Mary Gay Scanlon: “Thank you, Chair Lofgren, for calling this really important hearing.”

It’s inhumane. It’s traumatizing, and it’s particularly grotesque because this is then being done so private prison companies can make more profit.

We all enjoy the extra hour or so of sunlight in the summer, but when people are considering this, they need to consider the extra hours of darkness in the winter.

So we have the situation where people are being jailed and then forced to work essentially for free to maintain basic sanitation, food, etc.

Why are we jailing, essentially, people who are not a danger to our communities, who are in many cases contributing members to our economy and our communities, folks who are employed and are paying taxes? Why are these folks being put in a…