Get Out Of Jail, Inc.
For-profit companies pitch “alternatives to incarceration” services, like probation programs, halfway houses, and work-release oversight, as humane options for governments looking to cut down on the social and economic costs of incarceration. In this moving and damning exposé, Sarah Stillman paints a different picture: sexual coercion, predatory debt, and rampant conflicts of interest. “All services are provided at no charge to the courts that we serve,” one company advertises. “All programs are offender funded.” That comes with a catch, she writes in the New Yorker: “In a wide-range of cases, offender-funded justice may not result in justice at all.” Her story is a masterfully reported and written look at the downsides of entrusting the private sector to deliver rehabilitation on the cheap. - Josh Eidelson
