The Treatment-Industrial Complex: Alternative Corrections, Private Prison Companies, and Criminal Justice Debt
The title of this post is the title of this notable new paper authored by Laura Appleman and now available via SSRN. Here is its abstract:
Out of the 6.7 million adults caught up in the criminal legal system, approximately 4.5 million are under correctional control outside of prisons and jails. Within this hidden world of “alternative corrections,” people who are arrested, detained, imprisoned, put on probation or diversion, and even released are forced to pay a growing amount of money to various for-profit “criminal justice” actors. Alternatives to incarceration are conditioned on fines, fees, and other forms of wealth extraction, causing a vicious cycle of poverty and indebtedness that is virtually impossible to escape.