Incarceration was now the second biggest industry in the Delta, after agriculture. Twelve new prisons had been built in twenty years. If you grew up poor with limited employment opportunities, as most people did in the Delta, prison was always on the horizon. If you graduated from high school, and stayed out of trouble, you could get a job in prison that paid more than Walmart and had benefits. If not, there was a good chance you’d end up there anyway, on the other side of the bars.
