If you want this story to be discussed on HN, the way to do it is to find the highest-quality article on the topic and submit that. It isn't the convention here to use text posts as advocacy for a political cause, so users tend to flag such submissions.
Truly, and I say that quite seriously, this is one of the great civil rights issues of our time.
Can we do something about it?
Boycott companies (and there are many) that apparently profit from all of this misery and exploitation? In addition to recruiting celebrities to start speaking up about the issue and all that obvious stuff (which sounds superficial, but seems to work in other contexts).
Yes. We are having success with ending cash bail in New York. The Bail Project does good work on this nationally. Outlawing RATs (deeply-flawed algorithmic risk assessment tests used by judges to decide bail and parole terms) is probably the next front. All this happens alongside decriminalisation of recreational drugs and civil offenses overly-eagerly categorised as crimes.
Prison companies are the biggest scammers of all time. I guess in the US after OIL / Banks / Pharma companies Prison industry would be one of the biggest scams. Not only a lot of taxpayers money goes into their pocket. Inmate and their families also pay them regularly.
It includes: 1> Food providers (1st biggest scam)
2> Telephone providers (2nd Biggest of all)
3> Other services healthcare / groceries etc.
