The Federal Prisoner Transit System—aka “Diesel Therapy”—Is Hell

We federal inmates had been on the privately operated prison bus for more than three hours as it wound its way through Alabama, all of our hands and feet shackled together. There was no water or air conditioning, and the Southern summer heat was sweltering. The vehicle’s toilet had overflowed, spilling its contents onto the floor; we had no choice but to rest our feet in the refuse.

And we had no idea where our next stop might be. “Just get in the bus and shut up, inmate,” was the response I got when I was picked up in Montgomery, Alabama, and asked a question about our destination.

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When we finally arrived in Lovejoy, Georgia, I was terrified. I had never been in a “real” jail before—FPC Montgomery, where I had been before, is a “camp” for