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rockandrollsouls
08-05-2009, 05:16 PM
Just read this, and I'm not sure it's been posted.

New legislation in NY, and possibly NJ that will have prisoners paying for their stay and their meals. Opinions, anyone?

Should make for an interesting discussion.

coyote_sprit
08-05-2009, 05:19 PM
Most won't be able to pay for it and when they get out they won't be able to get a job because of the debt, great job at fixing government government.

Njon
08-05-2009, 05:24 PM
Paying for their stay? What if they don't pay; do they get kicked out? ;) Sounds like a benefit!

But seriously, this is obviously unjust. If the government is going to incarcerate someone, it has to provide for that incarceration. They can't just lock somebody up and say 'Now do this or you will starve to death.'

Anti Federalist
08-05-2009, 05:26 PM
Just read this, and I'm not sure it's been posted.

New legislation in NY, and possibly NJ that will have prisoners paying for their stay and their meals. Opinions, anyone?

Should make for an interesting discussion.

IIRC there are a number of states that already do this.

Here's a NYT article from 2004 on the subject

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/13/national/13prison.html

That being said, it's obviously an injustice. (Though perhaps not as large an injustice as colonial era "gaol" may have been. In some places, where no building was available, you were given a shovel and pick at sunup and had one daylight to dig as much as you could. At the end of the day, you were put in the hole, bars were placed on top, and there you stayed in all weather. Anything longer than 30 days generally meant a death sentence. Which is why solitary confinement is called "The Hole".)

Just another day in the land of free.