This is one of your best posts ever. Thank you for all the time you put into it. Like you said, if the system was working, it would be shrinking, not growing. We the taxpayers need to see when a system like healthcare or the prison system has a perverse incentive to increase the problem it is paid to stop. We are rewarding the wrong behavior with our tax dollars.
I have come to believe that the so-called 'war on drugs' is nothing more than an economic enrichment scheme. More police. More jails. More prisons. More staff for all of those. I could go on forever.
Great job laying all of this out. Unchecked government spending is a huge problem across the board, but the damages seem more impactful when it happens in the prison system. It clearly fuels recidivism and profiteering, and results in more societal harm to those inside AND outside the system. Keep up the great work covering this!
I have wondered who was involved in the revenue received for prison phone and communication systems. It seems where money can be generated from a (literal) captive audience, there are big contractors with big political connections who will benefit.
Thank you for this well researched and enlightening piece.
This is an incredible, necessary throat-punch of a piece, Bridget. It highlights a massive, exhausting truth: so many of our "systems" in this country are deeply broken, and as ordinary citizens, we are left with absolutely zero control. Whether it’s the prison industry, the black box of the healthcare system, or the rigid bureaucracy of probate courts, these massive institutions aren't built to protect or care for people—they are built to sustain themselves on our money and our unpaid labor. We pay the bills, we carry the emotional wreckage, and yet we are treated like strangers or inconveniences by the very systems we fund. Thank you for pulling back the curtain on this $270 billion machine. Flipping them off from the Capitol steps feels like the only logical response at this point.
When people ask what the point of my Substack is (my “WHY", if you will) I always say it is to flip tables. In this case, it was to flip someone off. We have to keep talking about the brokenness in order to even begin to seek healing. Thank you so much for being part of it.
Someone should send everyone a note with how much their tax dollars funded GEO and CORECIVIC to detain people and also to detain people with no criminal record for ICE's purposes.
I have divested my interests in anything related to Vanguard. After BlackRock, they are the largest investors in prison profit in this country…. Holding major shares of CC and GEO. It's time we start getting serious about it.
Wow, So much research and information here - makes me very angry! This must get into the hands of our legislators Statewide and locally!!! I need to read this a few more times and take notes!
I'm going to join the masses here in terms of this comment thread and thank you for your research, Bridget. Truly, and your passion.
More so, thank you for offering direction I didn't have before. This is what it looks like to do this kind of work: ethos, pathos, logos. It's all here. I'm grateful and I'm printing this.
Wow. Thank you for all of your work, this is so relevant and so important, and so connected to all of the current poison we are being fed. I truly appreciate your voice!
This is a well-done report that you should submit to your local media to see if they'll publish it as an opinions/commentary piece. It's hard to argue with the fact that the prison system truly does operate like an "industry."
The way to reduce crime (by reducing recidivism) is smarter corrections spending. More cages won’t solve anything, and involving the private sector to save money for the taxpayer doesn’t bear out in the long run. The system becomes incentivized to incarcerate more people, not fewer. It is supposed to be a financial burden to the state to incarcerate people. That’s what prevents the state from incarcerating too many people.
This is one of your best posts ever. Thank you for all the time you put into it. Like you said, if the system was working, it would be shrinking, not growing. We the taxpayers need to see when a system like healthcare or the prison system has a perverse incentive to increase the problem it is paid to stop. We are rewarding the wrong behavior with our tax dollars.
You really have no idea how much this comment means to me. Thank you for reading, for continuing to fight with me.
I have come to believe that the so-called 'war on drugs' is nothing more than an economic enrichment scheme. More police. More jails. More prisons. More staff for all of those. I could go on forever.
I'm with you in this. Once you see behind the curtain, Oz just looks silly.
Great job laying all of this out. Unchecked government spending is a huge problem across the board, but the damages seem more impactful when it happens in the prison system. It clearly fuels recidivism and profiteering, and results in more societal harm to those inside AND outside the system. Keep up the great work covering this!
Thank you, friend. 🖤
I have wondered who was involved in the revenue received for prison phone and communication systems. It seems where money can be generated from a (literal) captive audience, there are big contractors with big political connections who will benefit.
Thank you for this well researched and enlightening piece.
Yes, sir. The sharks are always swimming.
This is an incredible, necessary throat-punch of a piece, Bridget. It highlights a massive, exhausting truth: so many of our "systems" in this country are deeply broken, and as ordinary citizens, we are left with absolutely zero control. Whether it’s the prison industry, the black box of the healthcare system, or the rigid bureaucracy of probate courts, these massive institutions aren't built to protect or care for people—they are built to sustain themselves on our money and our unpaid labor. We pay the bills, we carry the emotional wreckage, and yet we are treated like strangers or inconveniences by the very systems we fund. Thank you for pulling back the curtain on this $270 billion machine. Flipping them off from the Capitol steps feels like the only logical response at this point.
When people ask what the point of my Substack is (my “WHY", if you will) I always say it is to flip tables. In this case, it was to flip someone off. We have to keep talking about the brokenness in order to even begin to seek healing. Thank you so much for being part of it.
Someone should send everyone a note with how much their tax dollars funded GEO and CORECIVIC to detain people and also to detain people with no criminal record for ICE's purposes.
I have divested my interests in anything related to Vanguard. After BlackRock, they are the largest investors in prison profit in this country…. Holding major shares of CC and GEO. It's time we start getting serious about it.
Wow, So much research and information here - makes me very angry! This must get into the hands of our legislators Statewide and locally!!! I need to read this a few more times and take notes!
It's really hard to imagine these numbers. 🖤
I'm going to join the masses here in terms of this comment thread and thank you for your research, Bridget. Truly, and your passion.
More so, thank you for offering direction I didn't have before. This is what it looks like to do this kind of work: ethos, pathos, logos. It's all here. I'm grateful and I'm printing this.
I'm so thankful for you!
Likewise! 🙏
This is an excellent article on the biggest capitalistic scam in the US. Thank you for laying out the steps and solutions into action. Appreciate it
Thanks, Molly. It's become my life's work somehow... I'm so thankful that other people care.
I understand your frustration. It’s maddening
Omg. You layer it all out there Damn great job
Thank you, Emmett.
Put*
Wow. Thank you for all of your work, this is so relevant and so important, and so connected to all of the current poison we are being fed. I truly appreciate your voice!
Thank you for being here, for spreading the word. 🖤
This is a well-done report that you should submit to your local media to see if they'll publish it as an opinions/commentary piece. It's hard to argue with the fact that the prison system truly does operate like an "industry."
We've so let them run away with it, and bought into the idea that is doing us good. 💔
The way to reduce crime (by reducing recidivism) is smarter corrections spending. More cages won’t solve anything, and involving the private sector to save money for the taxpayer doesn’t bear out in the long run. The system becomes incentivized to incarcerate more people, not fewer. It is supposed to be a financial burden to the state to incarcerate people. That’s what prevents the state from incarcerating too many people.
Please get out a bullhorn for the people in the back!!!