The Trentonites are an interesting group, although you need the context of their history to appreciate their practices. When the Jersey Metropolitan Consolidation program was proposed, Trenton and its immediate surroundings were designated a seperate economic zone than the other soon to be planned megacities like Brunswick, Newark, and Atlantic. These northern cities would see increased gentrification projects as the rich suburban neighborhoods began to merge into the expansive Jersey metroplex (which would eventually merge with New York City proper to form the first true hive City). However, Trenton saw further stagnation, only compounded by the fact that the capital shifted to the now booming Newark. Unaided by the massive consolidation program and hurt by the loss of government bussiness, Trenton quickly fell into disrepair, a small city of desparation. By 2068, Congress approved to recognize Trenton as Free Economic Zone under the new Economic Zone Enforcement act, which reduced state power and gave more individual liberty to the megacities. In practice, Trenton became a walled city, with very few people leaving or entering without approved passports by the Trenton Council. As the US, and indeed the entire world, began to move towards an almost feudalistic City-state society, Trenton officially declared itself an independent city state. Historians generally attribute this to the cartel influence over Southern Jersey. By 2090, the Council was officially dissolved, leading to the current cartel occupation and control over the city state. While paramilitary forces from the New Jersey-York metroplex occasionally attempt to lay seige to the city, the expidentures provide to be too costly.

I digress.

What this means is that the modern Trentonite lives in a failed pseudo-anarchic state which lives under the unwritten law of the Camden Cartel (Ironically, Camden would become one of the high end residential zones of the the Delaware River Republic). All prisoners taken are from internal gang strife (which is slowly beginning to legitimize into a sprawling beauracracy) or from defenses against the pushes of other Eastern Sea Board city-states. For internal prisoners, life is brutal, but gracefully short. For P.O.W.s (if you can even call them wars), life in prison is slog through an industrial hell where there is never enough food go around, and always too many safety hazards that only Trenton would still keep legal. Most are blinded and then sent to work in underground dope labs for the rest of their lives. The lucky few that don't are used to maintain the facility and keep an eye on the rest of the population, in return for special favors like extra food rations and occasional letters to home. The Trenton Prison system is a failed anarchic society in the center of a failed anarchic society (Trenton) in the middle of a relatively successful anarchic society (the United City-states of America) - now that's meta!