General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 30 Percent of California's Forest Firefighters Are Prisoners [View all]stuffmatters
(2,574 posts)Whoops, this first response to your post got listed under the post that followed yours.
If a state economy is dependent upon cheap prison labor, then the model for impartial justice is broken. Kamala Harris made this
issue painfully evident when she stated that the state had to lessen the release of low level offenders because the state needed them to battle fires. How is that "business model" any different than Ferguson's of arresting and fining for nuisance charges in order to fund its police department? It's also the same unjust contradiction of for profit prisons. You can't have institutions of incarceration (or a state contract) that needs to keep beds full to fulfill a contractual quota or that makes money the longer they keep a "valuable" worker incarcerated. Prisoners are not cost saving assets of the state or Fed govt. To me that slavery not rehabilitation.