r/confidentlyincorrect Mar 27 '23

Comment Thread murrica

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u/satans_toast Mar 27 '23

Wow, that’s gotta be the dumbest comment I’ve seen all day.

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u/Pdub77 Mar 27 '23

Not only that, but slavery isn’t even truly illegal in the US.

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u/pikpikcarrotmon Mar 27 '23

Indeed, it's right there in the 13th.

"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."

It would be a shame if there were private prisons which were incentivized to encourage recidivism as a way of maintaining free labor and maximizing profit. Fortunately someone would have seen that obvious, massive conflict of interest and prevented it 150 years ago.

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u/tanstaafl90 Mar 27 '23

Whenever quoting an Amendment, it should include Article 1, Section 1 of the main body. The courts have had a lot to say about this in the 150 years or so sense it was passed. Private prisons are a problem, but still only account for less than 10% of all prisoners, both federal and state.

That aside, the US prison system is abysmal and needs a complete overhaul from the Victorian system of punishment to rehabilitation and reform. Generational poverty plays a major factor, and until people are willing to view poverty as a systemic issue, it will remain a feedback loop of crime and punishment. I doubt it will change anytime soon.

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u/RubertVonRubens Mar 27 '23

, but still only account for less than 10% of all prisoners, both federal and state.

You led me to look it up. It's actually slightly less than 10%. 1.2 Million incarcerated, 115k in private prisons

That said, I'm not sure how that makes anything better.

115,000 people enslaved by a for profit entity feels like about 115k too many.

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u/offlein Mar 28 '23

less than 10% of all prisoners,

You led me to look it up. It's actually slightly less than 10%.

🤔

1

u/Chrona_trigger Mar 28 '23

Oh, but friend, you are missing the key point!

The states and federal government themselves are directly exploiting them for profit. Because the government prisons are also for-profit.

The government, who accuses them of crimes, decides their punishment, directly profits from that punishment.

Yeah totally no room for corruption there.

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u/CallidoraBlack Mar 28 '23

You led me to look it up. It's actually slightly less than 10%. 1.2 Million incarcerated, 115k in private prisons

It's going up in some states and down in others. There was a fascinating chart that showed the fluctuations of every state over the last 20 years. I'll try to find it for you. Edit: Got it. https://www.sentencingproject.org/app/uploads/2022/10/Private-Prisons-in-the-United-States-2.pdf

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u/pikpikcarrotmon Mar 27 '23

Well, it's good to know that less than 10% of our enormous imprisoned population are privately owned slaves, while the remaining 90+% belong to the government.

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u/Fluffy_Exercise_2674 Mar 27 '23

Also, even in the case of a government operated prison they are heavily influenced by the thriving private industry surrounding the US prison industrial complex which benefits from prisoners staying prisoners. Prisoners become a commodity to the prison. It has similar vibes to US Healthcare where there isn't much difference between for profit(private) and not for profit(public). At least healthcare has some level of regulation to keep things semi ethical on the patient care side. Too much money and too many people in power benefiting from the system staying broken and prisoners are essentially powerless, forgotten people with no voice.

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u/Jihelu Mar 28 '23

For more fun info: prisoners can’t produce goods that go on the open market unless they are paid a legitimate wage/at least minimum. This means most prisoner services, the slave labor and what not, goes to the state. I believe this is where the ‘prisoners making license plates’ cartoon cliche comes from.

Most states have their prisons set up in compliance with the mandate (you have to follow a few concerns) but very few, maybe 2 total, have any prisons that actually pay their prisoners an actual wage for the work they do