Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

apnews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 374 posts

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

#181

Post by otikik »

api wrote: post #19
breitling wrote: post #6

>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…

Slavery has an exception for people in prison in the Constitution

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

#182

Post by rahimnathwani »

consp wrote: post #165
missedthecue wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only 4.5% of US inmates are in prison for drug possession. I do wonder what the rate is for other countries. Shocking that 55% of inmates are in for violent crimes such as murder, rape, and manslaughter. source: https://felonvoting.procon.org/incarcerated-felon-population...

> https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offen... I'll let you figure out your mistake from there.

Those stats are based on a tiny fraction of the US prison population. From elsewhere on that site, that agency is responsible for "158,012 Inmates".

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

#183

Post by adgjlsfhk1 »

prox wrote: post #150
nimbius wrote: post #22

former 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 accide…

How do people even pay that back? It sounds as if one most be incredibly lucky to get back on the rails? What happens if you don’t pay?

their wages get taken to pay for it and they end up homeless usually.

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

#184

Post by hef19898 »

culi wrote: post #147
breitling wrote: post #6

>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.

This seems a common theme in the US. In 2018, there was a nation-wide prison strike across all states in the US. The largest prison strike in world history basically. Many prisoners died or were injured. I remember checking NYTimes and CNN's frontpages and being shocked to see nothing written about it. The strike lasted nearly a month Really wild to think about how this could've gone down in history books for immense…

We can just call those camps, and simolar ones across Europe for refugees, what they are: Forced labour and concentration camps. Since they only contain the "right" people us privileged (I mean that unironically as one of that group) don't care. Those few that do don't matter in the bigger picture.

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

#185

Post by culi »

Akronymus wrote: post #168
culi wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [Fentanyl contributed] to some of the worst riots in recent history is this satire?

Quoted post unavailable.

The George Floyd protests are the largest protests in all of human history. Anywhere between 15 and 26 million people in the US and countless others across 60 different countries participated. 96.3% of the 7,305 demonstrations identified by the Nonviolent Action Lab and Crowd Counting Consortium involved no injuries and no property damage

Even if you wanna weasel your way out of this and just say it's just "a contributing factor" (literally everything could be) how could you possibly even tie those things together?

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

#186

Post by loeg »

diroussel wrote: post #74
LewisVerstappen wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are actions by a government... "the free market"?

The “/s” is Internet forum code for “sarcasm” which is a type of humour. This indicates the author knows it’s not true, but perhaps thinks it’s it would be funny if it was true.

/s isn’t a free pass for total nonsense statements.

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

#188

Post by kortilla »

karmakurtisaani wrote: post #108
mikebos wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess would be that most developed countries see prison not as a revenge but as the start to learn to function in society. America's system is more or less all about revenge.

That and, you know, profit.

There isn’t enough profit there though for that to be the driving force. Prisons as an industry make far less than industries with little to no political sway for even trivial protectionist policies.

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

#189

Post by fwsgonzo »

karmakurtisaani wrote: post #108
mikebos wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess would be that most developed countries see prison not as a revenge but as the start to learn to function in society. America's system is more or less all about revenge.

That and, you know, profit.

Indeed, as we see time and time again, including in this article. Not sure why you are downvoted.

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

#190

Post by otikik »

camdenlock wrote: post #176

Counterpoint question to most of the comments I’m seeing here: Who then is supposed to pay for a criminal’s stay in prison? Law-abiding tax-payers? Laws that SEND people to prison (like drug possession laws) can be fairly painted as ridiculous, but when it comes to paying for the actual prison infrastructure… it seems a lot less ethically clear.

Absolutely yes. It’s a shared cost just like road maintenance or sewer systems.
Post reply on HN