Ohio To Give Prisoners Laid-Off Janitors' Jobs

[The Straight Story]

Ohio To Give Prisoners Laid-Off Janitors' Jobs

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A labor union said they were angry that Ohio wants to use prisoners to replace Statehouse janitors and groundskeepers who were laid off because of budget cuts.

The state board that operates the building said it will probably use two inmates to do grounds work and another five for night cleaning.

The Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, the state's largest public employees' union and the one that represented the laid-off workers, filed a grievance Wednesday to reverse the plan.

"These aren't phantom jobs - these are real jobs, real people," said Sally Meckling, union spokeswoman.

The union said it's wrong to substitute inmate labor for good-paying union jobs. It also questioned the wisdom of allowing inmates to work in the frequently visited, 147-year-old Statehouse.

http://www.10tv.com/live/content/onnnews/stories/2009/04/17/story_prisoners.html?sid=102

[Proud Liberal Dem]

1. Isn't that basically using them as slave laborers?

I got no love for people (rightfully) convicted and sentenced to jail/prison but the idea- or even having them do some menial labor as punishment/restitution but laying people off because of "budget cuts" and then bringing in prisoners to do their jobs for free (or at least at a rate below minimum wage) should be roundly condemned! Stuff like this makes me want to :puke:

[Duer 157099]

2. Um, this is actually the whole plan

It's no accident that the prisons are overflowing.

[SammyWinstonJack]

28. Prison Industrial Complex=cheap prison labor.

It's no accident that the prisons are overflowing. Exactly right!

[VeraAgnes]

6. No, they volunteer for the work duty.

They probably get extra food, visits etc...nicer housing maybe.

[Warren Stupidity]

12. you forgot the sarcasm tag

Prisoners are not volunteer anything, and when they take a free person's job, the state is using slave labor to replace free labor.

Risking Godwin's observation, consider the use of prisoner labor by nazi germany. Certainly those individuals also 'volunteered' for the labor assignments 'offered' them, as they came with the considerable benefit of not being killed outright.
:sarcasm:

[VeraAgnes]

20. No, it is a fact....

inmates request by their own choice to be a worker if they qualify. They submit a written request for inmate worker status. That is volunteering.

[Warren Stupidity]

21. Ok your thinking is impaired here, but keep at it.

Eventually it will dawn on you that this is coerced labor replacing free labor.

[Obamanaut]

22. Actually, I have seen Inmate Request Forms, filled out by inmates,

requesting specific jobs. Where vocational training and education facilities are available, I've seen the requests for those as well - carpentry, masonry, computer repair, electrical wiring and repair. They can also get legal aid training so they can assist other inmates with their legal work - appeals, etc.

In the work camps, they can request to go on road crews to do work along the side of the interstate and county roads.

[Dr.Phool]

44. Yeah, down here in Florida, we call them chain gangs.

Let's take it a step further. Let them volunteer to take the guards jobs. And maybe the Warden's.

I know guys who'd love to volunteer to take the Attorney General's job.

This is a crock of shit.

Even during slavery, you had people volunteer to be the "House Nigger" instead of working in the fields.

[Obamanaut]

50. I don't think they use "chain gangs" anymore. The forced, or slave,

labor many folks have referred to isn't actually forced. If an inmate is assigned a particular job, such as kitchen worker, that inmate can request a job change via the classification office.

I don't know what the point of your post was, but the part of it about volunteering for the warden or guard position was ridiculous. Maybe you already know that.

[Dr.Phool]

51. Wrong! Dead wrong!

Our current, nice guy republican governor, was referred to as "Chain Gang Charlie", when he brought them back as Attorney General!

I hope an inmate requests your job sometime. I'm sure your boss would love some $ 0.25 per hour labor.

The stupid in this place is getting overwhelming over the last year.

[VeraAgnes]

27. No, my thinking is actually factual data.

Inmate workers are common in all jails and prisons. They are also called trustees. They work under the supervision of Correctional Officers.Prisoners in either a jail or prison are in an active community thus they work in their community..........thousands of inmates do this. Do you actually believe the food is prepared completely civilians or the barbers do the grooming? Their is a skeletal staff of civilian workers who are managers of the departments...the rest are inmates. Only licensed personnel, such as mental health or medical must be 100% civilian.

[Dr.Phool]

38. You're out of your mind.

In a prison, EVERY inmate has a job. It may not be much, but it is a job. Cleaning, clerical work, barbers, farm work, it's all a part of prison life.

But, to take a person's job away, who makes real wages, and supports a family, and give it to a "volunteer" is just plain WRONG. Sure, they volunteered for the job. Maybe they were planting corn and onions, or slopping hogs, so they "volunteered" for a better job.

And just for the record, I spent time in two prisons in Ohio in the '80s. In one, my job was to keep the day room clean. In the other, I was a cook. I was required to have a job on the prison grounds, that paid about 14 cents per hour.

But, one thing we never did was take a civilians job on the outside.

[Egnever]

90. the original point was that it was not slave labor

not that it wasnt taking jobs from non inmates. You shifted the argument there.

[Raineyb]

32. When you are not in charge of your own life there is no volunteering.

When someone tells you when to get up, when to eat, when to sleep, what work you will do, and can threaten you with punishment for refusing there is no volunteering. "Prisoner volunteering" there's a reason why such a phrase is called an oxymoron.

Regards

[VeraAgnes]

35. You also are describing the military system....

which is voluntary.

In Prison, they apply for these jobs and indeed to be an outside worker is a great privilege for them. They do not get punished if they are say, lazy...they just loose the job. If they are injured, are ill..they don't work...they can stop the task if they don't like it too.

I'm impressed with the Ohio governors creative thinking.

[Raineyb]

42. Ohio is putting non criminals out of work to put prisoners in their place

Not only is it slavery but it's basically putting in a system in which the only way to get a job is to become a criminal. What part of this scenario do you think is fucking appropriate?

People who join the military volunteer to have their rights restricted. I don't know anybody who wants to be in prison.

Are you daft or something?

[VeraAgnes]

48. Ohio is in a financial dilemma

and is using it's resources to survive. I'm okay with that today. The idea is creative.. The previous republican governors in Ohio raped and pillaged the Ohio economy at the direction of *bush and cheney over the past 8 years...............Ted Strickland, the current governor, he is making due with what he has....I commend his efforts.

[Dr.Phool]

53. If Strickland is behind this, he's an asshole.

If he is, he's setting progressive Democratic politics back to the 1860's, and should be impeached! Try to tell your base (Ohio's Unions), that sorry, we can't let you support your families anymore, because we can get labor for $0.25 per hour.

It's Red Chinese Democracy!

[VeraAgnes]

59. Ohio is broke.

This is the only reason he is doing this....survival is the goal. He is using creative thinking to try and keep other services essential to life funded., sacrifices are made in desperate times. If your angry, go address the Ohio GOP since they ruined Ohio.

[Dr.Phool]

60. I'm sure he's gonna save billions on those janitors!

What's the difference in Reagan hiring scabs for ATC, and Strickland hiring inmates. Much lower wages.

I don't care how broke you are. It's just wrong!

I'm glad I'm out of that asshole state for good.

[VeraAgnes]

67. If Ohio does not have the money to pay them the wages then

this is a sound alternative. The janitor can go work elsewhere.........Ohio can't raise taxes. There is no comparison to Reagan here..just a governor trying to balance a budget which is required by Ohio's Constitution. The GOP governors before this one wears the blame here....ten- fold.

[mbperrin]

68. So you would support the governor confiscating individual vehicles to use

in state tasks, right?

The citizens could fill out a form after their vehicle is seized to "volunteer" it for the job they like - highway patrol, garbage collection, prisoner transfer, etc.

This would be very creative thinking, very original. You'd agree, I know.

And think of the millions it would save the State!

Long live the State! Apres le state, le deluge!

[Raineyb]

72. Solving the financial crisis on the backs of working people is not acceptable

Anyone who thinks it is, is an asshole.

Prison labor should never be used to usurp working people outside the prison walls. Never!

Regards

[varkam]

25. Well, it's not much of a freely given choice.

When your other option is to sit in a cell for 24 hours a day, I think I would probably "volunteer" to clean toilets in the state house with my tongue - doesn't make it right.

[VeraAgnes]

30. Exactly...........they want these jobs.

They actually obtain rehab indirectly by participating in work tasks...positive affirmation, elevates self worth, self esteem.........definately decreases shame. Some prisons call this Pod or area, the Honor Camp for a reason.

[SammyWinstonJack]

31. I'll bet the laid off janitors wanted to keep their jobs. Just a guess, though.

:shrug:

[PassingFair]

34. Unless I had a TV....

and a computer.

:evilgrin:

[Proud Liberal Dem]

64. Right

I'm just think it's wrong for states to be laying people off only to replace them with what is, essentially, slave laborers. Surely, there's some kind of work that they might be able to find for prisoners to do that would be helpful without taking jobs from non-convicts and giving them to prisoners- who are not entitled to the same pay and/or protections- just to avoid having to paying a non-convict for the work.

[AngryOldDem]

46. Did the laid-off workers "volunteer" to lose their jobs?

This is just bullshit on so many levels.

But unfortunately I can see this as the wave of the future as it concerns cash-strapped state governments, which will begin to see their incarcerated populations as a wealth of free and ready labor. Not much of a logical leap from that to modern-day slavery, now is there?

And if you don't see the difference between the work a prison trustee does and that which Strickland is implementing...well, I just don't know what to say, other than that there is a huge problem with taking a paid position and turning it into an unpaid one, using people who really have no say in the matter either way.

At the VERY least, it's ethically shady.

[stillcool]

8. The Prison Industry is a 'growth'

industry and has been for some time. I bet none of the jobs the prisoners do have been outsourced.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=927120

Captive Labor
America's Prisoner's As Corporate Workforce
By Gordon Lafer The American Prospect, 1 September 1999
http://www.postcarbon.org/node/2244
When most of us think of convicts at work, we picture them banging out license plates or digging ditches. Those images, however, are now far too limited to encompass the great range of jobs that America's prison workforce is performing. If you book a flight on TWA, you'll likely be talking to a prisoner at a California correctional facility that the airline uses for its reservations service. Microsoft has used Washington State prisoners to pack and ship Windows software. AT&T has used prisoners for telemarketing; Honda, for manufacturing parts; and even Toys "R" Us, for cleaning and stocking shelves for the next day's customers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But the attractions of prison labor extend well beyond low wages. The prison labor system does away with statutory protections that progressives and unions have fought so hard to achieve over the last 100 years. Companies that use prison labor create islands of time in which, in terms of labor relations at least, it's still the late nineteenth century. Prison employers pay no health insurance, no unemployment insurance, no payroll or Social Security taxes, no workers' compensation, no vacation time, sick leave, or overtime. In fact, to the extent that prisoners have "benefits" like health insurance, the state picks up the tab. Prison workers can be hired, fired, or reassigned at will. Not only do they have no right to organize or strike; they also have no means of filing a grievance or voicing any kind of complaint whatsoever. They have no right to circulate an employee petition or newsletter, no right to call a meeting, and no access to the press. Prison labor is the ultimate flexible and disciplined workforce.
All of these conditions apply when the state administers the prison. But the prospect of such windfall profits from prison labor has also fueled a boom in the private prison industry. Such respected money managers as Allstate, Merrill Lynch, and Shearson Lehman have all invested in private prisons. As with other privatized public services, companies that operate private prisons aim to make money by operating corrections facilities for less than what the state pays them. If they can also contract prisoners out to private enterprises—forcing inmates to work either for nothing or for a very small fraction of their "wages" and pocketing the remainder of those "wages" as corporate profit—they can open up a second revenue stream. That would make private prisons into both public service contractors and the highest-margin temp agencies in the nation.
http://www.postcarbon.org/node/2244
http://www.postcarbon.org/node/2244


The Prison Industrial Complex in America: Investment in Slavery
by Venerable Kobutsu Malone, Osho
The United States Constitution Permits Prison Slavery and Involuntary Servitude
-------------------------------
The secure housing, minimal support, minimal medical care and feeding of 2.2 million people is a costly endeavor consuming billions and billions of dollars of taxpayer's money every year in America. Corporations are lined up to receive a portion of the public funds used to support the self-perpetuating incarceration industry. States such as California spend more public funds, tax dollars, your money, my money, on prisons than for education and schools
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The largest network of prison labor is run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons' manufacturing consortium, UNICOR. While paying inmate laborers entry-level wages of 23 cents an hour, UNICOR boasts of gross annual sales (primarily to the Department of Defense) of $250 million.
The correctional-industrial complex therefore relies on a sobering "joint venture" directly relating profits to increased incarceration rates for four kinds of "partners," only the first of whom are those seeking opportunities in prison construction. A second kind of partner stocks these prisons with stun guns, pepper spray, surveillance equipment, and other "disciplinary technology," corporations such as Adtech, American Detention Services, the Correctional Corporation of America and Space Master Enterprises. A third partner finds a state-guaranteed mass of consumers for food and other services in the prisoners themselves, such as Campbell's Soup and Szabo Correctional Services. The fourth partner can be any private industry or state-sponsored program that stands to gain from paying wages that only nominally distinguish captive forced labor from slavery. In this last category, an example of the former is Prison Blues and of the latter is UNICOR which uses prisoners to produce advanced military weaponary
http://www.engaged-zen.org/articles/Kobutsu-Investing_in_Slavery.html


A Report on the Injustice System in the USA
Written by: Pauline (a contributing writer to IPFG’s Publication; Payaam Fadaee)
Published in Payame Fadaee, Spring edition 2002

The US ruling class has established the largest forced labour sweatshop system in the world. There are now approximately 2 million inmates in US prisons compared to 1 million in 1994. These prisoners have become a source of billions of dollars in profits. In fact, the US has imprisoned a half million more people than in China which has 5 times the population. California alone has the biggest prison system in the Western industrialized world. It has more prisoners than France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan and Holland combined while these countries have 11 times the population of California. According to official figures, Iran incarcerates 220 citizens per 100,000, compared to US figures of 727. Overall, the total "criminal justice" system in the US, including those in prison, on parole and on probation, is approaching 6,000,000. In the last 20 years, 1000 new prisons have been built; yet they hold double their capacity.
Prisoners, 75% of who are either Black or Hispanic, are forced to work for 20 cents an hour, some even as low as 75 cents a day. They produce everything from eyewear and furniture to vehicle parts and computer software. This has lead to thousands of layoffs and the lowering of the overall wage scale of the entire working class. At Soledad Prison in California, prisoners produce work-shirts exported to Asia as well as El Salvadoran license plates more cheaply than in El Salvador, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. A May/99 report in the Wall Street Journal summarized that while “more expensive private-sector workers may lose their jobs to prison labour, assigning work to the most cost-efficient producer is good for the economy.” The February/00 Wall Street Journal reported “Prisoners are excluded from employment calculation. And since most inmates are economically disadvantaged and unskilled, jailing so many people has effectively taken a big block of the nation's least-employable citizens out of the equation.”




IN THESE TIMES MARCH 17, 1997
Prisons
America's Newest Growth Industry:
With Incarceration Rates Soaring, It Was Only Matter of Time Before Entrepreneurs Sniffed Out New Business Opportunity
By Kristin Bloomer
Lockhart, Texas
------------------------------------------
-In 1995, allegations of rape and assault at the privately run High Plains Youth Center in Brush, Colo., prodded the state to admit it could not guarantee inmates' safety at private prisons. Run by the Rebound Corp. in Denver, the 180-bed juvenile facility houses youths from more than two dozen states.

-The Colorado ACLU has sued the Bobby Ross Group, charging delayed access to medical care, overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, inexperienced and under-trained staff, and inadequate programs and services at its private prison in Karnes City.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since the prisons are on private property, the Texas Department of Corrections has its hands tied when it comes to protecting prisoners' First Amendment rights in such cases, according to Glen Castlebury, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Corrections. "There's no regulation whatsoever of the private prisons (in these matters)," he says. "They're scot-free to do whatever they please."

-Some of Wall Street's largest investment houses, including Goldman Sachs & Co. and Smith Barney Inc., are competing to underwrite the bonds for the prisons. (See "Jail house stock," by Ken Silverstein, page 18.) Other huge companies also have a stake. American Express, for example, invested approximately $31 million in the $38 million Great Plains Correctional Facility in Hinton, Okla., according to the prison's warden, Tom Martin. Great Plains is a private prison that houses inmates from North Carolina.

-Private prison companies have some powerful allies in the fight for stiffer sentences and more prison spending. For example, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which has grown from 4,000 to 23,000 in the last decade, gave more than $1 million to various California state politicians in 1996. The prison lobby is also supported by the National Rifle Association. Armed with an agenda of deflecting public fear away from guns and toward people, the NRA successfully lobbies for prison construction and three-strikes-and-you're-out laws.
http://www.prop1.org/legal/prisons/970317itt.htm

[Proud Liberal Dem]

16. I know that this is really nothing new

Michael Moore was talking about this in "Downsize This" and his subsequent documentary, "The Big One". It just aggravates me how crazy stuff like this goes on and is, in fact, promoted by states.

[Raineyb]

43. No they've been insourced to prison labor

that'll be the next business page buzzword too.

And there are people who think this is a good idea. How fucking stupid is this?

Regards

[L0oniX]

56. Actually we are paying $30k a year on average for each prisoner ...so we are just making them work..

for it.

[Dr.Phool]

61. Maybe we have too many prisoners in there for stoopid shit.

Remember back in the '80s and '90s, Voinovich's brother was building all the new prisons.

[L0oniX]

66. This is why it works the way it does. Drug busts don't take a lot of brain power.

But what it does do is juke the system. The cop that gets the most arrests get promoted. The poor detective doesn't because he's only arresting a few because he's on homicides. So the system gets the low life drug busting assholes promoted and the ones with the brains don't. No doubt this packs our prisons with the non violent types and mixes them with the violent ones so by the time they get out they are violent too and of course that helps to feed the system. This is why pot will always be illegal, because it feeds the system on both sides. Dumb ass drug busting cops get promoted and the prisons supply plenty of money to the investors and of course it a jobs thing too.

[johnfunk]

87. Hey, it worked for the Confederacy. didn't it?

</sarcasm>

[Control-Z]

88. If it were written into the law

differently, I guess it could be considered community service. There would have to be a pay-off commensurate with the job. Time served or a pay check.

[pnutbutr]

92. Maybe a bit of hard work will do them good

It's focuses their attention and energy on something productive, saves the city/state money and provides some form of job experience for the inmates once they are released.

[burning rain]

3. Another fine example of how.....

the prison economy helps screw working folks.

[checks-n-balances]

4. This should be on the greatest page

Not because there's any pleasure in reading it, but I see it as one more scheme for cheap/slave/inmate labor to replace workers/wages.

SICKENING.

Please keep it kicked, everybody.

And thank you, TSS, for posting it and keeping us informed.

[hfojvt]

26. and doesn't Ohio have a Democratic Governor?

What about the legislature? Which party controls that in Ohio?

[VeraAgnes]

33. This is a current practice which has been going on

for at least 30 years...maybe longer in Ohio and across America. It is an honor system structure to be eligible for the assignments which they all apply to preform. This is not new so legislation is not indicated by any stretch of the imagination. This system was functioning 100% under all of Ohio's republican governors pre- Ted Strickland. Sounds like the article was evoke by a republican trying to inflame democrats against their democratic govenor....republicans madly searching anything that will stick to the wall......factual or manufactured and manlipulate...they couldn't care less..

[Dr.Phool]

39. No it's not!

Prison labor was NEVER used to replace laid off civilian workers! Every inmate is assigned a job in the system!

[checks-n-balances]

5. Self-delete

(Edited to remove duplicate posting)

[HubertHeaver]

7. This is an exceptionally bad idea. The janitor has the keys to everything.

[checks-n-balances]

9. That may be true, but

what a lame attempt at humor.

[Obamanaut]

10. Some say prisons should provide some sort of rehabilitation. Then

when inmates are given jobs, even menial jobs, others say they are being used as slave labor. Some have never had gainful employment prior to prison, this will give them some experience. They can perhaps get a job at the completion of their sentence - and these must be ok jobs or the union wouldn't be crying about it.

They are incarcerated as punishment. The punishment is being locked up away from families, friends, leisure activities, etc. With 24 hours a day of idle time, they are more likely to find ways to create mischief for the correctional personnel.

Any sort of a job is better than forced idle time. Most inmates will agree that this is true.

I imagine there will be guards available during any cleaning activities. I also doubt the inmates will be given keys to any/all office spaces.

[bvar22]

17. Fine...

...As long as they are paid the current Union Wage.

[Obamanaut]

19. They are being fed and clothed. They are getting medical care.

Their deintal needs are being met. They do not have to pay for transportation to/from anywhere they go. Plus, it frees up a union worker to do other, more important work.

And remember that FOR THE MOST PART they are where they are because of choices THEY have made.

[Dr.Phool]

47. Fed and clothed. Medical care?

:rofl: :rofl:

I've been there. You get fed a couple of lousy meals per day. Some are so bad, they've caused riots. Your clothing is 3 pairs of chinese jeans and a couple of shirts.

You'd get better medical care at a faith healers convention. The mindset is that anyone who is sick is faking it to get out of work. The job that they're required to have behind the fence.

[Obamanaut]

57. You mentioned the amount of stupid on here on another post. Your

screen name, phonetically, says it all.

There are three meals per day of over 2000 calories total. I saw one inmate before and after a kidney transplant, another got a donated eye making him 20/20 in that eye, but still nearly blind in the other, I escorted one to a local emergency room where he received treatment for two full days. There were many more who were escorted to various local hospitals for treatment, requiring 24 hour a day guard duty by two correctional officers.

To save a response to another post, there are only seven (7) institution who use restricted labor squads, and they are almost exclusively inside the fence. Outside would require a larger guard to inmate ratio.

Yes, fed and clothed. Additionally at many, but not all, institutions there are education departments with certified teachers who do a great job. There are vocational programs available at many institutions.
:rofl: :rofl: back atcha

[Dr.Phool]

62. I see you're in Florida,

Are you the PR flack for the Dept. of Corrections? Because, you're not talking about reality. But, you do sound like a Florida Democrat.

[Obamanaut]

63. Retired USN 1988. No PR jobs with anyone. Not working now, not

looking for work, not considering looking for work. At age 66, have no desire to consider looking for work.

[hfojvt]

58. oh that's a good one

losing your job frees you up to do other, more important work.

Any form of manual labor must be unimportant, eh?

[Obamanaut]

65. No, manual labor is not unimportant. However, if there is an inmate

available to do the job, why have the inmate sit around idle, eating taxpayer food, sleeping in taxpayer provided bed, getting taxpayer provided medical and dental care and at the same time pay a union worker to do what the inmate could be doing.

Somehow that does not seem to be efficient use of tax money.

[Raineyb]

74. Because you do not undercut the ability of the non incarcerated to get a job

by using slaves to do it!

Why is this so hard a concept for you to understand?

[Obamanaut]

83. Inmates are not slaves. Why is that so hard for YOU to grasp. Depending

on the state and level of incarceration, it costs about 19 to 30 thousand dollars per year to keep one behind bars. If they work a little, that is sorta like defraying the cost.

Most are there because they transgressed the laws of society. A few were railroaded, some are there due to non-violent victimless crimes, others for various other reasons. But it still costs to keep them. If one can do the job of a $14 (or more) per hour worker, I say fine, save the taxpayer some money.

If the criminal justice system is not working to your satisfaction, then get busy with your friends and neighbors and elect people who will change it.

Have a good night.

[mbperrin]

69. Uh, hello, the dental care is extraction! Got a cavity? Pull the tooth!

Cracked the tooth? Pull it! Chipped? Pull it!

Not a bit of use doubting it. My little brother went in with 32 teeth and came out with 22 7 years later.

Now try to find a job with all your front teeth out. Very nice job by the authorities.

[Obamanaut]

70. My anecdotal evidence is different than yours. I was a dormitory

officer for 6 years. At 11 pm one evening an inmate told me a tooth was killing him. I called the medical department, and they called the on-call dentist at home, who came in and repaired the broken filling.

They did regular cleanings, exrays, the whole dental care regimen. I'm sorry your little brother lost some of his teeth. I guess maybe all systems are not the same.

[Name removed]

80. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Obamanaut]

84. have a good night. nt

[Warren Stupidity]

24. It is when the state replaces paid free labor with prison labor

that we are in the slave labor business.

[Obamanaut]

71. What is "...paid free labor..."? nt

[Raineyb]

73. It is non incarcerated labor.

Apparently an idea that you don't think should exist.

[Obamanaut]

91. Thank you. When you said "free labor" preceded by "paid" it was

unclear what you meant.

[Obamanaut]

11. Deleted - duplicated post

[sarcasmo]

13. Prison Industrial Complex at it's finest. Why we will never have legalized Marijuana.

[SammyWinstonJack]

29. Yep!

x(

[nichomachus]

14. It's pretty sad when you have to commit a crime to get a job

Aren't they afraid that there will be a crime wave among people who want to work?

After all, the right wingers claim that women have babies just to get the millions of dollars in welfare (:sarcasm:) that we give them for each baby.

[ananda]

15. Just another example that proves..

.. that the power elites and the destruction
of the economy have at the heart a desire
to destroy unions and establish a workforce
of slaves or lowpaid minions.

[Joanne98]

18. This was the plan all along.

[Festivito]

23. Wow, government anti-labor forced slavery scabs.

That's yikes, yikes, and yikes.

[madmom]

36. I posted this several days ago and it dropped like a rock, guess timing wasn't right.

:shrug:

[The Straight Story]

76. It is the way of the web :)

Same thing happens to me all the time. Who knows the mysteries that lay within the nets? :)

[Madam Mossfern]

37. Union busting

plain and simple. I have two unemployed sons, looks like to me that they need to get convicted in order to find employment. No?

[VenusRising]

40. The poll on that page just says it all.

Do you think the state should use non-violent prisoners to fill empty jobs at the statehouse to save money?
63% Yes
37% No


I just love how the poll says "empty jobs". The jobs weren't empty because no one wanted them. They were empty because the positions were cut in the budget. I really hate 10TV News. :grr:

[Doremus]

41. Dangerous trend if allowed to continue. Strickland better put a stop to this.

If he expects union members to ever support him again.

Union busting, Democrat style. :mad:

[dembotoz]

45. next thing--crooks in bank--oh wait they are already doing that.

[sarcasmo]

49. Kick back to the top, this just tea bags me.

[Dr.Phool]

52. Yeah, the stoopid in this place is getting overwhelming lately.

:puke:

To think that some "Democrats" support letting prison labor replace union workers is beyond belief.

[sarcasmo]

54. It doesn't surprise me, remember the Union bashing of GM?

[Raineyb]

75. This is absoultely disgusting!

How the hell does anyone call themselves a Democrat and support the use of slave labor to undercut the workforce? Unbelievable!

[L0oniX]

55. Talk about out sourcing jobs ...WTF

[Dr.Phool]

77. Kick!

Just to keep the stupidity alive!

You apologists for prison labor, taking union jobs are just plain assholes!

I hope you die penniless and destitute. And I hope your job was outsourced!

[The Straight Story]

78. Tell them how you really feel

:)

And I agree with you btw.

[Dr.Phool]

79. If I told them how I really feel, I'd be tombstoned in a heartbeat!

[Dr.Phool]

81. And, I just used the ignore function, for the first time in seven years.

I'm really pissed!

[The Straight Story]

82. It wasn't on me I hope!

:)

[Dr.Phool]

85. Nope. Still see you!

[Dr.Phool]

86. Kick!

One last time for the sheer stupidity of some posters.

[underpants]

89. and Naomi Klein said what....

:think: