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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

#201

Post by greedo »

bobthepanda wrote: post #153
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on the comments in the "NYC is owed a bajillion dollars in parking tickets" thread from a couple days ago I bet you could get an easy dozen if you just dropped the phrase "five star hotel prices". People are strongly in favor of harsh punishments for the type of crimes they don't ever see themselves committing, like not paying a ticket apparently.

The NYC parking tickets thing has a few other dimensions, like the fact that the worst scofflaws are actually the diplomatic corps of other countries (there for the UN) that claim immunity to avoid having to pay the tickets. So not only do you get to bash elites, they’re other country’s elites and not countries that the US has warm relations with. There was actually a sigh of relief in many circles when New York lost…

Don't forget the members of New York's finest; the NYPD is well known for abusing parking on a consistent basis.

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

#202

Post by z3t4 »

isoprophlex wrote: post #31
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.

Nothing weird going on here... It's the free market doing it's thing. Apparently staying in prison is in high demand, driving up prices. /s

I would like to serve my time on the Hilton hotel. thanks. (it would be cheaper then prison)

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

#203

Post by iovrthoughtthis »

Akronymus wrote: post #109
xfitm3 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Portugal is an excellent role model, there are numerous studies on their approach to drugs[0]. While I am not an expert on the subject the model is morally appealing to me, and I believe public order is maintained. Begin researching on your own if you're interested in this subject. I feel for anyone who loves a drug user. Separately I just learned fentanyl test strips are not legal in all 50 states. Given that fentan…

Quoted post unavailable.

tea must terrify you!

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

#204

Post by erdos4d »

arcticbull wrote: post #7

Every 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…

No post body was provided.

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

#205

Post by erdos4d »

shakezula wrote: post #113
xwdv wrote: post #28

Wealth inequality has grown to such levels that the poor can't even afford to go to prison these days.

It's not a mistake, this is all by design. This is the system working as intended under capitalism.

You shouldn't be downvoted here, this is true. As tax revenues decline, they are trying to shift the burden directly onto the inmates to pay for the whole works.

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

#206

Post by TillE »

selectodude wrote: post #151
Akronymus wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Have you ever even taken an opiate?

Seriously, the suggestion that an opiate makes you aggressive is very funny. The high is just like, pure happiness.

Also fentanyl is a big thing because opiates are illegal. If people had a choice they'd stick to the good stuff like oxycodone, which is significantly less dangerous.

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

#207

Post by akira2501 »

standardUser wrote: post #118
etaioinshrdlu wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of countries, especially in Asia, but also the UAE and possibly others, have successfully stopped nearly all drug use and trade with heavy-handed policies. You may not like what it took to get done, but it did work. I'm not advocating for the heavy-handed approach, but it's intellectually dishonest to say that it can't work. Also, the other countries have done it with a much smaller imprisonment per capita.

It is intellectually dishonest to say drug prohibition can work in the United States. It has been tried and has failed comprehensively and over multiple generations. You are making a very different argument - that if the US was an entirely different type of society with a different government, culture and history, then this approach might work.

Do we honestly do prohibition though, or are we just running a treadmill for lower level offenders?

I understand the desire to not needlessly arrest people, on the other hand, I think leaving them to their own devices so they can do drugs in campers illegally parked on the side of the street is no honestly solution either.

I'm all for drug confiscation. If you're caught with drugs, we just take them and destroy them. No arrest and processing, just straight surrender of the illegal substance. Use this as an opportunity to enroll users into programs and get them off of their habits and back on their feet. Use the additional manpower to truly target those who import and traffic in these substances.

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

#208

Post by DavidPeiffer »

superchroma wrote: post #78
arcticbull wrote: post #7

Every 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…

Appeasing greed and a notion of vengeance. The Americans I personally know are quite punitive, and do believe in an eye for an eye, which is odd because they are also Christians (it's honestly unsurprising, they're just out of practice, I guess). Generally I wonder if people comprehend that prisons should be (for the majority of inmates) intended to reform people; that is, to make them better and show them a better p…

> Generally I wonder if people comprehend that prisons should be (for the majority of inmates) intended to reform people; that is, to make them better and show them a better path.

I tried bringing up this line of reasoning one time with two coworkers I was close with. Both had the attitude of "why should I be paying for these criminals to be comfortable and get an education and stuff while I'm working and supporting a family and not committing crimes". A roof over their head and 3 really basic meals per day was all they really wanted to provide.

"Sit in the corner and think about what you did" is a method for punishing little kids, but my coworkers couldn't be convinced we probably need to adapt our strategies for adults.

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

#209

Post by ransom1538 »

Akronymus wrote: post #109
xfitm3 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Portugal is an excellent role model, there are numerous studies on their approach to drugs[0]. While I am not an expert on the subject the model is morally appealing to me, and I believe public order is maintained. Begin researching on your own if you're interested in this subject. I feel for anyone who loves a drug user. Separately I just learned fentanyl test strips are not legal in all 50 states. Given that fentan…

Quoted post unavailable.

"More than 932,000 people have died since 1999 from a drug overdose. In 2020, 91,799 drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States. The age-adjusted rate of overdose deaths increased by 31% from 2019 (21.6 per 100,000) to 2020 (28.3 per 100,000)."

Fentanyl is very deadly and will start spiking these numbers fast. This means we will have 180k+ yearly deaths in 2.32 years (if it didn't get worse than 2020). wtf. Fentanyl is illegal (a felony in most areas). I agree the War on drugs didn't work. But we are about to lose millions of citizens.

https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/deaths/index.html

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