Posted on 10/23/2026 7:27:46 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
Prisons are expensive. States lock up only as many people as it takes to keep voters from getting up in arms about crime, and not one more.
A small used container ship can be bought for $5 million. 40-foot shipping containers cost around $1,250. Fitted with plumbing, wiring, insulation, drywall, ductwork, windows and doors, each container becomes a spartan housing unit for roughly $8,500. Bunks stacked three-high in two rows along each side, one container would sleep about 30 inmates, and still have room for a shower, toilet, and sink.
A small ship holds about 250 such units, enough for roughly 7,500 inmates. The total cost of ship and housing is just over $7 million, or under $1,000 per inmate. Compare that with $160,000 in Alabama or $350,000 at DHS. The money Alabama is spending on 8,000 beds could, in principle, house more than a million inmates afloat.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
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I saw a movie or two about this.
EC
Then sail the loaded ship back and forth through the straits of hormuz. 😈
My earlier idea-make them walk across the country on old railroad tracks. Space the sleeper containers 30 miles apart. The slower the hike the longer the sentence.
O’reilly once suggested the nations’ drug problem could mostly be eliminated with 6 month sentences to users, most of whom are recreational and living normal lives. There would be no recidivism and it would be healthy.
Conditions on prison ships during the Revolutionary and Civil wars were horrific.
“Papillion” opened up with a prison ship going from Marseille to French Guyana. Pretty disgusting. It was cheap because they never returned.
During WW-II we housed hundreds of thousands of POWs in camps, that met all of the Geneva Treaty standards. Housing was austere but humane and could accommodate short term offenders.
LOL. That’s right. Put them all in shipping containers, then sail the ship into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and let the navy use the ship for target practice.
Life preservers and life boats for captain and crew only.
PRICES ON SHIPPING CONTAINERS ARE WAY UP.40 FOOTER CLOSER TO $4500 OR MORE.
20 FOOTER $3500 OR SO.
Most of the expenses are the salaries of the guards.
AND-— JOE HAD CHAIN GANGS.
WHEN PEOPLE ARGUED THAT CHAIN GANGS WERE UNFAIR BECAUSE ONLY THE MEN WERE ON THEM-—JOE PUT WOMEN ON THEM, ALSO.
Buying and renovating a ship into a prison ship may be more cheaper than building a regular prison on land, but I think all the other assorted costs of running and maintaining the place will remain the expensive same. Guards and staff salaries, food for the inmates, maintenance on the ship (which would probably need more of than a regular prison), medical care, recreational activities, etc.
And, special ships would contain nothing but those on death rows from all states.
Oopsie, THAT ship suffered a problem and sank. Thankfully, the crew got off safely.
“Most of the expenses are the salaries of the guards.”
Servicing the ship would be expensive as well...bringing in food stores, pumping out the sewage holding tank. A large desal plant would be necessary for fresh water, water for laundry, unless the laundry was hauled back and forth to shore. Staff would have to be rotated similar to oilrig workers. No doubt Greta Thunberg would stir up the leftists environmentalists. Lots to think about with this idea.
This frustrated writer’s seen the expensive prison system up close enough to come up with this far-fetched idea. What they would do with this many caged-up bad guys would suggest there’s ways to keep them from going crazy-much cheaper ones. Is the prison industrial complex the culprit? Anyone in jail is outta sight and outta mind. It’s a recipe for higher costs.
**All the other assorted costs of running and maintaining the place will remain the expensive same. Guards and staff salaries, food for the inmates, maintenance on the ship (which would probably need more of than a regular prison), medical care, recreational activities, etc.**
Let’s see. A big warehouse next to the dock with a walkway to the ship-recreation. Surround it with a 2 tier fenceline and fill the space in between with junkyard dogs. Mandatory healthy diet and exercise activities to lower health care costs. 2 lite beers for good behavior.
The author is not saying his idea is a solution. He’s just saying give it a try-small scale for starters. Arpaio had the right idea.
>We helped fund the El Salvador prison. Might be the best plan?<
Negative. All those in El Salvador killed somebody or two. All were gang-bangers, meaning the SAME gang. They won’t turn on each other while packed like sardines.
What about hurricanes and other bad weather?
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