“Seven facts about mass incarceration that sound like April Fools’ Day hoaxes, but aren’t”

I tend not to be a big fan of celebrations of April Fools’ Day (I often get to feel plenty foolish all year long), but the fokls at the Prison Policy Initiative have a holiday-themed entry that seemed worthy of flagging here.  The title of this post is the title of this new PPI post which merits a full read.  And here are just a few of the notable facts highlighted by the posting:

One-third of state and federal prisons sit within three miles of federal Superfund sites.

Research warns against living, working, or going to school near Superfund sites — the most toxic places in the country — as this proximity is linked to lower life expectancy and a litany of terrible illnesses.  But many incarcerated people have no choice.  With many prisons located near toxic wastelands, people in prison all too often develop health problems…

The average yearly income of someone in jail pretrial is less than $20,000.

Nearly half a million people are sitting in a local jail awaiting trial. Their average yearly income hovers just under $20,000, meaning that it’s easy to keep them locked up by imposing cash bail (the median bail amount for people detained on bail who are accused of felonies is $25,000)….

Many of the 2.9 million people on probation have to take regular drug tests — which they often must pay for — even those whose convictions have nothing to do with drugs.

In our report One Size Fits None, we combed through probation rules in 76 jurisdictions and found that 62% of those places require all people on probation to submit to regular drug tests.  Not only is drug testing dubiously effective in advancing any public safety goals; the rules mean that even if someone’s conviction had nothing to do with drugs, they have to get tested anyway.  Worse, many of these jurisdictions make people on probation pay for their own tests, at a cost of between $15 and $20 per test (often multiple times a week).