Iām heavily involved in the self-hosting community and I already run a bunch of services at home but I was wondering if anyone has experience with self-hosting jail?
Apologies for the wall of text incoming but thereās a lot to consider!
Pros:
- Itās a lot of fun to self-host and you learn a lot
- I see an opportunity here because thereās always crime happening which means business generates itself.
- I could probably run some targeted ads on social media platforms to promote crime and attract more potential customers
- The customers can beĀ incentivizedĀ to work which is rewarding for them since they can give back to the community.
- They could produce merch helping me cover the cost of self-hosting, win-win!
- I looked into the economics and actually they donāt really ask for money, they are very generous and just want to give back!
There are also someĀ consĀ though:
- The starting costs are pretty high, I would have to expand my house significantly
- NIMBYs, I can imagine they would cause trouble if they learn that I self-host a jail even though itās a lot of fun and potentially generates jobs for the community. There can be many sticklers in the better neighborhoods.
- Death penalty. Some states have it and I find it very inefficient to kill your clients. They could do work instead.
- I would have to be careful to avoid such places
- DEI. I looked into the system and itās not very diverse. We would have to educate the recruiters from law enforcement to do better.
- They seem very biased in their sourcing process. I would like this to be a place for everyone and I donāt think they are sensitive at all regrading this topic.
- Plus they seem to be randomly shooting potential clients which is super unprofessional and inefficient?!
- Vibes. I watched some movies and thereās a lot of issues with jail culture. I would have to invest a lot into educating the clients to battle e.g. homophobia which seems common or also fascism.
- Apparently thereās some labor union called āAryan Brotherhoodā? And labor unions are mostly separated by race? This is obviously not okay.
- Maybe itās not good to allow unions in the first place as they struggle to foster an inclusive environment and there seems to be a lot of in-fighting
Any ideas? Anyone done this before? As a European Iām still new to the US system but was fascinated that itās possible to run private jails, itās much more inclusive than the socialist place where Iām from. There, the government has a monopoly on incarcerating people, totally disregarding the fact that itās a lot of fun to self-host andĀ incentivizeĀ them to work at almost no cost! Itās hard to try out new stuff in a place without freedom :(
Well some practical notes, there are at least two states that completely ban private prisons, (New York, Illinois), and many other states restricting them. Also if you want American Federal contracts, you can only house immigrant detainees going forward (thanks to Biden). While not the EU anymore there are also private prisons in the UK if you would like to start closer to home. And also there are public/private partnerships available such as in Alabama where you can work as Sheriff and get to run the jail as seen fit and pocket the difference in reimbursements.
Regulation surely is on the rise! Thanks a lot for the heads up, I escaped state mandated healthy insurance and unemployed benefits because Iāve been looking for freedom, but whereās that freedom when I want to self-host jail? They say that if you can make it in New York you can make it anywhere but apparently you canāt even make a living there pursuing your passion.
I will look into UK or Alabama, what I like about both is that they seem very family oriented! Of course thereās cultural differences with the UK royals loving family a lot whereas in Alabama it seems like a grassroots movement, but I believe both could be very valuable in supporting the jail community