nearly perfectly with class lines.

>Supporters say the collections are a legitimate way for states to recoup millions of taxpayer dollars spent on prisons and jails. Wait there are supporters of this? You're telling me if I asked 100 people on the street, there'd be someone that said "oh yeah this is a pretty fair and reasonable law to charge the inmates 5-star hotel prices"??

Post by eptcyka » Sat, Aug 27, 2022, 7:32 PM UTC

wizofaus wrote: post #58

tmpz22 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are over 2 MILLION prisoners in the US prison population of a population of 330M. This gives the USA the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. The next four? * Rwanda * Turkmenistan * El Salvador * Cuba [1]: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/incarcera...

Not clear how that's relevant to the comment you were replying to, unless you're suggesting that being jailed for minor controlled substance offenses is far more common in the US than the many other developed countries with similar laws?

Post by MichaelCollins » Sat, Aug 27, 2022, 7:32 PM UTC

yeeyeeyee wrote: post #51

shakezula wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the time, supporters of these laws aren't brainwashed or stupid. They just prefer the status quo that these laws uphold, which tends to overlay nearly perfectly with class lines.

>Supporters say the collections are a legitimate way for states to recoup millions of taxpayer dollars spent on prisons and jails. Wait there are supporters of this? You're telling me if I asked 100 people on the street, there'd be someone that said "oh yeah this is a pretty fair and reasonable law to charge the inmates 5-star hotel prices"??

Post by mrkurt » Sat, Aug 27, 2022, 7:32 PM UTC

DisjointedHunt wrote: post #60

standardUser wrote: post #13

What drives me absolutely insane about stories like this is that so many of the people suffering under these policies are guilty of little more than market participation. The government strains, at extraordinary expense, to pretend they can stop drugs from being made, bought and sold, but they can't. They simply can't. Countless laws, countless billions of dollars and countless ruined lives later, drugs are no less p…

Swap “drugs” for “guns” and you’d have the majority of HN flip out. The Government isn’t a magical entity of absolute perfection. Large classes of banned substances are indeed banned for good reason. Their effects on individual/societal well being documented quite heavily. Two things can be true at the same time: 1. Some substances that are detrimental to human health need to be controlled. 2. The US government and i…