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A comment on At $75K, housing a prisoner in California now costs more than a year at Harvard. Parent comment

Re:At $75K, housing a prisoner in California now costs more ... by kybernetikos on Friday March 22, 2019 @09:13AM (#19462188)
I do find it interesting that probably many of these people would not commit crime if they were paid $50k per year to not commit crime (which would save money!). Unfortunately you could never do this as an actual policy because of the incentives, it's just interesting that they end up forcing us to spend so much money so unproductively.

I absolutely believe that there is room for something innovative to be done here, but I don't think it has anything to do with incarceration.

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Re:At $75K, housing a prisoner in California now costs more ... by conanbatt on Friday March 22, 2019 @10:01AM (#19462550)
Yes, you cant pre-pay specific people not to commit a crime.

I do think a UBI (basic income) would reduce crime enormously, if it were confiscated when they are in prison. It would be a powerful economic incentive.

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Re:At $75K, housing a prisoner in California now costs more ... by brewdad on Friday March 22, 2019 @10:54AM (#19463083)
I have no doubt it would be used to "pay" for ones incarceration. Thus adding more fuel to the dumpster fire that is the for-profit prison system in the US.

Done properly, it could provide a strong incentive not to commit crimes. I have little faith that it would ever be done properly.

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Re:At $75K, housing a prisoner in California now costs more ... by conanbatt on Friday March 22, 2019 @12:32PM (#19464186)
UBI would not defray the cost of incarceration. But even if I concede negative reactions, the bulk will definitely be positive. (thats my bet anyway).

Remember most petty criminals make less than minimum wage.

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Re:At $75K, housing a prisoner in California now costs more ... by Viliam1234 on Sunday March 24, 2019 @05:07PM (#19478792)
> Remember most petty criminals make less than minimum wage.

Which direction is the causation? Do they steal because they are poor? Are they poor because they have bad behavior, such as stealing? Or is both stealing and low wage caused by a common factor, such as mental illness?

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Re:At $75K, housing a prisoner in California now costs more ... by mch82 on Friday March 22, 2019 @10:10AM (#19462637)
Interesting observation. Can you elaborate on the “could neve do this because of incentives” caveat?
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Re:At $75K, housing a prisoner in California now costs more ... by dalbasal on Friday March 22, 2019 @10:31AM (#19462846)
If a court ordered that a convicted criminal get money for not committing crimes, the OP suggests that this would work better and cheaper than prison. The incentive problem is that people would commit crimes in order to get this deal.
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