Two Infuriating Things About Youth Prisons | Slog

Two Infuriating Things About Youth Prisons | Slog:

Running prisons for private profit has to be one of the most immoral things our country does in our already wildly immoral justice system. It's sick on it's face, and indefensible.

If you have a little more time for outrage this weekend, check out this week's episode of This American Life, in which Ira Glass reports on the drug court in Glynn County Georgia, a program designed to provide a treatment-based alternative to hard time for drug addicts who commit crimes, but instead is run by Superior Court Judge Amanda Williams in a mind-bogglingly punitive way. The story follows Lindsey Dills, a kid who forges two checks on her parents' checking account at 17, one for $40 and one for $60, and ends up in drug court for five and a half years, including 14 months in prison and some of that time in solitary confinement.

Another girl is sent away for possessing 2 prescription pills, which belonged to her mother. Kafka would be proud.