Minutes Before Six
Over the past three or four decades, jail has developed into big business. Where once a state would construct one or two massive facilities (partially with prisoner labor) to accommodate their most dangerous thieves, now most state governments come with an ever-increasing assortment of pre-fab prisons which have almost completely changed these original buildings. This process has seen an infrequent open public works project evolve into an enormous pork-barrel handout, diverting staggering levels of tax dollars to private companies, to companies from other areas often.
Most of the older prisons were towering concrete and metal structures made to last hundreds of years. The living models were only concrete rooms prearranged next to one another, stretching up to a quarter mile long sometimes. These “tiers” were then stacked on top of each other up to five stories high. These were finished off by sealing leading with heavy metal bars.
A typical cellblock could keep several hundred prisoners. These cellblocks are the epitome of the “no frills” jail any savvy politician will begin to tout the merits of when asked about his “tough on crime” stance. Why is it then, these same politicians are continuously voting invest in the demolition of the superstructures and replace them with modern human being warehouses at costs achieving several hundred million dollars each?
Why, for example, would these career “advocates of the folks” squander significant servings of their police budget to construct a kinder, gentler jail where prisoners have relatively tranquil two-man rooms with secrets with …
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