In the process of doing research for my Prison Abolition and Mass Incarceration Resources post, I was reminded of the Leverage (TV 2008) season 3 opener, which features a plot regarding for-profit prisons. One of the resources I included in that post was the news article for the scandal that inspired the evil scheme of the episode.

John Rogers has an anecdote he likes to tell about when season 3, episode 1 was first screened. I do find it amusing, albeit in a slightly sad and somewhat cynical fashion. I wanted to include the couple Twitter threads I found in screenshot and text form, since Twitter has made itself unusable without an account, and I vehemently oppose even the implication of forcing that upon anyone reading my posts. However, there was no need to clog up the main post with semi-related and semi-repetitive Twitter screenshots, so I'm sticking all the tellings I could find in a separate post.

Edit from 2024-03-05: I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier, but Twitter does let you view a single Tweet (though not the whole thread) without an account, so I'm adding links to each individual Tweet in the threads. I'm also adding archived versions of all the linked pages, from the Wayback Machine.

The "In America?" Anecdote

From John Rogers' Blog

Excerpt from "LEVERAGE 301 & 302 Post-Game"

(Archive from 2021-01-25.)

One of my favorite moments concerning 301 was when we were screening the episode, and I was sitting next to a very conservative friend. (Yes, I have those.) When the corporate prison pay-for-prisoners scam was explained in the episode, he threw a sidelong glance at me. I shrugged. "We didn't change that much from the real case, sadly."

A beat. "Wait, that really happened?"

"A little tweaked, but yeah."

A longer beat. "In America?"

Twitter thread from August 18th, 2016

Thread Text

Series of five Tweets by John Rogers (@jonrog1) on Aug 18, 2016, which reads:

1) The private prison episode of #leverage gave me one of my favorite anecdotes from the run. during screening an agent leaned over ...

2) .. and said "This is a little over the top." I replied "No, this is based on real research." Pause. "This really happens?" ...

3.) "Yes"
Pause.
"IN AMERICA?"
*sigh*

4) The other half of that ep, the judge sentencing people to private facilities for kickbacks, was also a real case http://nbcnews.com/news/us-news/p...

5) Except it was worse. It was KIDS.
And people wonder why I became so goddam cynical after writing a light comedy pulp show for 5 seasons

Screenshot

Individual Links (and Archived Versions)

Tweet 1 (Archive from 2022-04-02, shows the first 3 Tweets in the thread), Tweet 2, Tweet 3, Tweet 4, NBC Article (Archive from 2023-06-21), Tweet 5.

Twitter thread from February 23rd, 2017

Thread Text

Tweet from Vox (@voxdotcom) on Feb 23, 2017, which reads:

Trump’s Department of Justice just reopened business for private prisons https://www.vox.com/policy-and-pol...

In response, a series of three Tweets by John Rogers (@jonrog1) on Feb 23, 2017, which reads:

1] When we did the #Leverage ep on private prisons, a friend at a screening leaned over and whispered "This is a bit much."

2] I said "No, this is based on a true case."
"So this happened?"
"Yeah"
With genuine horror, he whispered "IN AMERICA?!"

3] In a society chock-a-block with dumb, corrosive, genuinely evil ideas, for-profit prisons is an all time bell-ringer.

Screenshot

Individual Links (and Archived Versions)

Vox Article (Archive from 2023-02-05), Vox Tweet, John Rogers Tweet 1, John Rogers Tweet 2, John Rogers Tweet 3.