[yeeyeeyee]

>Supporters say the collections are a legitimate way for states to recoup millions of taxpayer dollars spent on prisons and jails.

Wait there are supporters of this? You're telling me if I asked 100 people on the street, there'd be someone that said "oh yeah this is a pretty fair and reasonable law to charge the inmates 5-star hotel prices"??

[MichaelCollins]

> You're telling me if I asked 100 people on the street,

Confronting people on the street with questions like this won't give you a representative sample of what people really think. The sort of people who support the system to maintain their class/lifestyle are likely to ignore your question or to perceive your activist intent and lie to you to avoid getting sucker punched by the 'crazy person on the street.'

[voisin]

I think the poster was making the point of doing a survey. Perhaps not set on the actual method of that survey.

[shakezula]

This is a problem of Stated preference vs. Revealed preference. You ask them what they think and they'd tell you "that's awful, I can't believe that, that's so unfair" but you put them up on the ballot at the midterms and get them to repeal it and all of a sudden it's about being "tough on crime" and "keeping our streets clean".

[bobthepanda]

Also, prisons are often located in depressed small town as a stable source of government jobs. Those people don’t want to go back to being in a depressed economy.

The most extreme example of this is that the site of the 1970 Lake Placid Winter Olympics was designed to be used post games as a prison, which it is today.

[candiodari]

Not really, you are assuming the people vote on a lot of decisions, which is not true. This is a problem related to permanence of executive power. The "cardinal Richelieu" problem (You know that while the government changes, he is above the government and stays. Most of the executive does not change at all when power changes hands at the legislative level).

Ever notice that executive power is the same everywhere? They think the laws are unfair to them, because they have to implement totally unrealistic laws, and get blamed harshly for "small" problems (you know, "harshly" except it doesn't carry any consequences for them, except, at best loss of face).

They respond by not following laws, refusing even to implement judicial directives and the like. Their own (sometimes personal) interest, for them, trumps laws and the directives of judges. They have largely made sure their names are never revealed to the people they serve, as they no longer have the support of the people, and they feel they cannot be replaced.

[DisjointedHunt]

It’s insane.

Prison conditions in the US are infamous for the degrading of the human experience to a point of no return.

Open rape culture, radicalization, utterly despicable behavior that even barbarians would shiver at openly covered in popular culture as fact.

As someone who grew up outside the US, it is truly astonishing how fucked up the system is.

[selectodude]

That’s pretty normal for prison culture worldwide. US prisons are far less inhumane than, say, France.

[Jcowell]

In America ? Yes. I’m willing to bet a good part of the reason why our prisons they way they are is because many see it as a means of revenge and not rehabilitation. No one cares if a rapist or pedo is saddled with debt , much less of they leave out of there alive.

[throwaway0a5e]

Based on the comments in the "NYC is owed a bajillion dollars in parking tickets" thread from a couple days ago I bet you could get an easy dozen if you just dropped the phrase "five star hotel prices". People are strongly in favor of harsh punishments for the type of crimes they don't ever see themselves committing, like not paying a ticket apparently.

[bobthepanda]

The NYC parking tickets thing has a few other dimensions, like the fact that the worst scofflaws are actually the diplomatic corps of other countries (there for the UN) that claim immunity to avoid having to pay the tickets. So not only do you get to bash elites, they’re other country’s elites and not countries that the US has warm relations with.

There was actually a sigh of relief in many circles when New York lost the 2012 Olympics bid, because many people did not see the benefit of holding the games being worth the massive headaches of infrastructure overload.

[superchroma]

Yes. Americans are often selfish, savage and cruel. Not all of them, but enough.

[yeeyeeyee]

>Americans are often selfish, savage and cruel.

Sorry but wtf?! Read Manufacturing Consent. Don't demonize us. We're not down with this shit.

[rzazueta]

Depends on how you ask the question.

"Is it fair to incarcerate individuals for their preference of intoxicant in a free and liberal democracy?"

"Should drug users and other junkies be taken off the streets to keep them safe for the rest of us?"

[yeeyeeyee]

That's not my question. There's exactly one way to ask my question.

"Do you think prisoners should be charged $250/night for their incarceration?"

[smabie]

What 5-star hotel costs $250/day? I want to go there

[impossiblefork]

There's a bunch in the Canary Islands, with prices like that or below. Even one on Fuertaventura for 200 USD per night.

I haven't been to them, so I can't say whether they're up to the level one would expect, but they're listed as five star hotels.

[dotancohen]

Is that not implicit in democracy? Things are the way they are, because the People willed it as such?

The actual mechanism probably has many more links including the voting of politicians who share the People's values, who then pass laws in the People's interest. But the underlying axiom of democracy is rule of the People, indirect as the American implementation is, is it not?