'This is slavery': U.S. inmates strike (again)

Did actual slaves get cable TV?

Three meals a day?

A chance at finishing high school?

A chance at obtaining a college degree?

*crickets*

I feel so bad for these guys, man. Volunteering for work details and then not getting paid a "living wage."

a reply to: Shamrock6

Did actual slaves get cable TV?
Three meals a day?
A chance at finishing high school?
A chance at obtaining a college degree? *crickets*

Not that I agree with the word slave being whipped out in this article.

I think you can be a slave and have cable, why would that have anything to do with freedom to enrich yourself from your labor?

I think you can be educated and be a slave, and also have meals provided.

I think most people think you have to be a slave circa 1840 on a cotton plantation with all the negative trappings. This isn't true.
Slavery is a state of mind brought on by your surroundings and exploitation.
I fully expect prisons to punishment and rehabilitation convicts. But making a profit off prison labor somehow does seem kinds slavish to me. Especially when the victims are left damaged, where is there $.
So in a perverted way the worse the crime the longer an inmate is incarcerated. So the longer the inmate can work for a prison factory the better. This is more profitable than a short sentence, "employee (inmate) turn over" cost money to train replacement inmates of course.

Slavery- Oxford Dictionaries

the state of being a slave:
"thousands had been sold into slavery"

synonyms: bondage · enslavement · servitude · thralldom · thrall
the practice or system of owning slaves.

synonyms: bondage · enslavement · servitude · thralldom ·

a condition compared to that of a slave in respect of exhausting labor or restricted freedom:
"female domestic slavery"

synonyms: drudgery · toil · hard labor · grind · travail · moil
excessive dependence on or devotion to something:
"slavery to tradition"

a reply to: seasonal

So doing voluntary work and getting paid for it (though not paid "enough"), while having a roof over your head, for free, meals provide, for free, cable television, for free, access to education from a high school level up to and including a graduate level, for free, is synonymous with slavery?


ri·dic·u·lous.


[rəˈdikyələs]


ADJECTIVE



1.deserving or inviting derision or mockery; absurd:

Another definition for you. Know what defines slavery? The person doing the work, being treated like property, and having no ability to withdraw from the work or the system.

An inmate on a work detail can withdraw as easily as anybody else can quit their job. In fact, even easier, since quitting their work detail won't cost them the roof over their head, or their food, or anything else.

The only work detail that should be going on in prisons is work that provides for the prison population (laundry, kitchen, cleaning, etc).

Using prisoners to manufacture goods for private corporations means taking jobs away from the general public.

It's no different than if that same company were to relocate their manufacturing base to China or Mexico.

a reply to: Shamrock6

I grant you your opinion, and I partially agree.

I think if there is any profits to be made, it goes to the victim first.
If that dept is satisfied, then a bank account will be set up for the inmate with a $ limit to be determined by local economic costs of living/rent/auto.
This would further the goal of lowering recidivism. That would be my goal if I were king for a day. I'm not sure if that is the current goal of our system.

Just because these people made a mistake doesn't mean we as a society should turn our backs on the ones that can indeed become a productive people. If the record taints the person and they can't get gameful employment, guess what happens. Crime, and the tax payer pays again to incarcerate them plus more victims.

a reply to: seasonal

I partially agree with you, as well. But the bottom line is nobody is forcing them to work. They sign up for work details, nobody makes them do them. It's not as if it's a secret that they get paid pennies per hour on a detail; everybody knows how much they get paid, and which details make what.

I find it hard to feel bad for somebody that volunteers for something they don't like.

a reply to: Shamrock6

I think if you and I were on a board to review and make recommendations to a prison to reduce recidivism, stop violence, proper use of prison labor, etc. I think we would be able to make solid changes that would improve the present state of affairs.