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$11 toothpaste: Immigrants pay big for basics at private ICE lock-ups

TU Curmudgeon

B.A. (Sarc), LLb. (Lex Sarcasus), PhD (Sarc.)
DP Veteran
Joined
Mar 7, 2018
Messages
61,937
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Location
Lower Mainland of BC
Gender
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Political Leaning
Centrist
From Reuters

$11 toothpaste: Immigrants pay big for basics at private ICE lock-ups

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Detained in a California lockup with hundreds of other immigrants seeking asylum, Duglas Cruz faced a choice.

He could content himself with a jailhouse diet that he said left him perpetually hungry. Or he could labor in the prison’s kitchen to earn money to buy extra food at the commissary.

Cruz went to work. But his $1-a-day salary at the privately run Adelanto Detention Facility did not stretch far.

A can of commissary tuna sold for $3.25. That is more than four times the price at a Target store near the small desert town of Adelanto, about two hours northeast of Los Angeles. Cruz stuck with ramen noodles at 58 cents a package, double the Target price. A miniature deodorant stick, at $3.35 and more than three days’ wages, was an impossible luxury, he said.

COMMENT:-

Well, who didn't expect that people who run prisons for profit would do whatever is necessary to make as big a profit as possible?

Besides, it was his own choice to take the job at the wages offered - he didn't have to - so he really can't complain.

Right?
 
From Reuters

$11 toothpaste: Immigrants pay big for basics at private ICE lock-ups

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Detained in a California lockup with hundreds of other immigrants seeking asylum, Duglas Cruz faced a choice.

He could content himself with a jailhouse diet that he said left him perpetually hungry. Or he could labor in the prison’s kitchen to earn money to buy extra food at the commissary.

Cruz went to work. But his $1-a-day salary at the privately run Adelanto Detention Facility did not stretch far.

A can of commissary tuna sold for $3.25. That is more than four times the price at a Target store near the small desert town of Adelanto, about two hours northeast of Los Angeles. Cruz stuck with ramen noodles at 58 cents a package, double the Target price. A miniature deodorant stick, at $3.35 and more than three days’ wages, was an impossible luxury, he said.

COMMENT:-

Well, who didn't expect that people who run prisons for profit would do whatever is necessary to make as big a profit as possible?

Besides, it was his own choice to take the job at the wages offered - he didn't have to - so he really can't complain.

Right?

He was given a free meal and clothes and everything else.
if he doesn't like it then he shouldn't have tried to come over here illegally.

breaking the law has consequences.
 
Absolute decadence compared to prison life in Honduras where everything is commissary. You can pay 150 USD for a bedframe or sleep in the dirt. There’s no running water and if you want food then better catch and cook the rats.
 
He was given a free meal and clothes and everything else.
if he doesn't like it then he shouldn't have tried to come over here illegally.

breaking the law has consequences.

Man, that phrase is just a one-size-fit's-all justification. Covers everything from expensive toothpaste to kids dying.
 
Man, that phrase is just a one-size-fit's-all justification. Covers everything from expensive toothpaste to kids dying.

Kids weren't dying if they would have stayed home. They died because they were taken through inhospitable terrain in unsanitary conditions for miles and miles.
they picked up who knows what along the way. that would be on the parents or adults that were there. so now that your appeal to emotion is taken care of.

like everything else there are added costs in those supplies. they can't just be brought in. all supplies brought in have to be inspected and approved before distribution.
this inspection etc costs additional money.

again he is already provided 3 meals a day along with everything else for free.
no one says that he has to work and buy these expensive items. those are fully up to him.
 
From Reuters

$11 toothpaste: Immigrants pay big for basics at private ICE lock-ups

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Detained in a California lockup with hundreds of other immigrants seeking asylum, Duglas Cruz faced a choice.

He could content himself with a jailhouse diet that he said left him perpetually hungry. Or he could labor in the prison’s kitchen to earn money to buy extra food at the commissary.

Cruz went to work. But his $1-a-day salary at the privately run Adelanto Detention Facility did not stretch far.

A can of commissary tuna sold for $3.25. That is more than four times the price at a Target store near the small desert town of Adelanto, about two hours northeast of Los Angeles. Cruz stuck with ramen noodles at 58 cents a package, double the Target price. A miniature deodorant stick, at $3.35 and more than three days’ wages, was an impossible luxury, he said.

COMMENT:-

Well, who didn't expect that people who run prisons for profit would do whatever is necessary to make as big a profit as possible?

Besides, it was his own choice to take the job at the wages offered - he didn't have to - so he really can't complain.

Right?

shrug...

Life sucks and then you die.

It's all about choices.
 
shrug...

Life sucks and then you die.

It's all about choices.

Your philosophy is inspiring. Clearly you are a good person. A real humanitarian. You're an example to us all...….
 
US citizens who are in jail awaiting trial face the same kind of price gouging so its no specific to illegal aliens.

Best way to avoid having to pay the 10x markup would be obey the laws and stay out of jail
 
Absolute decadence compared to prison life in Honduras where everything is commissary. You can pay 150 USD for a bedframe or sleep in the dirt. There’s no running water and if you want food then better catch and cook the rats.

Sorry but I don't think I am willing to justify dropping the bar to normalize eleven dollar toothpaste because a corrupt backwater banana republic does even worse. Private prisons are what LEADS to this country turning INTO Honduras.

Corrections should never be privatized, for any reason...not even for illegals. Not because it is "immoral" but because the entire concept of private corrections is dangerous for both democracy itself and safety and security, what we're supposed to think of as "law and order".
Private sector profit motives destroy the "order" part and instead make law out of chaos.
 
US citizens who are in jail awaiting trial face the same kind of price gouging so its no specific to illegal aliens.

Best way to avoid having to pay the 10x markup would be obey the laws and stay out of jail

You spelled "eliminate private correctional facilities" wrong.

I'm not pimping for luxuries for prison inmates but simple basics like soap, water, toothpaste are not only health essentials, but they form the basic tools of something known as rehabilitation and if you want less criminals and don't want to have to build more prisons, you will want inmates to rehabilitate themselves.

And putting profit into the system eliminates that because private sector corrections seek out more and more criminals, not less.
 
US citizens who are in jail awaiting trial face the same kind of price gouging so its no specific to illegal aliens.

Best way to avoid having to pay the 10x markup would be obey the laws and stay out of jail

Oh yeah, I almost missed the first part where you had already declared persons awaiting trial as guilty, by simple virtue of them being charged with a crime and unable to make bail.

Nice!
 
Oh yeah, I almost missed the first part where you had already declared persons awaiting trial as guilty, by simple virtue of them being charged with a crime and unable to make bail.

Nice!
What the **** are you talking about. I said no such thing.
 
What the **** are you talking about. I said no such thing.

This is YOUR QUOTE:

US citizens who are in jail awaiting trial face the same kind of price gouging so its no specific to illegal aliens.

Best way to avoid having to pay the 10x markup would be obey the laws and stay out of jail

Is it or isn't it?

Assuming DP isn't modifying your quote robotically, you're saying that "the best way to avoid being gouged" is to not be charged with a crime. Innocent people get charged with crimes every day. A native born United States Marine was held for three days because ICE believed he was an illegal alien.

According to your logic, contained IN YOUR QUOTE, best way for that Marine to avoid having to pay eleven bucks for toothpaste is to....WHAT exactly? Did he disobey any laws? Nope, but he wound up in custody, didn't he?

And if he was cooling his patriotic heels in one of those privately owned lockups, chances are he paid $11 for toothpaste, because as far as the private prison owners are concerned, he's just a cash cow.

That's my point. Your point relies on flawed logic unless you just don't give a **** about people who get locked up in the first place, which of course you're entitled to believe if you want, but I suspect your tune would change if you found yourself in that Marine's shoes.

Oh...he wasn't "awaiting trial"...he was "awaiting deportation" but essentially, it's the same process, he was charged with a crime and was "awaiting" and paying through the nose.

My point is, what private prisons are doing is also a crime.
 
I agree 100% private prisons are a disgrace to pur justice system and should be done away with. However, the fact is they are part of our current system.

What do you see as the best way to avoid being gouged given the realities of our current system?
 
I agree 100% private prisons are a disgrace to pur justice system and should be done away with. However, the fact is they are part of our current system.

It is time to make them NOT part of the system, because there is no way they can continue without distorting the purpose of law enforcement and the very fabric of justice itself. We should have learned this lesson and cut off all contracts with all private correctional facilities way back when the "Kids for Cash" scandal broke. That is the only path that privatized corrections is inexorably headed to no matter what.
There is no realistic way to modify and mold private corrections into an industry that works for the good of law abiding people.
Growing safer societies and keeping crime down are both at total cross purposes of any corrections system designed for profit.

What do you see as the best way to avoid being gouged given the realities of our current system?

Changing the reality, the entire reality. Corrections should focus on rehabilitating non-violent criminals first, violent criminals to the best extent possible, which of course means that some if not many might still remain incarcerated no matter how rehabilitated they become.

And whether people like it or not, corrections is a state run system and must remain so.
Justice is not supposed to turn a profit for shareholders, it's supposed to uphold the law.
It cannot do that if profit is the motive.

So, I guess I cannot answer your question if it is limited to "given the realities of our current system".
Our current system will not allow for any remedy.
 
Kids weren't dying if they would have stayed home. They died because they were taken through inhospitable terrain in unsanitary conditions for miles and miles.
they picked up who knows what along the way. that would be on the parents or adults that were there. so now that your appeal to emotion is taken care of.

like everything else there are added costs in those supplies. they can't just be brought in. all supplies brought in have to be inspected and approved before distribution.
this inspection etc costs additional money.

again he is already provided 3 meals a day along with everything else for free.
no one says that he has to work and buy these expensive items. those are fully up to him.
I'm pretty sure the prison isn't buying from their supplier at Target prices either..
 
From Reuters

$11 toothpaste: Immigrants pay big for basics at private ICE lock-ups

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Detained in a California lockup with hundreds of other immigrants seeking asylum, Duglas Cruz faced a choice.

He could content himself with a jailhouse diet that he said left him perpetually hungry. Or he could labor in the prison’s kitchen to earn money to buy extra food at the commissary.

Cruz went to work. But his $1-a-day salary at the privately run Adelanto Detention Facility did not stretch far.

A can of commissary tuna sold for $3.25. That is more than four times the price at a Target store near the small desert town of Adelanto, about two hours northeast of Los Angeles. Cruz stuck with ramen noodles at 58 cents a package, double the Target price. A miniature deodorant stick, at $3.35 and more than three days’ wages, was an impossible luxury, he said.

COMMENT:-

Well, who didn't expect that people who run prisons for profit would do whatever is necessary to make as big a profit as possible?

Besides, it was his own choice to take the job at the wages offered - he didn't have to - so he really can't complain.

Right?

They're getting the best healthcare in the world, for free.
 
He was given a free meal and clothes and everything else.
if he doesn't like it then he shouldn't have tried to come over here illegally.

breaking the law has consequences.

Did you know that it is NOT illegal to seek asylum in the United States of America?

At least, not yet.
 
Absolute decadence compared to prison life in Honduras where everything is commissary. You can pay 150 USD for a bedframe or sleep in the dirt. There’s no running water and if you want food then better catch and cook the rats.

A fine example of the "So what, everyone else is worser." position.
 
Sorry but I don't think I am willing to justify dropping the bar to normalize eleven dollar toothpaste because a corrupt backwater banana republic does even worse. Private prisons are what LEADS to this country turning INTO Honduras.

Corrections should never be privatized, for any reason...not even for illegals. Not because it is "immoral" but because the entire concept of private corrections is dangerous for both democracy itself and safety and security, what we're supposed to think of as "law and order".
Private sector profit motives destroy the "order" part and instead make law out of chaos.

Private, for profit, jails have a vested interest in creating "repeat customers" - don't they?

If one of the goals of the correctional system is "reformation/rehabilitation" how likely is it that an organization that makes its money out of KEEPING people in the jail system is going to be to spend any money to get people out of that system?
 
Sorry but I don't think I am willing to justify dropping the bar to normalize eleven dollar toothpaste because a corrupt backwater banana republic does even worse. Private prisons are what LEADS to this country turning INTO Honduras.

Corrections should never be privatized, for any reason...not even for illegals. Not because it is "immoral" but because the entire concept of private corrections is dangerous for both democracy itself and safety and security, what we're supposed to think of as "law and order".
Private sector profit motives destroy the "order" part and instead make law out of chaos.

Wherever there is a profit motive for whatever cause, you should expect to see more of it... and private prisons make more money when there are more in prison.
 
They're getting the best healthcare in the world, for free.

Really?

Would you like to prove that? Please note, the word "best" and the word "American" do NOT have identical meanings.
 
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