Would you spend a year in prison for $400,000?

[arcadian]

Tax free. Rikers Island(or female correctional facility hellhole equivalent), but you could be in solitary if you wanted, but for one hour every week you'd have to go out into the yard with general pop.

[Ptah]

1. no

[Ghost in the Machine]

2. pay 50% up front, to take care of my family during my absence...

and the other 50% on the day of my release and we'll be all good...

Oh, and that'll be CASH, please....

[kayakjohnny]

3. The experience and risk probably wouldn't be worth it to me.

If I really wanted or needed that kind of dough, I'd get motivated to create it in another way. Odd though, that you came up with that specific $ amount. Reason for that?

[arcadian]

6. I had it at a quarter million

Then figured that by today's standards that's only a really nice house for some people. Then I thought that half a million would be a point at which a lot of people would probably say yes, so I made it slightly lower than half a million to make people really think about it. I mean it's a lot of money, but is it worth it for what you would have to do? I figured 90% would say yes at $1million.

[pitohui]

24. oh yeah? what other way? you can PM if you don't want to share in public

there aren't too many, in fact there aren't any, legal ways that most of us could ever get $400K for a year of work, sorry johnny, i don't give a fuck how motivated you are

if you know of a legal way to get your hands on that kind of $$$ after taxes, why don't you tell the rest of us, because i for one am FUCKING DAMN motivated

almost no one can "create" $400K that's prosperity religion witchcraft bullshit which creates $$$ for no one except the preacher with the gold-crusted toilets

to pretend this is a sum of money anyone who could get who is motivated is just dishonest, it just ain't gonna happen no matter how hard you work

was there ever even ONE YEAR ever when you earned such a sum? i seriously doubt it...

[Deja Q]

4. So $40,000 in the corporate world, every year, before taxes, is less painful?

:wow:

[pitohui]

well one year in prison is 24/7 so if you work 8 hr days, u need a min. 3 yrs income to break even

i'm now intrigued and trying to run the numbers, let's say you spend 1/3 of your life at work for the $40K so that's a min. of $120K you need to spend 24/7 for a year in prison

we'll say the "tax free" part takes care of the things like weekends and vacations off, not otherwise accounted for

so in theory if you earn $40K a year in the free world, you shouldn't go to prison for less than $120K for the year

also it really does need to be more, even if you are at little risk of violence (you are in a women's prison, or you are in a category that doesn't get involved in gang/prison violence such as middle aged male in federal prison) then the loss of a year's work experience, the loss of reputation for being a convict and so on, also have some impact on your finances

all that has an intangible value that impacts your lifelong ability to earn

$400K prob. isn't far off what you should demand to be paid and i confidently expect that many people would demand more...surprisingly few cases of "ringers" taking a mobster's place in prison, even though the mobster might presumably have many millions to pay to secure their freedom

madof had billions and got no "ringer" to take his place, same for martha stewart

you need to be willing to pay people more than seems logical at first

interesting mental exercise!!!

[XemaSab]

5. I totally would

:shrug:

[Kali]

7. I would think about it.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

8. hell no

[JonLP24]

9. Maybe

But I would have to use some of the money for therapy to get over it when I get out.

[kayakjohnny]

10. Exactly.

Some or even all.

[Forkboy]

28. It ain't that bad.

Free meals and a roof. Who cares if someone calls you "Honey" each night? ;)

[flvegan]

11. Hell no.

[Gormy Cuss]

12. I'd do it if the stay was in a federal pen.

I wouldn't do it if the incarceration was in a NY state max facility. Been there, no thanks.

[Kansas Wyatt]

13. Yes... maybe

Do I get an attractive disease free roommate in this female correctional facility?

[Jamastiene]

46. Maybe we could go in on a buddy system and

spend a year talking about how we'd spend our dough. :P

[hippywife]

14. No way, no how.

There is no amount of money worth the loss of my freedom.

[crim son]

15. Yep.

Knowing I'd committed no crime it would be an experiment in survival.

[smalll]

16. Yes!

$400,000 tax free? I could then easily live at least - at least - 10 years off that money. Take the solitary option, read, maybe write over the year.

[tabasco]

17. Hell yes.

Give me a lot of books.

[Jamastiene]

47. That was the first thing I thought too.

:fistbump:

[Paladin]

18. Yeah, I Think I Would. (n/t)

[Shell Beau]

19. Not just no, but HELL no. No way no how.

Start talking millions of dollars, and maybe I will consider it.

[Orrex]

20. For $400,000? No way.

Maybe for $401,000, though.

[pitohui]

21. yes who's paying this? the mob?

i would need to get the money upfront, i'm afraid...not that i'm not all trusting the kind of criminal who would offer to pay me $400K to take their slot in prison but...i would need to see the money upfront is all i'm saying

but if it's for real, sure

what i could do w. $400k tax fee -- i assume it's taxfree if a criminal is gifting it to me, tee hee!!!

if it's a reality teevee show, then i guess it would be heavily taxed but i would prob. still do it...i'm old and female, nothing is going to happen to me in there, i don't need to be in solitary, a year in solitary is prob. a guaranteed short road to mental illness but i don't think i would end up there

one of my skinny drug addict friends was in prison for a year and nothing happened to her, a bit surprising because she's quite annoying IMHO, if she can do it, i can do it, esp. if there's big money involved!

[arcadian]

41. Let's say it's some new reality show.

And the show producers worked it out with the prison.

[pitohui]

58. well it wouildn't be tax free if it's reality teevee but i would still totally do it

i'm not afraid, bring it on

when are the auditions??? :-)

[GreenPartyVoter]

22. No. I won't miss a whole year of my kids growing up.

[noamnety]

23. I might.

I enlisted for a hell of a lot less money than that.

[liberaltrucker]

25. Hell no!

A week in the county jail many years ago
is quite enough incarceration for me, no
matter the money. In this case, I DON'T
have a price.

:puke:

[S n o w b a l l]

26. Never, no question. nt

[Forkboy]

27. I already did for far less than that.

I was screwn! x(

[wickerwoman]

29. Yes as long as I get to stay in solitary.

That would be three less roommates than I have at the moment... I might actually be able to get something done.

And I doubt much rape/assault happens out in the open in the yard, or if it does it gets broken up pretty quickly. So only 52 hours exposed to the general population and all of it supervised? I could do that standing on my head.

Where do I sign up?

[Iggo]

30. No.

Not for a million.

Prison bad.

[miyazaki]

31. where do i sign up???

[old mark]

32. No. I don't need the money, already put up with too much shit in my life

to want to be locked up with a bunch of moronic evil jerks for a year....too much like my last few jobs.

mark

[ZombieHorde]

33. No, my freedom is worth more money than that. nt

[EFerrari]

34. I've already tried marriage twice and it isn't my gig.

[quakerboy]

35. need more definition

Who is paying this money? What are the terms? This goes to the reliability and likely hood of getting it, as well as the by product consequences.

If you are talking about someone offering you cash to take their deserved punishment, no. The time in would be harsh in many ways, but the consequences of the record would seem more important to me. That would pop up on every job application you had to do, which makes the money not enough to be worth it. Also top on my mind in that scenario would be the question of whether it would actually be paid, or if paid whether it might be forcefully reclaimed at some point.

If you are talking about some sort of TV game show scenario, then it is still somewhat questionable. Do they have that much? Who will hold this money. It sounds like a sketchy show, I would be concerned about it folding before it paid up. Secondarily, what are the conditions? Can I tap out halfway, and walk away with my freedom but no money? If so, then I would not. I do not trust my willingness to be away from my wife that long, and the chance I might give up 6 months for nothing would not be worth it.

IF we are talking some sort of magic situation where you can know that you will be paid, have no record added, and that you will be in jail the year, and you just have to either agree or not, it becomes an interesting question. At that point, since we have invoked magic, i would have to ask if it would be a subjective year or an objective year. As I spend a year in prison, will my wife spend a year with me in prison, or will it just be my experience, outside the normal course of events.

If it was only me, then I think yes. For my future, I think I could stand that. If my wife would also be sharing this experience from the other side of the bars, I would have to ask her and come to a consensus. And I truly do not know what the answer would be. Its enough money to be tempting, but not enough to elicit an immediate affirmation for me.

Edit to add: another factor for me would be stimuli availability. Is there TV in prison? What is the availability of reading material? Could I use this time to earn an additional degree in something interesting? If I am just staring at 4 walls with no stimuli, then my answer would be no. I would not make it through that with what I understand to be sanity. But I have spent months at a time with nothing more than books and a small supply of audio/visual entertainment, with relatively little consequence, and much less motivation.

[Mutley]

36. Give me lots and lots of books

and I could make it in prison for a year for $400k.

[Capn Sunshine]

37. are you offering?

or soliciting?

[Lyric]

38. Yes. So long as Rhythm and LyricKid got the money immediately upon my incarceration.

That way if I end up dead in prison, it won't have been for nothing.

Oh yeah--and I'd need the amount to be $400,000 AFTER taxes.

[Maine-ah]

39. yep. In a heartbeat.

400k goes a long way in my neck of the woods. Hubbie agreed, he would too.

[Jamastiene]

48. $400k would go a long way where I live too.

Houses I would consider mansions around here average only around $100k. I could get a really really nice house for around $75k and use the rest as savings to pay for the taxes on the property and tap when I needed it for emergencies.

[trof]

40. No, not at my age and circumstances.

There was a time in the past that I might have considered it.

[bigwillq]

42. No

but maybe yes if I were in a more dire financial state.

[LostInAnomie]

43. If I get to be in solitary, then without a doubt.

[av8rdave]

44. 750,000

That's my final offer.

[Jamastiene]

45. Yes, and I would choose solitary confinement.

Last I heard, even the worst prisons have to provide reading materials. I'd just read and nap for a year and be totally happy as long as I could be in solitary confinement most of the time.

[pitohui]

50. i'm curious to know why so many choose solitary

that's supposed to be the worst part of prison, the isolation and the thing most likely to cause lasting trauma

there was an article in the new yorker awhile back about the effects of isolation in prison and how stays in isolation over a few days aren't used in other civilized countries because it makes it so difficult for the person to return to normal life/sanity

you really need to get outdoors more than one hour a week!!!

[Jamastiene]

56. "Isolation" was my specialty growing up.

People get on my nerves, quite simply. Solitude is truly priceless. Once you have experienced solitude, you want more of it, not less. I'd take solitary confinement in life, in general, if I could.

[Ptah]

49. Am I missing something?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rikers_Island#Abuses_and_injustices



In an alleged July 2008 rape case reported by the Village Voice on August 5, 2008, the alleged victim claimed
"that someone entered her cell in the 1,000-bed Rose M. Singer Center while she was asleep, sometime before
6 a.m. on July 3. She says the intruder (or intruders) bound and gagged her with bedsheets and then used a
dildo-like object to sexually assault her. Other inmates may have acted as lookouts during the alleged assault.
The woman, who was being held on grand-larceny charges for the past three months, was discovered at about
6 a.m. by a guard and a captain who were touring the building. There's no doubt that she had been trussed up:
The guard saw her lying on her back on the floor of her cell with bedsheets wrapped around her neck, mouth,
and legs. She had also been blindfolded. The incident was reported to central command at 7:30 a.m., and the
woman was transported to the Elmhurst Hospital Center. Because she didn't share a cell with anyone, a major
question is how the alleged assault happened in the first place. Officials won't talk about the investigation,
and there's no word on whether any arrests have been made." <16>

<snip>

On February 3, 2009, the New York Times reported that "the pattern of cases suggests that city correction
officials have been aware of a problem in which Rikers guards have acquiesced or encouraged violence
among inmates." The Times added that "There have been at least seven lawsuits filed in Federal District
Court in Manhattan accusing guards of complicity or acquiescence in inmate violence at Rikers,
a complex of 10 detention facilities which, along with several other jails around the city, hold about
13,000 prisoners, most of whom are pretrial detainees. None of the seven suits have gone to trial.
In the three that were settled, the city admitted no liability or wrongdoing."<17>


----------------------------

For $400,000?

I think many of you are not thinking this through.

[Iggo]

55. Bad things happen in solitary. No witnesses.

In a perfect world, the guards would all be good guys. But in the story above, somebody opened that door.

[pitohui]

60. ptah that's news because it's rare

none of my friends were raped in prison, and as i said above, one of them was extremely seductive/annoying IRL, and she did OK

david duke was not raped in prison, and you don't think there were lots of black guys who cordially hated his plastic surgery'd ass?

the threat of rape in prison is used to keep people in fear and to discourage things like nonviolent protest where the risk of prison is real

has susan sarandon ever been raped in prison? paris hilton? i could go on

one of my relatives was gang-raped in her own home, what do you want me to say

life is risk

if you live alone, and you're female, the chance of rape on the outside is prob. WAY higher than in prison

i can't speak to male prison rape, i think it should not be tolerated, but the male friends i've known personally who were put in prison were all big unattractive guys, the problem didn't arise

i would have to see credible evidence that i was threatened before i would willingly be placed in solitary

[Ptah]

61. From the experiences of a family member I conclude that

the threat of predatory violence is too great to ever risk it.

[pitohui]

70. oh ptah i didn't know that and please let me send out a hug

however since the worst case of rape in my family occurred in her home, i can't "think like that" or i would not be able to sleep in my own house

[asdjrocky]

51. Yes.

It would be the easiest 400k I ever made.

[Ptah]

54. Even knowing the brutality that occurs?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=9145066&mesg_id=9146168

[asdjrocky]

57. Jail is not that bad and not that brutal.

People that have never been to jail are always afraid of jail. Keep your eyes open, your head down and don't talk too much. Most times if there is brutality there is a reason for it.

Seriously, the right jail can be like camp. Some of my best stories come from jail. Don't get me wrong, not a fun place, but not half as bad as you've been made to believe.

[doc03]

64. I'm scared of that Bubba guy I always hear about n/t

[asdjrocky]

65. Guess what?

Everyone is scared, it's not just you. See that's the key, once you know that you really are fine.

If they started paying out 400,000 for a year in prison in my neighborhood guys would line up a mile long. Realize that most guys, or women for that matter, are in prison for nonviolent crimes. Especially in America.

[kedrys]

52. I'd have to think about it

There are times when I'm that desperate for some fargin' peace and quiet. :(

[rebel with a cause]

53. NO!!!!!!!!!!

I have a problem with claustrophobia and agoraphobia! Why do you think I have not taken to a life of crime during my lifetime? Sure I don't believe in hurting others but there are times that my deviant side would like to take a little revenge. :evilgrin:

I also believe that if you cannot do the time you should not do the crime, and I sure cannot do the time. Not even for $400,000. O8)

[Blue_Tires]

59. it would take a little more than that...say 1.5 mil?

AND none of the prisoners could know i'm just waiting out a year for a big paycheck...and i'd do it

[LeftyFingerPop]

62. I have to shake my head at some of the answers here.

Why would you put yourself at risk and give up a year of freedom for money?

Being ANYWHERE and knowing you can't leave does a big number on your head.

Add the risk of being abused or beaten or killed on top of that?

No thanks.

[Ptah]

68. I can't get this thread out of my mind.

Apart from the particulars of the imagined nirvana,
I am struck by the lack of consideration for how life goes on
outside.

No mention of new nephews, nieces, marriages, deaths or other significant
events in ones family.

I sense a real disconnect.

That is all.

[pitohui]

72. ptah if i was rich and could afford it i'd PAY $400K to miss all the fucking baby showers & weddings

i hate all that crap, i do not EVER attend weddings and as far as the rest of the bullshit, if it's a funeral, the person won't know i didn't attend, if it's a baby shower, the baby won't know i didn't attend, and if it's a wedding -- i eloped, i didn't even tell my fucking mom, and everyone who knows me knows that I DON'T DO WEDDINGS!!!!

pick me, pick me!!! if this is really going to be a reality teevee program i'd soooo totally be there

it's the perfect excuse to miss out on family get togethers without having to make the usual excuses

:-)

[Ptah]

74. Well that just goes to show that our experiences are different.

More power to you, pitohui.

[pitohui]

81. that's one of the interesting things abt these threads, the different stories

it really makes you stop and think

[LeftyFingerPop]

76. We are of the same thinking here, Ptah. n/t

[pitohui]

71. i am a woman in louisiana, the risk of being beaten/killed/shot is just part of life

i have been shot at in my own home, i am not living w. the comfortable delusion that if i stay in my comfort zone i can't be hurt

sure, prison is outside my comfort zone, but someone is offering me a $400K a year gig, i'm gonna sit on my narrow ass and be a princess and say "no"?

how is THAT fair to my family? what we could do with $400K!!!

[LeftyFingerPop]

73. The danger aspect aside, have you ever been locked up...jail or otherwise? n/t

[pitohui]

79. otherwise EOM

.

[doc03]

63. I would go to one of those federal country club

prisons where the rich and famous go for even less.

[susanr516]

66. Yes, I think so

If I could take college courses and be in solitary.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

67. Robert Downey Jr. says you'll come out a conservative like him

I can't live with that.

[datasuspect]

69. i've spent enough time in a white man's jail

no thanks.

[Danger Mouse]

75. Not just no, but HELL no.

:shrug: Not even close to being worth it.

[Blue-Jay]

77. Fuck no.

The couple of times I've spent the night in the county hoosegow (a bar fight & an unpaid traffic fine) were bad enough. No thanks.

[kentauros]

78. I'm mostly surprised that only one person has mentioned the consequences:

that this goes on your record. I don't mean your record of traffic tickets either. I mean the one that pops up every time someone does a background check on you, like for getting employed, getting a loan or applying for insurance. They don't care what the reason was, only that you did time in prison.

No amount of money is worth ruining my career, my health and financial outlook.

[pitohui]

80. i've been unemployable for 25 years, since the early 80s

i thought abt mentioning in the post somewhere upthread where i did a cost analysis abut how the amt you should be paid would differ if you had a job/future/career but didn't bother, because it didn't apply to me -- i went for the simplified math

there are a lot of people in our society who have no work other than "hustle" and $400K for a year is a GREAT score

i'm one of them

plus i'm middle aged so you know? at this time of century it isn't like i'm suddenly gonna find some great career only having a year in jail would stop me? it was never gonna happen, i was the wrong gender and class for my particular talents...


i agree if you're 22 and have a wonderful future ahead of you otherwise it would be a silly thing to do but you can cost it out in cold dollars and cents

if you're older, never had anything but a shit job or a self-employment type job anyway...you got nothing to lose but your fears

i was born w. a health problem, my health was ruined just by genetics, so i don't have to worry abt that, i couldn't buy health insurance for 15 yrs anyway

if you got nothing to lose, you got nothing to lose

for many (possibly most?) people, 400K is more than they could save in a lifetime of work, how is losing your whole lifetime in a job better than 1 year in a cage? (admittedly i'm not going for the solitary option, but a regular jail where you can interact w. folks???)

[kentauros]

82. To me, no matter what your personal circumstances,

it's simply not worth the risk. Because once it's on your record, you have no chance of getting a good job because of it. Doesn't matter how skilled you are, what other merits you have to back it up, companies are quite prejudiced against those with criminal backgrounds.

I have merits. I have experience in my field. I am not about to throw that away for enough money to last me "maybe" a decade. Then what? I'd be 58 and unable to become gainfully employed in my field or in the corporate world ever again. Self-employment is no guarantee, either, as background checks are becoming more prevalent even there.

Also, forget about being allowed to vote if you ever find yourself a resident of Florida. Convicts lose their right to vote for life, even if they served their time out of state.