Judge Dredd

Under the judicial system of the Way Back When, crime not only took its toll on the individual Citizen, it also created an enormous financial burden on the community as a whole. Though it is difficult to imagine, it was the Citizen himself, through the payment of taxes, who supported lawbreakers when they were apprehended and sent to prison. Thus, food, housing, health care, and even entertainment were provided by the very people the criminals had victimized.

Under the modern penal system of the Judges, it is the inmates who bear the cost of their incarceration. If a prison is to be constructed, it is built by prison labor. Only the cost of the materials is borne by the Mega-Cities. Much of this cost is recovered through COPP—Confiscation of Prisoners’ Property. When a prisoner is committed, all material goods such as real estate, vehicles, credit accounts, etc., are forfeited and cannot be recovered, even after the prisoner’s sentence has been served.

Further costs of incarceration are borne by the prisoner during his sentence. Prison industries manufacture goods which are sold at a profit on open market. All food consumed in prison is grown by the inmates themselves. Clothing is manufactured within the system. Power and sanitation services are purchased from prison industry profits. A small percentage of those profits is allocated to prison “entertainment,” which is restricted to health-related activities such as rigorous exercise that would aid the inmate in maintaining the proper conditioning for performing his duties.

Prisoners do not receive wages for their work, as they did in the distant past. Upon release, each man is given the equivalent of one month’s income based on current minimum wage standards. A man who has served six months, or thirty years, receives the same amount upon his release. He is expected to use these funds wisely and sparingly, to rehabilitate himself at once, and obtain gainful employment.

It is unfortunate that approximately seventy-eight percent of prisoners released eventually commit the same crimes they committed before, and find themselves sentenced once again. However, it should be noted that this figure does not accurately represent those lawbreakers reincarcerated. Under the Judges, sixty-three percent of prisoners convicted receive sentences calling for execution arrest—either for the severity of the crime, or under the “Second Offense” rule. This relatively low rate of imprisonment results in a penal population that remains at a controllable level.

—History of the Mega-Cities

James Olmeyer, III

Chapter XXII: “The Modern Penal System”

2191