It’s Tough To Make Money If You’re In Jail: Staying Out of Trouble as a Financial Decision

There are lots of different ways to make money. But one way to ensure that you don’t add any income to your value is by getting in trouble and ending up in jail. Jail time typically means losing your job. Jail time means it can be challenging to get a new job because of your record. And jail time means that there are all of those lost hours of productivity while you’re waiting to get out.

So before you end up doing something that gets you thrown in a cell, be sure to understand the way criminal courts work, how drug offenses are being handled these days, why jails and prisons can offer cheap labor, and what happens to you when you get out. You’ll notice that every one of those topics directly has to deal with you making money.

The Way Criminal Courts Work 

If you get in trouble for a misdemeanor or felony crime, you may end up in criminal court. For the first thing, going through the court process can be expensive because of the attorneys that you have to pay. For another thing, if you end up being guilty of a crime, you may have to pay restitution or other fees to the court, the lawyers or other businesses or individuals involved.

Drug Offenses 

The difference between state and federal laws regarding drugs right now is an issue that needs to be resolved eventually. But, if you end up on the wrong side of a drug offense, especially for marijuana, you may be out a lot of money quickly. There are the standard attorney fees, but then if you get convicted, you can end up in federal prison, or if you end up with a felony count of drug possession, and that can prevent you from getting all sorts of jobs or opportunities later in life.

The Cheap Labor Phenomenon 

There are some cases where people in jail or prison work, and sometimes they don’t get paid, and other times they do get paid for it. But this amount is so amazingly little that it barely registers. There is the standard visual of inmates making license plates for example. Prisons can do this, and sometimes they give the people the money they’ve earned eventually, but other times it’s not so clear-cut. Thinking about all of that wasted productive time should make you want to steer clear of any actions that could put you in that situation.

What Happens When You Get Out 

And regarding finances, what happens when you get out of jail? You think you immediately go into a high-paying job and start collecting the paycheck again? No. You have to figure out how to re-introduce yourself into society to get paid, and are going to have that black mark on your record suggesting the potential employers that you are not the most trustworthy employee.