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Our statewide investigation analyzes policies at 75 facilities representing 74 counties across Ohio. More than half of jails, 40 of the 75, charge people for their incarceration through a booking fee, a daily fee, or both. Ohioans are getting billed up to $66.09 a day to be in jail.
66 bucks a day? That’s twice my mortgage.
Yep! And (not to downplay the struggles of being a working class person with a mortgage but) you at least have the privilege of, y’know, not being in prison so you can get a job to pay off said debt as time goes on.
These guys just get dumped out of prison only to immediately be saddled with that ruinous financial burden.
Not to mention it’s hard to get a job or apartment fresh out of prison. Which is why recidivism is 80%+ in the US. You get paid pennies an hour for the work you do inside then get released with almost no money to start over. It’s a vicious cycle.
Recidivism or suicide machine. Disability is no better. No one can survive on it. We have Nazi death camps without the balls to gas everyone.
Imagine being charged twice your mortgage for a crime you didn’t commit. It’s fucking Ohio, no way this isn’t happening to at least a few people. I’d lose my goddamn mind.
And to clarify, it’s not just Ohio, but a common practice in most states. Ohio was just the first to be investigated in detail for its behaviors. 👍
Yeah we’re a weird mix of terrible but mad about it. By all rights we’re supposed to still be super purple, but our state government is so gerrymandered we get punished for passing ballot measures.
Even if you did commit the crime it’s still immoral.
And even better, it’s totally legal to pay a prisoner less than minimum wage for whatever labor they contribute.
Is there a list of companies which use prison labour?
“Well as long as they’re working full time while inside, at least they can use that to pay for incarceration. It actually does seem fair that they need to be working instead of literally just sitting around, and then that can pay for their right to continue to exist.”
“Okay, so we could do that, but also, hear me out for a second”
But you don’t have as much hired help. You have to take into account the room service.
And note that people in jail have not necessarily even been to court yet. They just can’t afford bail. They might be found not guilty and still have to pay for their time locked up.
I heard there was someone in the UK who got cleared of a crime and then was charged an accommodation fee or something because apparently since they were innocent they had no right to be in prison. Last I heard, gov was going to overturn this law
I’m amazed this is law. It’s like Josef Fritzl charging rent for his cellar.
Apparently it was originally thought of people who actually were guilty of doing something wrong getting out on a technicality. They never imagined someone getting out because they were actually innocent
Like that’s also terrible. Technicalities are either “the prosecution broke the rules” or “that’s technically not illegal”. You’re not supposed to be punished at all for those cases for good reason, it’s just that they can’t make you not have been in prison.
That article also says-
The maximum payment in cases where someone has been in jail for more than 10 years is £1m.
Pretty good deal for the government there too.
How is that legal? America, why you be like this?
Here is one act that wrote it into law. 😒 I wish it would name and shame the people and parties that voted for this so we could learn from those mistakes.
edit: idk why people are downvoting this i meant this kindly as an answer to your question 😭
It is still possible to learn from the mistakes without name and shame blaming.
Though if you want to name and shame blame, politicians have to record the source of their donations, so it’s possible to list those that are currently taking money from the prison system and blocking change.
I honestly don’t understand America though, in other countries lobbying would be called corruption.
It is still possible to learn from the mistakes without name and shame blaming
Not for a politician who would silently vote in favor of charging people for their own caging and enslavement.
If you’re that beholden to the prison industrial complex, you’re going to continue to be unless publicly shamed for it.
By silently voting you mean they just happen to love the prison system, or that they are hiding their links to it? It should be public knowledge if a politician is receiving kickbacks from the prison industrial complex, but I’m sure some manage to hide it too.
I’m all for publicly shaming them all, just trying to encourage focusing on the ones currently in power and on the take. But if you’re relying on people who have no shame to be ashamed, then there could well be no progress.
I don’t really understand your point but I do agree with everything you said.
I just think if we could see exactly which members of the 82nd Michigan legislature in 1984 passed the act and who donated to them we could have a better idea of who got us here today, thereby better answering the question above.
That’s probably a matter of public record somewhere but I don’t have the experience to find it
I was just trying to say there’s not much point in outing people who passed a decades old bill unless they are still in power. It’s more useful to highlight those that are in the pocket of the system and corruptly (legally through lobbying) blocking progress currently. They should be the targets.
America has the largest prison population in the world, including “authoritarian” countries several times our size.
I’m sure that has NOTHING AT ALL to do with the fact that states get better contracts with private jailers for keeping prisons near max capacity :)
I’m sure it has nothing to do with how the 13th amendment was worded either
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
*Pay to be enslaved
“pay to stay” so if they don’t pay they can’t stay? are they freed?
no they are forced to stay and then forced to live with unmanageable debt the moment they leave
And then failure to maintain their payments results in a violation of parole and return to prison.
then it’s not pay-to-stay but stay-to-pay
ok
If you have to pay for your imprisonment, you should also be able to pick the institution. Check La Catedral for implementation.
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