• Tedesche@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Read the article. They’re paying for bottled water. They have access to regular tap water, but some people are saying the tap water in these very old prisons isn’t fit for drinking.

      • Tedesche@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I don’t think the article specifically says, but most prisons in the U.S. are privately owned. I can only imagine that’s more the case in Texas than it is the nation as a whole.

        • mrspaz@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          According to this, Texas has ~7% of their prison population in private facilities. The national rate is ~8%.

        • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.uk
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          1 year ago

          There’s an excessive perception that the US prison system is privately run. As terrible as the concept is, it is not as widespread as people think… however the US prison population is gigantic, so it still isn’t very small.

          “While the United States represents about 4.2 percent of the world’s population, it houses around 20 percent of the world’s prisoners.”

        • Stovetop@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Not only are most US prisons not private, but I think the article was pretty clear that this was the result of decisions ultimately made by the state.

          State prisons are still shitholes, though.

    • egeres@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s insane, fucking water tap water should be free and drinkable everywhere 🤦🏻‍♂️