Detained for Debt

From the Marshall Project, “ Imagine being sentenced to a dollar amount, not a period of time, and working off your debt at a crummy job paying less than the federal minimum wage. Welcome to Mississippi’s “restitution centers,” where people spend their days shuttling between prison and their jobs at fast-food joints and chicken processing factories. Room and board, behind barbed wire, is deducted from their meager salaries. The people in these debtors’ prisons say the worst thing is not knowing exactly how long they must labor before being set free. Our investigation was co-published with Mississippi Today, USA Today, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger and the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, along with several other local newspapers around the state.”

 

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