Fun fact: the US prison population has increased EXPONENTIALLY since the 1980s and the quality of life in prisons has decreased significantly. People who have not been found guilty and are awaiting trial (can take multiple years for a trail to happen) are imprisoned if they cannot afford bail. In many cases, inmates have been fed things labeled not for human consumption. We now have things like mandatory minimum sentences where the judge can’t use their discretion in whether or not to jail someone.

Why do this, you ask? That’s simple, free or very low cost labor! Prisoners are paid pennies on the dollar to do various jobs so that corporations can maximize profits. They have to work these jobs in order to afford basic nececities like toothpaste, and some prisons even charge you to stay in them.

The US has the biggest imprisoned population in the world by a very long shot despite only being 7% of the world population.