I bought a prison in the United States.

Lin Ge put down his pen and read through what he had written.

These figures came partly from the documents and ledgers he had been reviewing over the past few days.

Part of it comes from Hamon's oral account.

Another part comes from his own observations and estimates.

In any reputable business school, such an estimate would be labeled by professors as having "unreliable data sources."

But in the real business world, especially in Tulsa, 1984, you can't wait until all the data is perfect before making a decision.

Perfection is the enemy of execution!

He continued writing:

II. Reform Objectives, First Phase, September-December 1984.

1. After the trial operation ends, we will obtain a better contract from the government and increase the occupancy rate of the center to over 90%.

2. Reduce the daily cost per prisoner to below $15 and request higher state government subsidies.

3. Increase factory capacity utilization to over 80% and establish at least two stable labor export channels.

4. Reduce the rate of idleness among prisoners to below 20%.

5. Establish a complete points-based management system to achieve graded management and differentiated treatment of prisoners.

He paused here to think about the details of the points system.

This is something he learned from managing a company in his previous life: people need feedback.

Whether he is a free man or a prisoner.

If his behavior does not receive timely positive or negative feedback, he will become complacent and unpredictable.

In prison, this unpredictability can directly translate into violence!

He turned to the next page and began drafting the details of the points system.

III. Points-based management system:

1. Basic Points: Each prisoner receives 100 basic points upon entering prison.

2. Ways to earn points:

Work in the factory: +5 points/day (+10 points/week for full attendance)

Participating in education/skills training: +3 points per session

Maintaining cell hygiene: +2 points/week (inspected weekly)

Assisting management in handling emergencies: +10 to +50 points (depending on the situation)

Reporting violations: +20 to +100 points (depending on the circumstances)

3. Points deduction rules:

Violation of work schedule: -5 points/time

Verbal provocation/insult to others: -10 points/time

Minor physical altercation: -30 points per incident, plus 3 days of confinement.

Physical altercation (serious): -100 points per incident, plus 7 days of confinement, and a request to the state corrections department to extend the sentence.

Possession of prohibited items: -50 points per instance, and 5 days of confinement.

Participating in/planning a prison break: Points reset to zero, solitary confinement, request for harsher punishment.

4. Points-based ranking and benefits:

0-50 points (Level D): Basic benefits, 1 hour of outdoor time per day, basic meals.

51-150 points (Grade C): One extra hour of outdoor time, and one additional visit per week.

151-300 points (Level B): Can choose a job, can purchase goods from the convenience store once a month (paid for by family remittance), and have priority in receiving parole recommendations.

301 points or above (Grade A): Single cell placement may be considered, additional educational courses may be applied for, and parole recommendation weighted.

5. Special Clauses:

For prisoners who maintain a grade of B or higher for 30 consecutive days, the warden may submit a sentence reduction recommendation to the state corrections bureau.

Those who make special contributions to prison operations, such as providing technical guidance or mediating conflicts, may receive additional points as a reward, at the warden's discretion.

The final interpretation of the above rules rests with the prison administration.

Lin Ge put down his pencil and looked at the detailed points rules.

This system is, to some extent, a way of bribing prisoners.

Give them a visible path to advancement, and let them know that their actions have consequences and significance.

This is essentially no different from the career advancement system in the outside world, only it's more blatant.

Here, every action you take will be quantified into a number, and this number will determine what kind of treatment you will receive.

In the American prison system in 1984, such a sophisticated points-based management system was still very rare.

Most prisons are still operating under the primitive system of "giving cigarettes to those who obey and putting those who disobey in solitary confinement."

A prison guard's personal likes and dislikes often determine a prisoner's fate more than rules and regulations.

The problem with this approach is that it is unpredictable!

Prisoners don't know what the consequences of their actions will be, so they either become overly compliant or completely rebellious.

What Ringo has to do is make all of this predictable.

Predictability means safety, safety means low cost, and low cost means profit!

The essence of the points system is to reconstruct the power structure of private prisons using business logic, so that rehabilitation behavior can be completely quantified into tradable points.

Traditional private prisons rely on forced labor and obedience management, which can easily breed corruption and inefficiency.

The modern points-based system, however, has shattered the profit model of private prisons.

In the traditional model, prisons profit from government payments per prisoner and cheap labor, but inmates' apathy and violent conflicts can drive up security costs.

After the point system was introduced, prisoners would exercise self-discipline in order to earn points by actively taking on tasks.

Internal monitoring costs have decreased dramatically, while labor efficiency has more than doubled!

Even more ingeniously, prisons can operate in reverse.

Linking points to purchases at the prison store and allowing family members to top up their points online creates a new profit center!

The real high-dimensional attack lies in the fact that the points system transforms prisons from "punishment spaces" into "behavioral correction markets".

Private prisons are no longer middlemen selling prisoner labor, but rather governance platforms with behavioral data at their fingertips.

Other prisons that rely on coercive management are not competitive in terms of cost control and recidivism rates!

This system is Lin Ge's biggest weapon!

When points become the hard currency within prisons, traditional authoritarian management will naturally collapse, which is a devastating blow to this era!

Lingo put aside the details of the points system and continued writing the other parts of the reform plan.

Procurement process restructuring, energy conservation measures, factory scheduling optimization...

Each item is based on his observations and data over the past few days.

He wrote quickly because these thoughts had been swirling in his mind for days, and now he was simply pouring them onto paper.

But he stopped writing when he got to the third page.

There was a line of text on the paper, which he had unconsciously written down earlier:

"Our core competitive advantage: the lowest labor costs in the state."

As he looked at those words, he recalled the bewildered workers at the Danforth factory whose orders had been snatched away by Koreans and Japanese.

Decades from now, suppliers will also move their factories to more underdeveloped countries and regions due to rising labor costs.

What is the essence of globalization?

It is capital seeking the lowest-cost labor force globally.

What is prison labor?

It is the lowest-cost labor force that capital can find within the country.

There is no need to pay minimum wage, provide medical insurance, pay social security, or have unions cause trouble.

If prisoners refuse to work, they will face even worse treatment, including solitary confinement, deduction of points, and no hope of parole.