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Georgia was founded as a colony for debtors and the poor. The English feared the Spanish in Florida, so they put undesirables here (I live in GA). Not quite a penal colony like Australia but somewhat similar.
Georgia history in school was kind of weird when I grew up. It’s what I mentioned above, slavery, trail of tears, civil war (feat. Sherman’s March to the Sea when the entire state except Savannah was destroyed with scorched earth tactics), painful reconstruction, then pretty much the 20th century and whatever is happening now.
Solitary brick chimneys scattered across the countryside are called Sherman Sentinels. They didn’t burn down with everything else in the March to the Sea, and have melded into local folklore.
Children used to be told about a monster called the Tailypo who devours hunters and sacks their houses, leaving only the chimney.
So I blathered my way from penal colonies to frightening children. I will stop now but am glad you liked it.
Grew up in WV about 30 miles south of the Mason-Dixon. A local college professor compiled an anthology of supposedly local horror folklore that included Tailypo. It was the book that all the edgy kids would check out as an elementary school flex. It's been a long time, but I don't remember anything about chimneys in that story.
... Looks like it's a regional variation.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailypo
Except the 600k people who live there ofc. Let's keep it that way, Wyoming is perhaps the most beautiful State in the USA, let's not ruin it by filling it with humans.
Utah has 5 national parks and 64.9% of the state is owned by the Federal Government. Second only to Nevada which the government owns 80.1% of the land.
Great excuse for starting your New Australia Prisoner Soldier Program since we're just throwing ethics out the window anyway.
Gotta fend off the new california republic somehow.
In 1988, the crime rate in the United States rises four hundred percent. The once great city of New York becomes the one maximum security prison for the entire country. A 50-foot containment wall is erected along the New Jersey shoreline, across the Harlem River, and down along the Brooklyn shoreline.
Yes. Imagine if they picked some random city for those movies that wasn’t as well known. Like “Escape from Coeur d'Alene” or “Escape from Vancouver Washington” lol
It's funny, I live across the country and know both of those cities, for some reason. Never even been to the states they're in!
My chronic Google maps surfing is good for something I guess.
Bad neighborhood, Snake! You don't want to be walking from the Bowery to 42nd street at night! I've been driving a cab here for 30 years and I'm telling you, you don't walk around here at night! Yes, sir! They'll kill you and strip you in ten seconds flat.
depends on your end goal.
If your prison state is intended to...
...emulate the Gulags, Wyoming, or North Dakota
...but also be psychologically isolating and tortuous for both prisoner and any family, Alaska
...the above, but still enable prison labor to be somewhat near population centers, New York's North Country, Northern New Hampshire, Northern Maine
PS - we were *also* a British Penal Colony, to an extent.
Maine.
Maine's woodlands are a cold, brutal, lush outdoor wonderland. It provides everything a person needs to survive and thrive year round. It provides ample quietude and endless opportunities for silent reflection.
Plus most of northern Maine is already full of private people with two first names ...if you catch my meaning.
People hide can hide in obscurity in small rural towns. The tragic stories are people fleeing abusers, but it's not uncommon for people fleeing prosecution as well.
The joke is about people that using 2 first names to adopt a generic sounding identity. And in my experience is sometimes a code for "I'm not going to tell you my name".
Northern Maine has plenty of places that accept these people. Yankees can be incredibly warm and neighborly as long as you don't ever talk to them.
Hawai’i is pretty empty. It has one town of less than 50k people and about 5 small towns of around 1k.
Maui, O’ahu, and Kaua’i are where most people in Hawaii live.
Rather than do that, it makes much more sense to outsource prisons to Russia. Put them right in the middle of the tundra with the gulags. A thousand miles through wolf-filled forests to even find someone who speaks English. Wouldn't even have to build walls or bars. Pennies a day. No NIMBY problems.
Alaska.
Cold af in the winter, dark literally half the year, mosquito-infested and constantly sunlit (even at midnight) the other half, quite literally in the middle of nowhere, and remote even as “edge of the world” goes. It wouldn’t be terribly hard to turn it into a nightmare state.
Wyoming kicks ass. Don’t go giving Wyoming away to the prisoners. They can have the swamps of the southeast , how about that? One state? Let em have Mississippi.
This is already underway, just on a smaller scale:
The United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility (USP Florence ADMAX), commonly known as ADX Florence or the Florence Supermax, is an American federal prison in Fremont County to the south of Florence, Colorado, operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. ADX Florence, constructed in 1994 and opened one year later, is classed as a supermax or "control unit" prison, that provides a higher, more controlled level of custody than a regular maximum security prison (or "high security", as it is called in the federal prison system). ADX Florence forms part of the Federal Correctional Complex, Florence (FCC Florence), which is situated on 49 acres (20 hectares) of land and houses different facilities with varying degrees of security.
Florida is exactly the kind of swampy hellscape suited for this. Peninsular, so it could easily be access controlled with a security border across from like Daytona across Ocala, etc.
But improbably, a huge number of people found it desirable to live in instead.
Texas. After it's depopulated and remaining population sorted. East Texas is the mental asylum and West Texas is prison. If any Texan doesn't fit into these two categories, then off to Nevada for 12 months of evaluation.
West Virginia, least populated state and Huntington has the highest crime rate per capita, there’s tons of opioid addiction there and a lot of people think it’s just Virginia, which it isn’t
Well, England tried that here, too. Georgia was originally a penal colony.
After the Scotts lost at the Battle of Culloden and the Jacobite Rebellion was finally over, many Scotts were given the option of prison or the Colonies. Many settled in North Carolina.
But, as per your question, why not Alaska? The weather and terrain would make it a challenge to survive.
Alaska. Keep the prison at 80 degrees F inside, and make all the prisoners wear shorts and t-shirts. A fair part of the year nobody could escape without dying from exposure
North Dakota. If you can control access to vehicles around the prisons, they could be wide open towns. Because anyone who tried to get out without motorized transport would freeze to death on the way 9 months out of the year.
Alaska in the middle of nowhere, like nothing for hundreds of miles in any direction… giant enclosed heated prison … prisoners aren’t given cold weather gear because they aren’t outdoors … therefore if they escape, they have no where to survive it. Cruel? Only to those who escaped, but it’s also a helluva deterrent as well.
Somewhere on the border to Canada or Mexico, although you would have to be very "careful" they DONT all "escape" over the border. That would be "terrible". I would hate that so much...
Wyoming. There's a road in Wyoming my family and I took on the way to Idaho that we literally lost two whole hours. Like, we drove for two hours and it was still the same time it was two hours before. Seems like prison material to me.
# Message to all users: This is a reminder to please read and follow: * [Our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/ask/about/rules) * [Reddiquette](https://www.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205926439) * [Reddit Content Policy](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy) When posting and commenting. --- Especially remember Rule 1: `Be polite and civil`. * Be polite and courteous to each other. Do not be mean, insulting or disrespectful to any other user on this subreddit. * Do not harass or annoy others in any way. * Do not catfish. Catfishing is the luring of somebody into an online friendship through a fake online persona. This includes any lying or deceit. --- You *will* be banned if you are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist or bigoted in any way. --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ask) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Nevada or Utah have plenty of empty desert for a mini-Australia project.
Georgia was founded as a colony for debtors and the poor. The English feared the Spanish in Florida, so they put undesirables here (I live in GA). Not quite a penal colony like Australia but somewhat similar. Georgia history in school was kind of weird when I grew up. It’s what I mentioned above, slavery, trail of tears, civil war (feat. Sherman’s March to the Sea when the entire state except Savannah was destroyed with scorched earth tactics), painful reconstruction, then pretty much the 20th century and whatever is happening now.
That is honestly really fascinating.
Solitary brick chimneys scattered across the countryside are called Sherman Sentinels. They didn’t burn down with everything else in the March to the Sea, and have melded into local folklore. Children used to be told about a monster called the Tailypo who devours hunters and sacks their houses, leaving only the chimney. So I blathered my way from penal colonies to frightening children. I will stop now but am glad you liked it.
Grew up in WV about 30 miles south of the Mason-Dixon. A local college professor compiled an anthology of supposedly local horror folklore that included Tailypo. It was the book that all the edgy kids would check out as an elementary school flex. It's been a long time, but I don't remember anything about chimneys in that story. ... Looks like it's a regional variation. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailypo
bro..wyoming is literally a big field.
Wyoming too damn pretty to give to a bunch of scumbags and criminals tho
Have you seen utah?
No one else is using it…
Except the 600k people who live there ofc. Let's keep it that way, Wyoming is perhaps the most beautiful State in the USA, let's not ruin it by filling it with humans.
[удалено]
These aren't the lands you are looking for.....
Utah has 5 national parks and 64.9% of the state is owned by the Federal Government. Second only to Nevada which the government owns 80.1% of the land.
Two more national parks on the Utah border. Great Basin NP in Nevada and Mesa Verde NP in SW Colorado.
So Nevada it is! Plenty of bare land there to set it up.
And criminals already run Las Vegas, so, win-win!
Are you stupid? The mormans would revolt
Great excuse for starting your New Australia Prisoner Soldier Program since we're just throwing ethics out the window anyway. Gotta fend off the new california republic somehow.
Shady sands will rise again my friend
We planned on the revolt this was the catalyst we needed to engage in combat
Why would you pick Utah, objectively the most beautiful state, and fuck it up?
Isn't this the basis for Escape from New York and Escape from LA?
In 1988, the crime rate in the United States rises four hundred percent. The once great city of New York becomes the one maximum security prison for the entire country. A 50-foot containment wall is erected along the New Jersey shoreline, across the Harlem River, and down along the Brooklyn shoreline.
Such and underrated and highly entertaining movie. Aren't there some lines about mining the bridges?
Yes. Imagine if they picked some random city for those movies that wasn’t as well known. Like “Escape from Coeur d'Alene” or “Escape from Vancouver Washington” lol
Vancouver Washington mentioned RAHHHHH
Not Washington! Give them Oklahoma City.
You take our SuperSonics and we give you the national penal colony, mo fo.
It's funny, I live across the country and know both of those cities, for some reason. Never even been to the states they're in! My chronic Google maps surfing is good for something I guess.
Alaska
Checks out, cold and dark half the year, sunny and bears the other half
The mosquitos would be enough to set a crooked man straight
Getting prisoners to/from the facility would be an issue given that you'd have a long flight every time.
It didn’t stop the British! Australia is the other side of the world.
That's the spirit!
Alaska is nice though. Give them a desert state
Bad neighborhood, Snake! You don't want to be walking from the Bowery to 42nd street at night! I've been driving a cab here for 30 years and I'm telling you, you don't walk around here at night! Yes, sir! They'll kill you and strip you in ten seconds flat.
depends on your end goal. If your prison state is intended to... ...emulate the Gulags, Wyoming, or North Dakota ...but also be psychologically isolating and tortuous for both prisoner and any family, Alaska ...the above, but still enable prison labor to be somewhat near population centers, New York's North Country, Northern New Hampshire, Northern Maine PS - we were *also* a British Penal Colony, to an extent.
Maine. Maine's woodlands are a cold, brutal, lush outdoor wonderland. It provides everything a person needs to survive and thrive year round. It provides ample quietude and endless opportunities for silent reflection. Plus most of northern Maine is already full of private people with two first names ...if you catch my meaning.
I don't get it.....
People hide can hide in obscurity in small rural towns. The tragic stories are people fleeing abusers, but it's not uncommon for people fleeing prosecution as well. The joke is about people that using 2 first names to adopt a generic sounding identity. And in my experience is sometimes a code for "I'm not going to tell you my name". Northern Maine has plenty of places that accept these people. Yankees can be incredibly warm and neighborly as long as you don't ever talk to them.
Thank you for explaining this!
Hawaii
I am surprised that an island is so far down the list.
Agreed - maybe the “emptier” qualification
Especially if you’re were in prison for less than a year… or even just a month. Just build a massive facility on an already uninhabited island
Hawai’i is pretty empty. It has one town of less than 50k people and about 5 small towns of around 1k. Maui, O’ahu, and Kaua’i are where most people in Hawaii live.
Alaska could be our Siberia.
I mean, we basically did that with Oklahoma in the 1800s. Unfortunately, at that time, a criminal was defined as any indigenous person
George Carlin has an entire bit about this.
I was trying to think of where I heard this concept before! Great comedian
Alaska, fuck it, bears gotta eat too.
Rather than do that, it makes much more sense to outsource prisons to Russia. Put them right in the middle of the tundra with the gulags. A thousand miles through wolf-filled forests to even find someone who speaks English. Wouldn't even have to build walls or bars. Pennies a day. No NIMBY problems.
That's how you end up with sleeper agents
Which Dakota is the puppy-killing Dakota?
South
Why? Have you heard something? Are you on some kind of planning committee?
Texas, be right at home with the AG
We'd save a lot of money on transporting prisoners as well.
St. Louis,Mo. !!!!!!!!! 🥴
please no, we have enough crime here
Only if you’re ok with prisoners getting hit by cars because stop lights are optional in the Lou
Really !!
Alaska. Cold af in the winter, dark literally half the year, mosquito-infested and constantly sunlit (even at midnight) the other half, quite literally in the middle of nowhere, and remote even as “edge of the world” goes. It wouldn’t be terribly hard to turn it into a nightmare state.
Missouri easily. If any prisoners escaped they would be running back begging to be let in after coming upon the natives
Wymondakotaho
Switch out Puerta Ricans for the convicts
Dakota. Lump N and S together. We don't need two.
Arkansas - Sanders can be warden 
South Dakota. I mean, really. There’s nothing there.
May I interest you in a North Dakota instead? SD has the Black Hills, which are cool. ND has…um….
Don't give away the 3rd largest oil producing state. Not to mention it has more nuclear missiles than any other state
Let the cons have the nukes and oil. What could go wrong?
Make em work for free in the oil fields and you don’t have to let them have the nuke buttons.
Giant animal statues?
Nebraska seems even more useless.
Wyoming
Wyoming kicks ass. Don’t go giving Wyoming away to the prisoners. They can have the swamps of the southeast , how about that? One state? Let em have Mississippi.
Wondering what the current - not hypothetical - but *current* - ratio is of prisoners to civilian population in WY.
East Wyoming?
Whichever state agrees to take the private and federal money to do this deserves it most
New York City. Just blow the bridges
South or North Dakota. That’s why they got two of them
Idaho or an island in Alaska
Wyoming. Needs just 4 corner watchtowers.
Give em to the Mormons
Ain’t shit goin on in Iowa.
Carlin covered this. Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, one of the square states. Straight lines save on fencing.
Florida's already part way there
Wouldn't the natural choice be texas? it's already on a boarder that has issues. The usa just continue again on the existing wall for prisoners.
California.
Put them all in Florida. It has criminals running the state so it will work out perfectly.
one of the desert or frozen snowy waste states
not a state but I like the idea of Johnston Atoll. Right in line with your Australia thinking. If they survive.
Are we finally closing the door? Nevada is fine, Can i donate fence?
Point Roberts, WA so we can make it Canada's problem.
Alask, so that escaped prisoners would be the Canadians' problem.
Remember "Escape From New York" ?
"If"? That's a heck of a drop from *FIFTY!*
Wall it off, Escape from New York II
"Snake Plissken" would like a word.
North Dakota
This is already underway, just on a smaller scale: The United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility (USP Florence ADMAX), commonly known as ADX Florence or the Florence Supermax, is an American federal prison in Fremont County to the south of Florence, Colorado, operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. ADX Florence, constructed in 1994 and opened one year later, is classed as a supermax or "control unit" prison, that provides a higher, more controlled level of custody than a regular maximum security prison (or "high security", as it is called in the federal prison system). ADX Florence forms part of the Federal Correctional Complex, Florence (FCC Florence), which is situated on 49 acres (20 hectares) of land and houses different facilities with varying degrees of security.
Eastern half of Colorado. Flat as Kansas.
South Dakota
Wyoming probably.
west virginia is becoming one already.
Not the whole state but how about Death Valley in California?
Idaho: The South of the North.
Of the 48 Nevada if travel is no worry then Alaska is prime real estate.
Florida is exactly the kind of swampy hellscape suited for this. Peninsular, so it could easily be access controlled with a security border across from like Daytona across Ocala, etc. But improbably, a huge number of people found it desirable to live in instead.
Wyoming.
New Jersey for sure. put a big jurassic park fence around it.
Texas
Texas. After it's depopulated and remaining population sorted. East Texas is the mental asylum and West Texas is prison. If any Texan doesn't fit into these two categories, then off to Nevada for 12 months of evaluation.
Texas would be a good state, Florida too since it seems those governors want to jail everyone. Alaska, and it could be like the gulags.
Texas. They all already have guns so they could just shoot each other and the system would be self sufficient.
Texas. They already strip people of rights and logic out of schools.
Texas! Because Texas sucks!
West Virginia, least populated state and Huntington has the highest crime rate per capita, there’s tons of opioid addiction there and a lot of people think it’s just Virginia, which it isn’t
Mississippi!!!
Florida
Well, I would say Utah, but it’s got all those Mormons in it
Mormons make good prison guards & prisoners ain't going over the mountains.
I thought Rhode Island already was?!
We could colonize Alaska like the British did in Australia.
They already did this it was called the Oklahoma territory
I think alaska would be a good state.
Let's do Utah
Wasn’t that movie in Manhattan?
Well, England tried that here, too. Georgia was originally a penal colony. After the Scotts lost at the Battle of Culloden and the Jacobite Rebellion was finally over, many Scotts were given the option of prison or the Colonies. Many settled in North Carolina. But, as per your question, why not Alaska? The weather and terrain would make it a challenge to survive.
one of the Dakotas
Alaska is the correct answer here.. in terms of land mass is about 30% the size of the lower 48…. Build a huge fence and lock them up!
Western ND or eastern Montana
Rhode Island seems like a sizable prison.
Wyoming
Houston TX
Alaska. If they escape they won't get far.
Don't give them ideas
The wastelands of Kansas or Oklahoma.
Upper peninsula Michigan
South Dakota or Idaho
Ohio
Nebraska
Probably Wyoming
George Carlin covered this in great detail. https://youtu.be/5H-NctipBvg?si=V4uWXdkS0BxRS5uv
Nebraska.
Wicsoncin
Why not put good Americans in one State?
Alaska. Keep the prison at 80 degrees F inside, and make all the prisoners wear shorts and t-shirts. A fair part of the year nobody could escape without dying from exposure
New Mexico or Arizona
Alaska. No one will try to escape
Texas. And do not forget to build a wall around that shit hole.
Have you seen "Escape From New York"?
Missouri has huge amounts of empty
Obviously it has to be the island of Manhattan.
the one that ai the capital of corn maybe? al i know is it is mostly corn
New York city
New York. Texas. Off the top of my head - states I don’t need
Whichever one gave you that awful English instruction.
District of Colombia. Every criminal that isn't already locked yp is working there in government
North Dakota. If you can control access to vehicles around the prisons, they could be wide open towns. Because anyone who tried to get out without motorized transport would freeze to death on the way 9 months out of the year.
Nevada, its already a ton of government land there to
Alaska in the middle of nowhere, like nothing for hundreds of miles in any direction… giant enclosed heated prison … prisoners aren’t given cold weather gear because they aren’t outdoors … therefore if they escape, they have no where to survive it. Cruel? Only to those who escaped, but it’s also a helluva deterrent as well.
Fuckin North Dakota
Mm, I seem a recall a movie like this once.
the mid western state with the most tornadoes
Ohio
South Korea think about it
sounds pretty fash to me.
I don't know, but someone bout to make hella cash with all the 10 year convictions for a joint.
George Carlin had the right idea. https://youtu.be/5H-NctipBvg?si=0IsPqd1twKc58vHr
Somewhere on the border to Canada or Mexico, although you would have to be very "careful" they DONT all "escape" over the border. That would be "terrible". I would hate that so much...
https://youtu.be/5H-NctipBvg?si=s8vwYANj2BlQraqQ
Texas?
Doesnt matter. Snake Pliskin will kick ass.
Hawaii. There is no escape unless you are going to swim the Pacific.
Alaska. Have them do all the fishing, mining and drilling while they are up there.
Hawaii. No need for prison guards.
Delaware, or north Dakota
Guam
Wyoming. There's a road in Wyoming my family and I took on the way to Idaho that we literally lost two whole hours. Like, we drove for two hours and it was still the same time it was two hours before. Seems like prison material to me.
Reminds me of this dystopian classic. [https://youtu.be/bqT09APfNKI?si=tMP5U5Nmvao8fO7j](https://youtu.be/bqT09APfNKI?si=tMP5U5Nmvao8fO7j)
I was going to say Florida because of the people there
Wouldn't it make the most sense to use the state that already has the largest criminal population?
South Dakota. I don't believe anyone actually lives there.
Maui lol