In the news today

[Carnage]

$142 per day comes out to over $4000 a month. $4000 a month to share a cell and toilet with another inmate, share showers with dozens of others, and a mandated curfew?

And to pay back the state for the inconvenience of your crime?

Edit: Which you shouldn't have committed in the first place?

[Assertn]

And to pay back the state for the inconvenience of your crime?

Edit: Which you shouldn't have committed in the first place?

Paying back whoever you violated is/should be handled in the courts separately from whatever time you're serving. If a guy gets hit with a 10-year sentence for possession of hard drugs or child porn or something, who was inconvenienced that deserves to fine this guy half a million dollars?

[Animeniax]

Paying back whoever you violated is/should be handled in the courts separately from whatever time you're serving. If a guy gets hit with a 10-year sentence for possession of hard drugs or child porn or something, who was inconvenienced that deserves to fine this guy half a million dollars?

Society is inconvenienced when people commit crimes. Is the preservation of our society not worth punishing the criminal for all he's got?

Rough estimate of how much it costs per year to imprison someone (in Texas) is around $40k. So $142/day is fair. If they can't afford that, then put them to work... the dangerous stuff others wouldn't willingly do.

[Archangel]

Society is inconvenienced when people commit crimes. Is the preservation of our society not worth punishing the criminal for all he's got?

Rough estimate of how much it costs per year to imprison someone (in Texas) is around $40k. So $142/day is fair. If they can't afford that, then put them to work... the dangerous stuff others wouldn't willingly do.

I thought Lincoln abolished slavery around your parts.

[Animeniax]

I thought Lincoln abolished slavery around your parts.

It's not slavery if they owe money to the state... it's working off your debt. Not much different from what everyone else does, ie the rat race, the daily grind. Might as well put all of that idle energy to use, and the prison system can be self-sustaining.

[Death BOO Z]

Rough estimate of how much it costs per year to imprison someone (in Texas) is around $40k. So $142/day is fair. If they can't afford that, then put them to work... the dangerous stuff others wouldn't willingly do.

USA Median yearly Income: 43550$ (source). nearly half of the American people (who worked year round, full time jobs) can't afford to pay back the state for staying in prison.

do you really expect a guy in prison to be able to make that kind of money, considering he gets 0.25$ an hour?
which rounds off to 160,000 working hours (number of hours in a year? 8760) even if the 0.25$ is incorrect, unless it's almost 15$, it's not going to happen.

prisons, by definition, can't be self supporting. slave camps, on the other hand, can be.

[Carnage]

Paying back whoever you violated is/should be handled in the courts separately from whatever time you're serving. If a guy gets hit with a 10-year sentence for possession of hard drugs or child porn or something, who was inconvenienced that deserves to fine this guy half a million dollars?

Well,:

a.) I didnt want to get into this part of the argument because I mentioned in my second post, this involves the question as to whether or not the prisoner deserves to be in prison in the first place, which is an issue of legality. My point is that I find it foolish to assume it ridiculous that guilty people should have to pay for their own fare, as well as toward the state. The question of what they are guilty for, or how guilty they are, is another matter entirely. Im really just saying that if a person in a hypothetically just legal system is guilty, then he should have his human rights taken away to the extent of how bad his crime is. Youre question is basically asking if the person in that case is actually guilty, and if he should pay a specific amount of money (half a million) for that supposed crime, which is not what Im attacking.

b.) If we REALLY want to be nitpicky about the specific case in your example, I could say that perpetuating the act of producing child porn (which harms the child) and the possibility of harming others is one reason to punish the defendant. While on hard drugs (I dont really buy this at the moment) the only reason I could assume for it to be considered illegal and harmful is the possibility of harming others while under the influence. Again especailly for the latter case, its a question of whether or not it should really be payable by prison in the first place, or just fine-able in the first place, or not even illegal at all. The assumption for all of these is that there is a good reason for why these things are illegal in the first place.