Comment by Satisfy4400
5 days ago
Here's one example on prisons from a quick Kagi search:
"Currently, many think that the goals of [American Prison System] APS are to rehabilitate inmates and help them function properly in the real world. However, the APS’s high recidivism rate and methods of revenue creation support the conclusion that increasing the prison population may be the real goal of the APS."
https://news.law.fordham.edu/jcfl/2018/12/09/the-american-pr...
The prison system is not “the justice system.”
Yes, if a prison makes money from incarcerating people, its natural goal will be to incarcerate people.
For-profit prisons also have higher chances of recidivism, which bears this out as well.
https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2023/03/07/courts-profit-and-th...
"Daniel Hatcher used to work as an attorney for Maryland Legal Aid. He says he's seen American courts turn into a system that's more interested in profits than justice.
'California is pursuing billions in fines and fees, and Alabama, multiple prosecutors' offices in Alabama generate 70% of their total funding solely by the pursuit of these court ordered fines and fees against the poor,' Daniel Hatcher says.
Hatcher says that when profit becomes the point, families become targets of the very justice system that is meant to protect."
The suggestion that profit is "the point" of California's criminal fines and fees seems absolutely wild to me.
Ah, the notable figurehead Daniel Hatcher, who used to work as an attorney in Maryland, I suppose.
> I haven’t heard anyone say our justice system is primarily profit-driven, and certainly haven’t heard any notable mainstreamers taking that position.
I suppose you can find someone to say any ol' opinion on the vast Internet. I'll consider clause 1 to be disproven and clause 2 to stand.
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