The Fashion Accessory No Teen Really Wants

Here's some "fun"--note the quotation marks--facts about teens under house arrest and how much GPS monitoring costs their families.

Youth Radio / Via youthradio.org

Who says that crime doesn't pay?

It pays governments like Alameda County, California real well!

Youth Radio spent a year investigating the juvenile justice system in the United States for a series we're calling Double Charged. The heavy hitting stuff is here, but we figured that you might like to know some of what we learned about the hidden cost of the system.

But the county charges $15/day for those high tech fashion accessories.

What could that $15 buy?

GAS!

Casey Fiesler (Creative Commons) / Via Flickr: cfiesler

Almost three whole gallons of gas in California.

Blue Bottle Coffee (yum!) / Via bluebottlecoffee.com

Three really swanky lattes from Blue Bottle.

Feeling charitable?

Via huffingtonpost.com

$15 can buy six doses of the most effective malaria treatments: ACTs.

(Awww, did we get too serious for you there all of a sudden?)

If you cut off your monitor, it will cost you more than $700.

Apopka Police Department via Orlando Sentinel / Via articles.orlandosentinel.com

For that you could get a PlayStation 4...

...and a Playstation Vita and still have some left over for a game.

Or you could rescue as many as three corgis!

Buzzfeed / Via buzzfeed.com

The Pembroke Welsh Corgi club of the Garden State charges a $200-$300 fee for each rescue. That's nothing compared to all the Instagram love you would receive!

And according to county contracts, the operating device itself only costs about $3 per day.

Cointalk / Via cointalk.com

That means the county is making $12/day on those high tech fashion accessories.

All the tastes of New York / Via allthetastesofnewyork.com

That’s enough for a fancy cocktail, like this Penicillin! Drink up!

Uh, oh. Your parole officer doesn't like you drinking!

Via acgov.org

Not to mention, his services net a $90 a month fee.

For ten bucks more you could get a year of Amazon Prime...

Via cdn.screenrant.com

... which would let you marathon Justified.

Some counties require your parents to pay to install a separate landline.

Via bubblews.com

Millennials may not recognize this image: this is what a telephone once looked like.

Shocking, I know.

A last set of "fun facts":

•Almost half the teens who are assigned GPS end up violating.

•Often for technicalities, like not charging the battery on their GPS unit.

•Violating usually means more time on GPS.

Which means more fines and fees!

Via politicspa.com

To get the real scoop on the juvenile justice system check out Youth Radio's special series Double Charged.

Youth Radio/Youth Media International (YMI) is youth-driven converged media production company that delivers the best youth news, culture and undiscovered talent to a cross section of audiences. To read more youth news from around the globe and explore high quality audio and video features, visit Youthradio.org