West Virginia prison system seeks to profit from inmates desire to read books.

It doesn’t seem like editorializing is all that necessary around this cruel and dystopic idea—for-profit prison systems now seem as American as for-profit health care, for-profit education, and, uh, apple pie.

But yes, West Virginia inmates will be getting free tablets to communicate with family and read books, but will be charged for both: to read, say, Albert Woodfox’s Solitary, they’ll have to pay $.03 a minute (wages in West Virginia prisons average between $0.04 and $0.58 an hour).

It’s never been about rehabilitation, and it’s even less about that now.

(VIA The Root.)