Inmates Help States Fill Budget Gaps (Prison Labor to Replace Busted Unions)

[Yavin4]

Bringing back slavery and indentured servitude. Just try competing with prison inmate labor for jobs.

Excerpt:

Prison labor — making license plates, picking up litter — is nothing new, and nearly all states have such programs. But these days, officials are expanding the practice to combat cuts in federal financing and dwindling tax revenue, using prisoners to paint vehicles, clean courthouses, sweep campsites and perform many other services done before the recession by private contractors or government employees.

In New Jersey, inmates on roadkill patrol clean deer carcasses from highways. Georgia inmates tend municipal graveyards. In Ohio, they paint their own cells. In California, prison officials hope to expand existing programs, including one in which wet-suit-clad inmates repair leaky public water tanks. There are no figures on how many prisoners have been enrolled in new or expanded programs nationwide, but experts in criminal justice have taken note of the increase.

Edited to inlcude this wonderful excerpt:

Senator John Ensign, Republican of Nevada, introduced a bill last month to require all low-security prisoners to work 50 hours a week. Creating a national prison labor force has been a goal since he went to Congress in 1995, but it makes even more sense in this economy, he said.

Go fuck yourself, John Ensign.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/us/25inmates.html?hp

[Angry Dragon]

1. indentured servitude ..... where this country started

they do have their country back

[xchrom]

2. ...

:mad:

[WCGreen]

3. That's great. Put people out of work who are on the edge...

They steal some bread and are put into indentured service...

It sounds like the plot of a Dickens novel...

[lildreamer316]

4. So EVERYONE sees where this is going, right?

The states need to fill the gaps and need the work done. So, the pressure is put on the police departments and sheriff offices to arrest more people for charges that will garner some jail time. Also, judges are pressured to find such defendants guilty so that they actually *serve* the jail time. All in all, this means you will be MUCH MUCH MUCH more likely to be stopped and searched and hassled, etc. It's going to give the cop-haters ammunition, and the cops will have no choice if they want to keep their jobs. It's an all-around clusterfuck, IMHO.

[Raksha]

10. It's so obvious even a teabagger could see it.

Might make 'em think about what could happen the next time one of them is picked up on a DUI.

[damntexdem]

5. That's step one.

In step two, they'll jail the unionized state workers.

[dreamnightwind]

6. This is really important

In this country, with the highest per-capita incarceration, with its huge and powerful private prison industry, with the deep state our nation is in (captured by corporate interests) we are in serious danger of falling down this slippery slope. It's long been a goal of certain interests to make incarceration profitable, to take advantage of a huge untapped reservoir of human resources that can be ordered to do whatever, whenever, for whomever, for no pay. Then, of course, incarceration becomes a favorable outcome to TPTB. Once we get to that, we're toast.

Huge danger to our future and our children's future. Fight this every step of the way.

[golddigger]

7. And to think the dumbshits were worried about illegal

aliens taking their jobs.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

11. With the way they're trying to arrest illegals... now they really worry about illegals takin jobs!

[Kurovski]

8. K&R. (nt)

[Matariki]

9. Oh, there's no motivation to fill up prisons with a program like that.

Especially if prisons and prison labor is privatized. And what happens if an inmate refuses to work 50 hours a week?

Arbeit Macht Frei.

[Yavin4]

17. Simple. They Don't Eat. n/t

[logosoco]

12. I am going to make a very unpopular statement....

I think this system would work IF, instead of putting small time offenders in prison, we had them do this work. It would cut way down on the prison population (prison should only be for people with major offenses like rape, murder, crimes against children, big time money thefts, not for drugs or because you're a chronic shoplifter.)
If housing prisoners is so expensive, this would cut down that expense. The people doing the work would have to be supervised (and someone has to make sure the jobs are done), so we would still be giving people jobs.
I don't see this as slavery or making them indentured. I see it as a way for small time criminals to really "pay their debt to society". For example, during the recent ice and snow, our school really didn't have enough people to shovel all the sidewalks. I am sure in our county prison, there are some young guys who made stupid choices and landed in prison. As a taxpayer and a human being, having somebody sitting in a jail because they stole something or got in a bar fight is not really a good idea. They got caught "taking something they didn't earn" , they should pay it back in a way that really benefits the community they took from. The people who do the snow shoveling at the schools would have had people to help, and the school would be paying the same amount for more work. Ideally the person doing the work would see that it is better to help your community than steal from it's members. But of course, if they don't do the work, then they can go back to the cell.
This is just an idea that I started thinking about after seeing people go to jail for minor crimes. It doesn't help many people. Sometimes prison makes people worse. So it seems pointless. And why should the taxpayers pay so much a year to house and provide legal assistance to them when they got busted too many times for shop lifting? Seems like that benefits Walmart.
I think this would also cut out the whole profit prison system.
This is just my opinion. I do not mean to offend anyone who disagrees.

[dreamnightwind]

13. It should be harmful to the state to take away the rights of its citizens

and that's what you're doing whether you incarcerate someone or implement forced labor. There needs to be a negative incentive for the state to do this, otherwise it leads to more restrictive laws and overzealous enforcement, also it could influence sentencing policies. The road to less freedom.

[Tsiyu]

14. This IS OUR FUTURE

Americans need to understand - THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT for you and me.

We have seen this locally; The University of the South - very, very affluent - "bans" poor locals from their town of Sewanee, so they cannot work in the town.

Then we witness Franklin County inmates in their orange jumpsuits working on campus for pennies! Who wants to have to hire people at living wages when you can force an inmate to do the work for next to nothing?

THIS IS WHAT THE WEALTHY WANT- SLAVE LABOR!!!!! You do not matter to the wealthy.

Just call the Vice Chancellor of Sewanee, and he'll lay it out plain I'm sure.

The RICH want you and me to be slaves, and American legislators are helping them along with the for-profit Prison Industry. THERE IS A REASON WE HAVE SO MANY PEOPLE INCARCERATED IN AMERICA. WAKE UP!!!!This is the story of our time, yet most Americans are absolutely clueless and don't want to face it.

The War on Drugs and mandatory minimums are their tickets to slave labor all over this country.

And no matter how often some of us have pointed this out, people just won't listen....

[sarcasmo]

15. Where are the people who will argue there is no Prison Industrial Complex, this should be the

Websters definition.

[Bandit]

16. Jobs......Republicans want to create Jobs....

Does anyone else notice that Republicans are sometimes hypocritical? :shrug:

[samplegirl]

18. This is what Kasich brought up today

building more prisons here in Ohio.

[mmonk]

19. Bookmarking