Did you know the US Department of Agriculture contributes to modern mass incarceration?

The question in the title of this post (which I would have answered know) was prompted by this interesting new Hill commentary authored by David Safavian and Bernard Kerik. The piece is headlined “Why is the USDA subsidizing jails at the expense of rural health care?” and here are excerpts:

Every year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides funding for rural infrastructure through the Community Facilities Direct Loan and Grant Program. According to the USDA, the program was designed to subsidize public health infrastructure such as mental health clinics and hospitals in rural areas. In 1996, however, the USDA added detention centers, resulting in more than $360 million of agriculture funds being used for rural jail construction. The USDA’s funding for jails has increased by 200 percent over the past decade while rural infrastructure spending has been cut by one-third. As a result, health care funding has suffered.

What’s worse is that many new jails are unnecessary given low crime rates. The facilities are larger, on average, than those they replace, creating excess capacity. Some local officials see extra jail cells as revenue opportunities, because federal and state agencies pay per diems to house their detainees….

[S]ubsidizing extra jail capacity creates unintended consequences that are tragically coming into focus as we struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic. As more USDA funds for rural infrastructure have been consumed by jail construction, health care infrastructure has been allowed to wither. There are too few hospital beds, shortages of protective equipment, and medical staff pushed to the brink.

Compounding the problem is that the size of new rural jails increases the likelihood for viral outbreaks. Given the close proximity of detainees, large jails are ideal places for COVID-19 to go unabated. But it’s not just the offenders who become potential victims of the virus. Correctional officers are at risk, as are their families and communities when they leave the jails at the end of their shifts…. With the COVID-19 outbreak, the [USDA] must prioritize rural health infrastructure rather than subsidize oversized and unnecessary jails. If they won’t, Congress and the White House should step in and do it for them.