3 ms·

I'd have less of a problem with prisoners being paid a pittance for helping out if it weren't for how the spending-side of prison commissaries [0] and phone cal

by Terr_ 2y ago

I'd have less of a problem with prisoners being paid a pittance for helping out if it weren't for how the spending-side of prison commissaries [0] and phone calls [1] are often unconscionably overpriced. [0] https://theappeal.org/locked-in-priced-out-how-much-prison-commissary-prices/ https://theappeal.org/locked-in-priced-out-how-much-prison-c... [1] https://www.vera.org/news/the-fcc-is-capping-outrageous-prison-phone-rates-but-companies-are-still-price-gouging https://www.vera.org/news/the-fcc-is-capping-outrageous-pris...

lurk2 2y ago
In a lot of states, inmates are required to reimburse the state for some portion of the cost of their incarceration. Oddly, the commissary issue strikes me as perverse, but the requirement to cover incarceration costs didn’t, at least once I had thought about it some more. While I am cautious to endorse El Salvador, I think their model is the one to beat: Prisoners are either working or in school, but the goods produced by the prisoners are used by the government to offset costs in other departments, rather than being sold on an open market. For example, they have the prisoners sewing uniforms for public officials, repairing fleets of public vehicles, and building desks for schools. This nominally solves the issue of prison labor being exploited (at least so long as the program remains revenue negative or revenue neutral) without burdening the general public with the cost of incarceration.