That's Gov. Pence behind the 'don't tread on me' flag
Another moment of clarity provided by a Republican governor; no, humane treatment of prisoners is not worthwhile if it will cost
money.
Complying with federal standards designed to prevent incarcerated people from being raped is too expensive, according to Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R). So Pence informed the federal Justice Department that his state will not comply with these anti-rape standards. [...]
The rules require teens to be separated from adults, they call for cross-gender pat-downs to be eliminated in teen and juvenile facilities, and they require a certain number of staff in juvenile facilities.
All of which would make the state incarceration business sad, because as all of the various states have discovered it's much cheaper to stack juvenile offenders like cordwood and let God sort it out. I promise you, the Pence administration wouldn't even feed them if they thought paying out the resulting court judgments would be less expensive—and that's the issue here. The fine for not following rape-prevention standards is minuscule, so Pence has informed the government that his state will just be paying the fine.
We are a strange country.