In order to have a gym membership, I have to pay for it
In order to have an attorney, I have to pay for it
In order to have a magazine subscription, I have to pay for it
In order to have cable television, I have to pay for it
In order to have a roof over my head, I have to pay for it
In order to have a electricity, heat, water air conditioning, I have to pay for it
In order to have clean clothes, I have to pay for it
In order to have food on the table, I have to pay for it
I pay for it by working and living within a tight budget, like nearly all Americans.
Not so for those in prison.
The standards should be the same for convicts.
They may be confined, but they should be required to work to pay for they own costs.
I should not have to pay for three hots, a cot, cable TV, gym membership ad nauseum.
/rant
You’re absolutely right. Prison should be so hard that you’d never want to go back to it. Because they aren’t, the recidivism rate is very high. It was 50% when I took the job back in 1980. I can’t imagine what it is now, but at least then they were locking people up. They aren’t doing that anymore. They’re simply ignoring crimes, reducing the level of the charge, making plea deals, releasing violent offenders without bail, closing prisons and pushing inmates back on the street so they don’t have to complete their court-ordered sentence, etc. This is all so they can say that crime is down, when it really isn’t. It’s all smoke and mirrors.