I'd like to add that I agree with you that the prison system is a huge success if the intended goal is to disguise slavery as a public service and extort those who do not have the benefit of society looking out for them, since most believe that only criminals (defined as bad people or bad people who do bad things) go to prison, but that's not the case. Many in prison are there because they committed an act not sanctioned by the state, but harmed no one. I'd also like to add that it's not just commissary that is over-priced (if you're talking simply about snacks and hygiene needs), but communication to loved ones in prison is incredibly expensive. I only spent a couple of weeks in a county jail and my family spent (if memory serves) $30 for a 10 minute talk time phone card. That was in 2011, so my recollection may be incorrect, but I do remember the cost was ludicrous.
I'd also like to highlight the inhumane conditions. The food was sub par and the amounts were too small. Most days for lunch we were given a peanut butter sandwich and a single piece of fruit, and the staff, were often openly hostile despite being a "model prisoner". I was there for growing my own cannabis, and it was a particularly bitter pill to swallow, to be governed by guards that were obviously using steroids, and always itching for a reason to become violent. A few stand out as potentially being decent people (aside from working in human trafficking) but most were more deserving of being on the other side of the bars more than many of the inmates.
Thanks for the in depth comment. I agree and you are right the price of phone calls is astronomical!!!
I tried to edit my previous reply but the app kept freezing so I'll add it here. Regarding the other inhumane conditions, our facility was set up with a pod structure, meaning Pod A would have an area that contained approximately 16-20 cells with a 4 person capacity. The cell I was in had no less than 6 inmates at any given time with 2 or more residents sleeping on the concrete floor. I don't know how many pods the facility contained (I wasn't privy to a tour of my new domicile) but I suspect each of them consisted of the same conditions. I have a very clear memory of an inmate being injected into the pod I was in only to be relocated because there were no cells with enough space available for him to throw a mat on the floor to sleep.
And this next violation of human/civil rights struck a chord so deep in me that it still resonates nearly a decade later.
One Sunday, we were locked in our cells while a local minister stood in the dining area and proceded to give an unsolicited sermon. I complained, loudly, that I wasn't interested in being force fed a religious message to which the response was, in summary, "you can sit quietly while I (the minister) preach my message, or you can spend the next hour in isolation". Isolation, mind you, was a holding cell about 7 ft. long, & 4 ft. wide with a concrete slab extending from the wall that ran the length of the cell. As you can imagine it was a cold room and I would not have been allowed to take the mat or pillow I had been issued for my duration in the facility.
Being more rebellious than intelligent, I suffered through the backwoods sermon and immediately began requesting alternative religious literature. The specific book I requested was the Satanic Bible (which as a side note isn't what most people would think it is). My requests were never addressed, thus I never received a copy of my "preferred" religious text.