“Survival for Sale: How Colorado’s Prison System Turned Human Needs into Behavioral Currency”

 By Chaddrick Thomas

When you think of prison incentives, you might imagine rewards: extra phone time, a bonus commissary item, maybe early access to rec.

But in Colorado, incentives don’t enhance your life.

They determine whether or not you survive it.

This isn’t a system built on growth. It’s built on control.

And the DOC’s weapon of choice? Necessity.

The Bait-and-Starve Blueprint

Let’s be clear: nothing about this is accidental.

Years ago, incarcerated people across Colorado’s prisons had access to basic, humane standards of living:

• Decent food with some variety and nutrition
  
  
• Mattresses that didn’t destroy your spine
  
  
• Educational programs that were hard-earned but fairly accessible
  
  
• A basic expectation of medical care—even if flawed
  
  

Then came the Incentive Pod system.

Quietly, strategically, and systematically, the Department began to strip these essentials from general population units.

Food quality declined. Mattresses were replaced with glorified gym mats.

Education access was restricted.

Even medical attention became tied to status.

And once the deprivation was complete, they introduced the solution: “incentives.”

But what they were really doing was selling back survival.

The Food That Kills You

Let’s start with food.

In non-incentive housing, what’s served wouldn’t pass inspection in a public school cafeteria.

Slimy soy-based meat, bland beans, and gray rice.

Processed slop served cold more often than hot.

No fresh produce. No protein. No balance.

Incentive status?

You get real meat.

You get canteen access to fresh items.

You get food that doesn’t accelerate your death.

They created malnutrition on purpose.

Then used nourishment as a tool for behavioral compliance.

That’s not rehabilitation.

That’s weaponized starvation.

Mattresses as Medical Torture

Now let’s talk about sleep.

Incentive pods offer access to upgraded mattresses—foam that cushions your joints, supports your spine, and doesn’t deteriorate within weeks.

In general population? You sleep on rubber mats thinner than your commissary-issued tablet.

Placed directly on concrete, with zero support.

People develop:

• Sciatica
  
  
• Chronic back pain
  
  
• Hip, neck, and shoulder injuries
  
  
• Waking fatigue that leads to depression and deteriorating mental health
  
  

And what’s DOC’s answer?

“You can always earn a better mattress. Just get on incentive.”

Imagine being told that to stop hurting, you have to obey.

That’s not policy.

That’s extortion.

The Inactivity That Kills

Prisoners spend hours—days—sitting.

Waiting on count.

Waiting on showers.

Waiting on mail.

Waiting on officers to call movement.

And if you’re not in an incentive pod, movement barely happens.

There’s no consistent access to weights, cardio, or yard.

Cells become death chambers for your muscles, your lungs, and your willpower.

Sedentary living isn’t just unhealthy—it’s deadly.

It raises your risk of cancer, heart disease, and early death.

Now guess where the yard, gym access, and movement programs live?

That’s right—in the incentive units.

Colorado DOC knows how to improve health.

They just choose to reserve it for the obedient.

Weaponized Healthcare

Medical care? That’s another incentive now.

Incentive units get faster responses, priority passes to clinic, and more consistent wellness checks.

General population?

You wait.

Sometimes for days.

Sometimes until your condition is irreversible.

We’ve seen men with undiagnosed infections, untreated fractures, and growing tumors told to “kite medical.”

They die waiting.

Unless, of course, they’re on incentive.

The message:

Compliance is your only cure.

A Two-Tiered Prison Society

What the DOC has created isn’t a behavior program.

It’s a caste system.

• Obey and you live.
  
  
• Resist and you rot.
  
  

Incentive pods have become modern-day auction blocks.

You don’t sell yourself to the highest bidder.

You sell your dignity to the state.

You give up your voice.

You give up protest.

You give up the right to challenge injustice.

And in return, you get a mattress and a hot meal.

This is what they’ve reduced us to:

Negotiate your humanity, or suffer.

The Real Cost: All of Us

Taxpayers fund this madness.

They foot the bill for malnourishment-related illness, chronic conditions caused by poor sleep, and lawsuits from avoidable medical disasters.

We could build a system that:

• Provides real food
  
  
• Treats medical issues early
  
  
• Keeps people moving and healthy
  
  
• Focuses on rehabilitation, not domination
  
  

And it would cost less than this broken pyramid scheme of survival.

But they won’t fix it.

Because this isn’t about cost.

It’s about control.

Final Word

In Colorado’s prisons, survival is currency.

And if you want to live with dignity, you better pay for it with silence.

The DOC didn’t just make prison harder.

They made suffering strategic.

They used starvation, pain, and sickness as tools—then built a behavioral economy on top of it.

We will not be quiet about this.

We will not call it “progress.”

And we will not let them keep selling our survival back to us one privilege at a time.

This is not incentive.

It’s legalized cruelty.

And it must end.