Prisons are costly. We have to pay for their medical expenses and their food. We have to pay the salaries of the people who guard them. Well, when someone is released from the penitentiary system, shouldn't we garnishe their wages, following their release, until they have paid off what it cost us to keep them locked-up? I can see how this could cut costs.
This would be rather uneven and unfair, because rich and middle class people could pay for it, but poor couldn't thus you are targeting only those who "can afford" prison. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Also if you want a poor ex-prisoner to pay for this, chances are he is going to commit crime even more. "Your honour, I was behind my prison payment."
sounds fair, but won´t work. if people are released from prison, they eventually will change their life. starting their new life with debts will reduce this chance dramatically, especially if you consider, what one year prison costs. edit: well, after reading syzygys´ comment, it doesn´t even sound fair anymore Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Well, how about a middle-ground, where we applied a steep progressive curve, based on their income? Therefore, a former in-mate who could not find work after being imprisoned would pay nothing at all; one who worked only at "burger-flipping" jobs would pay a very small percent of their salaries; and those who went on to earn six-figure salaries, such as white-collar crooks, would pay the majority? Because the system of using financial penalties to discourage recidivism only seems to make sense if we are dealing with a rational, educated person whose behavior is obviously influenced by financial gain or loss.
The counter argument would be, since they are not there voluntarily, why should they have to pay for it. Kind of similar when in old times soldiers in obligatory military service had to buy their own uniform, because the state was poor. The middle road would be trying to find work for them while in jail and subtracting the cost from it. The problem is that it is a huge workforce and it is hard to find meaningful and well paying job for them...
Their labor can be the contribution to their own expense. I have no problem with them digging ditches or clearing brush, anything to get them outdoors with sharp implements in rural locations.
Prison costs are particularly high because of the inefficient system and because of the way our justice system operates. First of all, there are many, many, many people in prisons that probably shouldn't be in there: victimless crimes and substance use criminals. And others, too. These could just be released and that'd be much less crowded prisons. Then, with the more hardcore prisoners, the murderers and rapists and gang members, we could simply execute them; this would purge another good chunk of the prison population. This means more money for prisons to spend on criminals that actually do want to make amends and be rehabilitated.
def. no. A person who is released from prison can either go back the wrong way he came in...the way of crime and thus he will have to pay the dues by going into crime again. A person released will not have many if at all any people supporting/helping him in addition to being unable to locate a job. So this idea is absurd at least. Give people another chance, do not put weight on them to put them into more misery and into cycle of crime.
I'd say that they should be able to do something while there in order to pass the time. As an example making sheets would be a job easy to learn, all you need to do is sew, or other similar type job. That way the prisoners could reduce the taxes paid to keep them there without worrying allot about them interfering with regular commerce jobs.
I like that idea. We should pay them for doing work while they're inside, and then charge them all the money they make for expenses. That would be rad. In practice, it would be identical to what happens already. (We just don't pay them in the first place.) but if we did pay them and then charge them for basic necessities, they might learn better how to survive on the outside. Like, if the cafeteria charged for buying different kinds of food, an inmate might spend all their money, and then have to "go without supper" until his/her next paycheck. (Probably best to pay them every 2-3 days, to make sure nobody actually starves.)
