Pay-to-stay (imprisonment) - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org

Very weird that I am so old and have literally never heard this mentioned in a TV show or book or movie or anything.

In four out of five states, if you go to prison, you are literally paying for the time you spend there.

As you can guess, this results in crippling debt as soon as you’re released.

The county gets back a fraction of what they hold over your head the rest of your life until you commit suicide(or die naturally and peacefully with the sword of damocles hanging over your head).

$20-$80 a day according to Rutgers.

Counties apparently sue people and employ wage garnishment to get back the money that majority of people obviously cannot pay back.

https://www.rutgers.edu/news/states-unfairly-burdening-incarcerated-people-pay-stay-fees

    • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      2 months ago

      Not always.

      Regardless of the fact that prison education is clearly beneficial for the prison population and wider society, many prison education programs experienced significant budget cuts. States with large prison populations had cut prison education funding by 10%, on average. On top of this, further research has shownthat states with medium-sized populations slashed education budgets by an average of 20%.

      The introduction of the Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative helped fund additional programs in 2016, although access to postsecondary education in prisons remained limited because the scheme served a maximum of 12,000 prisoners annually. Since, the program has enrolled 22,000 participantsand 130 colleges in the scheme, although only 7,000 individuals have earned credentials. Due to this, many of the 2.1 million people who are currently incarcerated in the U.S. are denied access to education.

      However:

      To find out how people who have been in prison feel about this situation, we conducted a survey of 100 people who have recently been incarcerated. Surprisingly, they told us that they were generally happy with the education opportunities presented to them. Overall, 74% of our respondents told us that they disagreed with the statement “I had no access to educational programs/education whilst incarcerated.”

      As well as being offered an education, many of our respondents told us that they were actively encouraged to take part in these programs. More than 60% of respondents disagreed with the statement “I was not encouraged to participate in educational programs whilst incarcerated.”

      So access to education seems to be one of those things that is at least partially lip service. Education might be offered, it also might be substandard compared to a regular school. However, if it is offered and decent, inmates who have participated in getting a GED or better education state that it did help with avoiding recidivism and having better mental health.

      https://www.degreechoices.com/blog/prison-education-usa/

        • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.worldEnglish
          11·
          2 months ago

          Ok. Glad you weighed in with your expertise. This may not be the exhaustive survey that would offer incontrovertible proof, but it’s what we’ve got. Care to offer anything to the contrary other than an opinion?

          • morriscox@lemmy.worldEnglish
            23·
            2 months ago

            You can cherry-pick anything if you have 22K people to pick from and only need 100. We don’t how and at which point the question was asked. We don’t know the selection process. All we know is that they got 100 people to say something. It shouldn’t matter if we agree with the findings.

            • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.worldEnglish
              22·
              2 months ago

              Ok. So you’re attacking the source, not the argument, while absolving yourself of any effort to contribute to the discussion. Well done.

              • morriscox@lemmy.worldEnglish
                12·
                2 months ago

                Seriously? You seem to only care that the survey results show what you want them to show. Apparently it doesn’t matter how shoddy the survey was done, as long as it says what you want it to say, you’re okay with that and will attack anyone who points out that it’s flawed. This is Anthony Wakefield territory.

                • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  1·
                  2 months ago

                  No, but thanks for telling me what I’m thinking. I provided some evidence. You complain that it doesn’t meet your arbitrary standard. I call you out and ask you to provide information that contradicts the study. IDGAF, I don’t have a dog in this fight whether the study contains valid data or not, but if you’re going to call “bullshit”, provide contrary data. If all you want to do is complain about the study, there’s the door. I’m here to have a conversation about education in prisons, not your opinion on the study.