Note for readers: Each of the incarcerated men quoted in this piece is using a pseudonym to protect against retaliation from prison officials.
The outside world may be in the grips of inflation and financial instability, but inside a Burgin, Kentucky, prison, the financial woes more closely resemble the Great Depression.
For many incarcerated inside the Northpoint Training Center, the primary concern isn’t how they will pay for gas, insurance, or even rent upon release from prison. The uncertainty they feel is far more urgent. Each day is spent worrying about how they will cover the tremendous cost of their own incarceration.
Steve works as a landscaper at the Northpoint Training Center, where he says he does his best to try to make the prison “look good.” Rain or shine, Monday through Friday, Steve spends eight hours a day mowing, hauling gravel, groundskeeping, painting, maintaining the field, laying concrete, and performing other backbreaking manual labor. For this work, he receives $1.76 a day—and there is no chance of a raise. These already meager funds rapidly dwindle once he purchases basic necessities from the prison.
“I’m scared to death about my financial future outside the fence because I can barely afford to live behind the fence,” Steve told Prism. “I don’t have anyone to take me in or help me out or anything once I’m free.”
If Steve saves every penny he earns for the next 10 months, he’ll have $350.
“That wouldn’t even pay a month’s rent at a motel when I...
A purported image showing the design of the new identity cards, featuring the Malaysian coat of arms, flag and a digital thumbprint, was shared on Facebook on April 14, 2026. "Said to be the new m...