Didn't you say that we would lose money after filming?

So most of the actors are Hollywood actors.

In recent years, Heye has developed very well overseas and has already established a place in Hollywood, becoming one of the top film and television companies.

Therefore, the company has signed many well-known actors, and the quality of these actors is relatively high.

So just use your own actors.

For the film set, they simply bought an abandoned prison and used it as a film set.

In America, it is completely different from Hanxiake. The prison here is actually a business. Many prisons are private, and prisoners even have to pay to stay in prison.

It doesn't matter if you don't pay, you can just live on the minimum subsidy of the Aramco Federation. How bad is this condition? It can be said that for normal people, it is impossible to survive.

The daily meal cost only one dollar, and the food was made of what could be described as industrial waste.

When it comes to the American Penitentiary, there is actually a lot to say.

The first is the profit model of American's private prisons, which mainly relies on government subsidies and "bed guarantee" clauses.

The main source of income for private prisons is government payments based on the number of prisoners, typically around $2.3 per prisoner per year.

Many contracts contain "bed guarantee" clauses, which require the government to ensure that the prison occupancy rate reaches more than 90%, otherwise it will still have to pay for the vacant beds.

For example, the state of Arizona once paid $97 million in compensation to a private prison for failing to achieve a 300% occupancy rate.

If profits are generated, then this will inevitably lead to the emergence of unfairness. You can also collect extra money from the prisoners and make more money, so that you can live a little better. The capitalists are kind and can take 1/5 of the prisoner subsidies and give them to the prisoners.

Just like the Fanma family beer fairy facing social donations, it can be said that most of the donations will be spent on beer.

And then by the way, forced labor and extremely low wages**.

Prisoners are forced to work for wages as low as 17 cents to $2 per hour, far below Americus' minimum wage of $15 per hour.

For example, during the mask period, prisoners in women's prisons were forced to work 12 hours a day to produce masks, but they themselves were not given protective equipment.

In addition, private prisons also cooperate with companies such as Walmart and Coca-Cola to use prisoners for cheap production, with annual profits reaching billions of dollars.

This is one fish, three ways to eat it.

Then there are the high fees and “prison economy”.

囚犯需支付高昂费用购买生活必需品，如电话费（15分钟18.34美元）、视频通话（1分钟1美元）、香烟（1美元/支）等。

Family members must remit money through the prison's designated electronic account and pay an additional handling fee.

This is the fourth meal.

Selectively detaining low-cost prisoners is also the specialty of American Prison.

Private prisons tend to hold prisoners with low health risks and high labor capacity, and refuse to accept prisoners with serious illnesses or high risks of violence in order to reduce operating costs.

Because of this system, various scandals often occur in prisons, which are an important part of the Afghan judicial system.

For example, in order to increase the prison occupancy rate, local state officials cooperate with private prisons to put disobedient children and children who fail exams in prison on trumped-up charges to make money. This is commonplace and a trivial matter.

This is the famous “kids for dollars” judicial corruption case.

From 2003 to 2008, two Pennsylvania judges accepted $200 million in bribes from private prisons and sentenced more than 4000 teenagers (the youngest being only 8 years old) to private prisons for minor crimes (such as truancy and graffiti) in order to increase occupancy rates.

The other is the mass detention of homeless people, which is used to collect subsidies, and then the homeless people are given the lowest standard of living, which leads to the death of a large number of homeless people.

Hey, is it all over if I die?
not at all.

You can also sell another wave of corpses. Human corpses are very valuable. There is even an urgent shortage of fresh corpses in the market. They will be sent to major laboratories for dissection and other human experiments. At the same time, the medical system and pharmaceutical companies also need a large number of corpses.

So this is also a big and profitable business.

A large portion of the bodies of these homeless people will flow into the market. Except for those that cannot be sold and no one wants, the rest will be used for various industrial purposes.

Anyway, not a single cent is wasted.

This is basic American prison practice.

This is one fish, six meals
Then there is systemic abuse and violence.

Violence is frequent in private prisons due to the reduction of security costs. Data shows that the number of inmate fights in private prisons is 65.8% higher than that in public prisons, and the number of attacks on prison guards is 48.7% higher.

Prison guards condone the gangs' management of prisoners and even participate in sexual assault and abuse of prisoners.

Medical neglect and high mortality.

Prisoners often delay treatment when they fall ill, leading to amputation or even death. The mortality rate in private prisons is twice that of public prisons.

Political lobbying and judicial manipulation.

Private prison giants such as CoreCivic and GEO Group spend millions of dollars each year lobbying politicians to push for tougher sentencing laws to increase incarceration rates, such as by tightening immigration laws to make illegal immigrants the main source of incarceration.

After taking office, President Trump overturned President Lucian's policy of closing private prisons because his campaign funds came from private prison companies.

Racial discrimination and exploitation of immigrants are also a problem.

African Americans make up 12.4% of the American population, but 33% of all prisoners. The racial imbalance is even more serious in private prisons, and youth of color are more likely to be incarcerated.

In 2021, 80% of detained illegal immigrants were held in private detention centers with poor conditions.

Therefore, if we must draw an accurate and precise conclusion, it is nothing more than:

The profit model of private prisons in the United States is based on the exploitation of prisoners, manipulation of the judiciary and political lobbying, which leads to systemic corruption and human rights violations. Although it has been exposed many times, due to its deep ties with political and business interests, reform is difficult, and it has become one of the darkest corners of the American judicial system.

A fish, I wish I could make it into a feast for you, and completely squeeze out the last bit of surplus value from the prisoner.

This is also the reason why "The Shawshank Redemption" can be filmed in America and why there is a market for it!

Because their prison is indeed abstract, and the prisoners are not completely bad people.

Therefore, in this red ocean industry, there are actually a lot of abandoned prisons.

Soon, Xia Yuan targeted several prisons and was planning to take his senior schoolmate to inspect them.

There are three prisons in total, each with its own characteristics.

But for Xia Yuan, he must conduct a detailed investigation to select the blueprint that best fits Shawshank Prison, so as to ensure the best possible filming of the desired story deconstruction.

So Alcatraz Prison is definitely not suitable, which is the prison they bought to film "Cellmates". (End of this chapter)