Marshalsea de nos jours

Debtor’s prisons are supposed to be illegal in the United States but today poor people who fail to pay even small criminal justice fees are routinely being imprisoned. The problem has gotten worse recently because strapped states have dramatically increased the number of criminal justice fees. In Pennsylvania, for example, the criminal court charges for police transport, sheriff costs, state court costs, postage, and “judgment.” Many of these charges are not for any direct costs imposed by the criminal but have been added as revenue enhancers.

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Most outrageously, in some states public defender, pre-trial jail and other court fees can be assessed on individuals even when they are not convicted of any crime. 

Alex Tabarrok on MR

a simple businessman

Just before he is released on June 23rd, if all goes to plan, Mr Amaya will graduate from the Prison Entrepreneurship Programme (PEP), a remarkable effort to prepare some of Texas's harder cases for their transition back to freedom. The programme was founded in 2004 by Catherine Rohr, a venture capitalist who changed careers after visiting several Texas prisons.

Her premise is that many criminals are intelligent people with good heads for business and healthy appetites for risk, and that these traits can be put to productive use. She is particularly interested in people who have already demonstrated these skills—for example by running a successful drug business or achieving a high rank in a gang.

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Participants say that PEP provides male role models, and helps them have hope for the future. Ms Rohr considers it her job to build character. “They're not in here because they were bad businessmen,” she says. “They're in here because they were lacking moral values in their lives.”

(in this week's Economist, which also has a special feature on the Wall Street crisis, which would appear to have been precipitated by intelligent people with good heads for business and unhealthy appetites for risk)

Rule, Pythonia

Eric Allison writes in Monday's Guardian

A prisoner released early from jail with no money was handed an IOU for £140 but no information about where it could be redeemed, it was claimed today.

A crisis in the prison service was blamed for the situation, which has seen hundreds of people freed from prison with little or no money and no accommodation.

Released prisoners are often dependent on state benefits but applications usually take a month to process. Those freed early cannot put in a claim until their sentence officially ends.

The reason there is a push to release prisoners early is that Britain's prisons suffer from overcrowding.

The National Association of Probation Officers (Napo) has said many prisoners are released with no money at all; and for those who receive the £45 grant it can amount to as little as £1.50 a day on which to survive until state benefits begin.

Yup. Someone in the Ministry of Silly Walks had a Cunning Plan. 'Let's let lots and lots and lots of prisoners out early! And find out if the educational opportunities offered by our prison service are actually working! If all goes according to plan, they'll have picked up plenty of tips from the old lags -- they'll have contacts on the outside, they'll know how to steal and deal drugs without getting caught!!!! If we gave them something to live on when they walked out, they might not turn to crime -- and we'd never know if they'd learnt their lesson.'

Not to be too much the tired cynic, this is an unorthodox approach to reducing the prison population.