My observations of Arizona's approach to criminal justice leads me to believe it's mostly a make-work program. Many of my passengers were deteriorated by their time in Arizona's jails and prisons. While there are a few violent people who need to be segregated, most people do not magically get fixed by being locked up. Read somewhere that people begin to develop psychological problems after 7 days of imprisonment. Many of my passengers had cases of PPSD: Post-Prison Stress Disorder.

My one passenger exemplifies the futility of Arizona's system of criminal justice (link in this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34157865 ). He only had the one charge (drug paraphernalia - it was supposedly someone else's pipe) from... 2013 or so. He just can't get off probation because he bails himself out and can't show up for his next court date. I think he's terrified of being killed by the jail. His diabetes is uncontrolled, and the jail implements a starvation diet (which is why I asked /u/ddtaylor if the food was adequate in his AMA: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34158365 ). His blood sugar is dropped by the forced time-release insulin injections, but the jail routine doesn't allow for him to check his blood sugar level or provide adequate amounts of edible food.

Three of my female passengers were definitely harmed by 'justice'. One got sent to prison for 5 years for having shared a single opioid pill with a friend (circa 2009), another had substance abuse problems that she couldn't shake.

This AZCentral article talks about Arizona's minimum-security prison in Perryville. My passenger who got 'moody' at menopause was sent there for her 3rd DUI. She tried to stay sober after being released, but then life happened and she hadn't learned how to cope. She's doing fine now, no thanks to her time getting 'corrected'.

I have all my notes - ought to write a book.

This article says the babies are separated from their mothers after 72 hours, as provided for by Arizona's version of a 'Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act'. But ... 72 hours is not enough to get a child off to a good start in life. Now that we have GPS trackers, there's no reason to not create a more compassionate system of supervision for mothers in the system. If not for them, for their children.

Congressman Thomas Massie (MIT Alumni) said he'd read all the quote-tweets of his query: "If you were in Congress, what would your priorities be for 2023?". I put a little effort into a thread about the predicaments of abundance and how Arizona's biggest job project is its criminal justice system: https://twitter.com/TaxiCabJesus/status/1609412832227110914

(minor edits - punctuation, mostly)