If they can't verify your identity while you are in prison, then what are you even doing there?
All they did before I left prison was try to sign me up for Medicaid (I'm not elligible because I'm an illegal immigrant).
They did kindly let me keep my prison ID when I left which has my photo on it and says IN CUSTODY in giant letters. (they used to say INMATE but that word has gone out of fashion and they couldn't think of another word to use on the badges)
Is this due to some kind of “political correctness” thing coming from well meaning people outside the system that the system is pleased to accommodate for easy brownie points, or are there distinct-enough tiers of people inside the system that “inmate” isn’t useful?
I was mostly locked up in pre-trial detention and "inmate" has a serious connotation of conviction behind it, so it was considered especially ugly and demeaning there, where the acceptable term is "detainee."
Here are some quick reads on the issue:
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2021/04/12/i-am-not-your-...
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2021/04/12/what-words-we-...
The biggest issue is that 95% of them will be returned within a few months. Drugs is the main cause. You get out, you have no ID, no job, no family, no friends. You're stuck in a halfway house that is just like being in prison (lots of rules, line up for meal service etc). All the other guys there have a ton of drugs and you swear you won't touch them, but then you do because you're bored and sad. And then you're addicted again. And now you need money to buy more drugs. So you go do something goofy to get money and you get caught and locked up for another 10 piece. Or your parole officer drug tests you and violates your parole and you go do another 3 piece. Or the halfway house owner gets sick of you coming in after 7pm smelling of alcohol so he calls your parole officer and you go do another 3 piece.
Cycle repeats until you die in prison.