• spujb@lemmy.cafeOPEnglish
    48·
    6 months ago

    Per ACLU Ohio:

    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.

      • spujb@lemmy.cafeOPEnglish
        42·
        6 months ago

        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.

        • WhatIsThePointAnyway@lemmy.world
          24·
          6 months ago

          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.

          • j4k3@lemmy.world
            181·
            6 months ago

            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.

      • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        18·
        6 months ago

        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.

        • spujb@lemmy.cafeOPEnglish
          111·
          6 months ago

          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. 👍

          • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
            3·
            6 months ago

            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.

      • GrabtharsHammer@lemmy.world
        9·
        6 months ago

        And even better, it’s totally legal to pay a prisoner less than minimum wage for whatever labor they contribute.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      11·
      6 months ago

      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.

  • Flax@feddit.ukEnglish
    34·
    6 months ago

    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

      • Flax@feddit.ukEnglish
        5·
        6 months ago

        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

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
          8·
          6 months ago

          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.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        9·
        6 months ago

        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.

    • spujb@lemmy.cafeOPEnglish
      363·
      6 months ago

      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 😭

      • Guntrigger@sopuli.xyz
        53·
        6 months ago

        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.

        • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
          101·
          6 months ago

          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.

          • Guntrigger@sopuli.xyz
            11·
            6 months ago

            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.

        • spujb@lemmy.cafeOPEnglish
          8·
          6 months ago

          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

          • Guntrigger@sopuli.xyz
            3·
            6 months ago

            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.

  • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
    313·
    6 months ago

    America has the largest prison population in the world, including “authoritarian” countries several times our size.

    • Ibaudia@lemmy.worldEnglish
      15·
      6 months ago

      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 :)

      • LazyPhilosopher@lemmy.world
        11·
        6 months ago

        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.”