Slave Labor
 

This is part of the current issue with unemployment. A prison for profit society that uses prison labor and then restricts immigration, gives taxes break to corporations and bust unions.
Wells Fargo Bank has it hands in profiting from prisons :(


http://www.thegrio.com/news/is-force...to-georgia.php

Hmmmm....picking cotton......can you say SLAVERY????

This is disgusting.

Wisconsin Governor prision labor
 

Michelle Alexandra post:

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/20...-prison-labor/

The prison industry in now private and for profit. Yes if you break a law you should have consequences, but you should not be used as labor for profit.

This is seriously disturbing to me.

over 50% of the parolees are POC? Modern day racism in the most disturbing kind of way. It's so frickin' obvious and blatant to me. Yet, these people get away with it.

I'm confused
 

Are you speaking to the boon in prison privatization by corporations like the GEO Group and Wackenhut?

or

Are you speaking to the privatization/for profit nature of prison industry known as Insourcing (the transfer of once private industry jobs to contract labor by inmate prison industry "jobs"?)

Both :praying:

I do not believe in private prisons whether for profit or not. It is the purvue of the state to inflict punishment upon its citizens convicted of a crime.

I do not believe in prison labor replacing (displacing) paid employment.

Having said both of those things, I believe that all prisoners should have a job that they are required to do. I think the prison itself should be run completely with prisoner labor. (except for guards and counselors.) I think they should grow their own food, raise their own animals for meat, paint, do repairs, cut the grass, clean the building, etc. I also think that there should be some kind of system whereby they can earn money to make restitution to the individuals and families they have harmed. If they steal or destroy something, they should have to replace it or upgrade it. If they harm someone, they should work to pay that persons medical bills and replace their lost income. It they kill someone, they should have to provide income to the deceased's families for the rest of their lives.

And to tell you the truth, though I count myself as a flaming liberal, I am not opposed to a little chain gang labor either - especially for child molesters or for people who continually are out of control while in prison.

These words are spoken by a Mom whose 22 year old son has been in prison for four years with two to go. He did the crime. He is doing the time. I hope he will learn by it.

By the way, the prison he is in has no employment opportunities and no training opportunities either. All the guys do all day is lay around, watch a very very old TV, and pump iron. He will come out with no vocational training or experience. Even he thinks a chain gang would be better.
Smooches,
Keri

Kick backs for sentences, caught in the for profit system
 

Young Women jailed for myspace page.

http://www.alternet.org/story/151540...ple_each_year/

Ok, for clarification sake...

My understanding of the first article is that:

1) the people who are working are people who are NOT currently in prison, but are paroled.

2)It is up to them as to whether or not they want the jobs.

3)It is up to the farmers as to whether or not they want to hire them or hire nonparolees (but, I am assuming they are encouraged to hire the parolees, or there is no point to the whole thing).

4)They are paid $7.25-$9.00 per hour.

Is any of this incorrect?

The prisons profiting is a different issue to me (but yes, I get how it fits).

Personally, I am more pissed about undocumented workers possibly being charged with felonies and given punishments of up to 15 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

This reminds me of a client I have. Her son is in prison and did some work for a while. When he was moved to a unit where he no longer worked, but instead learned how to write a resume (and other useful things about work, actually), he became really depressed. For him, working kept his mind off of being in prison and made him feel more productive.

Of course, learning to write a resume, learning interviewing skills and such as that is certainly useful, but for this inmate, it is unnecessary. He was gainfully employed working with computers prior to his arrest and will be able to go back into this field. The prison should individualize training versus work.

Ok, so I kind of went off track there from what you are saying, but my main point is just that out of the three years that he has been there, those 5 months while in prison were useful to him and useful to the prison (he did laundry detail, I believe).