2.4 Million people in USA ready to work for $0.25 A Day Corporations hiring now!

reply to post by the owlbear


They charge in county jails here but prison is still free. I know people who were in jail locally, they got charged for the time. I thought this was about prisons not county jails.

charles1952
One of my problems is that I'm not quick to understand things that are obvious to other people. This thread is an example. In short, what is it, specifically, that's wrong here?

Do people believe that corporations are causing illegal arrests of people so the corporations can profit?

Is the belief that somebody is causing illegal arrests? Who?

Is it that re-spooling ribbons, tying bows, or hammering together furniture is cruel and unusual punishment?

Perhaps the problem is that prisoners aren't getting union wages?

I'm not saying everything is right. What I'm saying is that everybody is saying that it's wrong, and I'm trying to find out why it's wrong.

There are many points of view from which this practice is bad. For example:
1. Price of good (labor) should be decided by market forces with no or minimal role of "state". Here the "state" (in fact corporations) totally distorts prices on labor market. So it is un-capitalistic so to speak, at least as mainstream discourse go. Not yet incarcerated workers gets less money and are hence more likely to commit "crime" and get incarcerated.
2. It is against Jesus will: Should not worker get fair reward for his work? .... And from it pay something back to victims of his crime? Oh ... what if there is no victim?

And so far ...

Hey, wake up! How is it possible that land of free have the f... largest prison population on planet not only per capita but absolutely? In Sweden they are closing prisons because lack of inmates. Why it is not possible in US?

The home of the free and the land of the brave indeed!
And a whole lot of these 'workers' are incarcerated for using
a natural substance that has been proven by Rick Simpson to
cure all forms of cancer.

The utter disgrace of it all!
It should turn the stomach of every decent American out there!

Governments and Corporations are the real enemies of the people.

reply to post by colddeadhands

Rehabilitation is a joke in prison.

I guess it is if you think there is no need to change the thinking process.

It is very easy to sit on the sidelines and take pot shots at things you do not comprehend.

I say give prisoners a minimum wage that goes for their keep (paid to prison), and pay them 25 cents a day. It costs $29,000 a year to keep a federal prisoner and $168,000 a year in New York City.

reply to post by donlashway


This is a big issue, for all of you on A.T.S. who don't think it is going to effect you, unless you are over 50, you are absolutely wrong.

With the Citizens United ruling, corporations are not only allowed to be in charge of prisons for profit, but are able to dump unlimited amounts of money into law-making. Corporations are also shown the behave like psychopaths through real behavioral analysis done by social psychologists.

When a corporation is running a prison for profit, it is in their best interest to keep those prisons at or around 95% capacity in order to make the most out of slave labor.

What this means, guys, is that you will probably end up going to jail for something stupid at some point in your life, even if you are not a criminal, it could become as commonplace, or much more so, than taking a vacation.

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I already had experiences with the police in Idaho, and they basically do shuffle people in and out of jail there in order to make money for the private businesses that run them - the police don't follow any protocols or anything like that, and the jails, either -

a lot of money is also made off of feeding the prisoners, in the commissary, for example, a prisoner must pay 60 cents for a single packet of Ramen that normally costs 10 cents.

-----

A lot of times, being prisons, they will not even hold up to the standards placed upon them by law. For example, some people I know were doing work fixing up the jail while they were inside, and it involved health hazards and they used no protective gear.

-----

If you stop reading now and think "I'm not a criminal" - you are wrong. We are all now criminals, regardless of what we do.

You honestly do not need to do anything wrong in the U.S. to end up in a prison labor camp, you just need to get caught up in the wrong set of paperwork - and I'm NOT joking.

rickymouse
reply to post by the owlbear

 

They charge in county jails here but prison is still free. I know people who were in jail locally, they got charged for the time. I thought this was about prisons not county jails.

Good point RickyMouse, over in Idaho there were some small businesses making money off the county jails, similar setup, smaller scale.

reply to post by elouina


I believe prisoners should work, and they should be taught skills they can use in the job market when they are released from prison. (and in some cases state licensing)

Someone asked about do prisoners get a reference from prison? The answer is yes, when they leave the prison with skills they also have work references from inside the prison.

It has been my understanding that people work to do things that provide for their own upkeep in the prisons. They make their own prison uniforms in the prison uniform factory, (also bed linens etc.) they learn HVAC and become licensed technicians by doing the maintenance and upkeep on the heating and cooling inside the prisons... and the list goes on. From what I have heard all osha standards are maintained and taught.

Working inside prisons gives people a work ethic they, in many cases, were never taught before they went into prison, If they are inside long enough they can acquire skills to succeed in life once they are out.

Prison food is free, 3 meals a day... that packet of ramen noodles is not a necessity to survive in prison as a result, its a treat.

So long as the prisoners are working to acquire skills necessary in life, and working to provide their own environment in prison's rather than having taxpayer's supporting them, I support them working.

I have yet to hear of any prisons staring up whole factories for products the American people purchase, therefore I do not believe they are taking jobs away from Americans. They are merely supporting themselves more efficiently. Until Chevy starts up a factory at a prison near you, what everyone is so concerned about is a waste of energy..

They are not being treated as slaves. I know and work with some ex prisoners. The ones who walked out with the skills to start life anew do much better when they get out than ones who did not acquire skills while they were inside.

It can make the difference between getting out of prison and having a normal productive life or getting out of prison and going right back to being a criminal.

And to another poster's comment, yes, any money that a prisoner did not spend on ramen noodles and whatnot the prisoner gets when they leave prison. Some do use what they make as a small nest egg when they get out. But if they leave the prison with nothing the prison provides a bus ticket to anywhere the ex prisoner chooses and a set of clothes and a few dollars.

One day hopefully people will look back on the idea of private corporations running prisons as for-profit legal sweatshops as shameful, akin to slavery.

I believe the largest intake of prisoners is for non-violent crimes, and mostly for non-violent drug related crime. It is a rort perpetrated upon the population by people like Harry Ainslinger, using racial profiling and stereotyping to identify a menace that did not exist, at the behest of corporations like Du Pont, who had exciting new petrochemical products to market. If only that damned hemp wasn't so easy to produce, one can imagine an industrialist thinking.

I am not suggesting in any way, shape or form that people taking drugs is necessarily a good thing, but the so-called 'War on drugs' is out of control, quite possibly a huge contributing factor in the machinery of the industrial-corporate-military-narco state that simultaneously brings the stuff into the country, exports weapons to friendly regimes, and have the discretion to bust who they choose, all the while reaping enormous profits (and no doubt have shares in private prisons).

I thought prison was for removing dangerous people out of the public, punishing those who are 'criminals', and the (mostly forgotten these days) idea of rehabilitation.

Part of the resistance toward a saner policy on drugs is due to those who benefit from having things the way they are. Drug-related offences should be reclassfied, and fall under 'health and medical issues', not criminal ones. No doubt if this happens, prison populations will fall, and (hopefully) the idea that prisoners are resources to be used as labour, (certainly of benefit to no worker fighting for decent wages and conditions) will be seen as a divisive and potentially dangerous instrument if actually wanting for the idea of a greater good in society.

Bassago
reply to post by donlashway

 

This whole idea of (almost) legalized slavery in the US has bugged me for a long time. I've always wondered what they would do to you in the prisons if you simply refused to take them up on the oh so generous offer.

If you're in a private prison and they want you to work, if you refuse you go into solitary confinement which is internationally recognized as torture. In public prisons work detail is something people voluntarily do to pass the time, not so in private prisons. There you either work for pennies per hour or you're tortured.

OpinionatedB
I have yet to hear of any prisons staring up whole factories for products the American people purchase, therefore I do not believe they are taking jobs away from Americans. They are merely supporting themselves more efficiently. Until Chevy starts up a factory at a prison near you, what everyone is so concerned about is a waste of energy..

There's entire domestic industries that are over 75% run by prisons.

Manufacturing paint is a big one, military contractors making things like body armor is done entirely by prisoners. A lot of textiles are prison made. The list of what corporations use prison labor and the industries they're in is so large it's impossible to avoid shopping at those corporations. Made all the more difficult by the fact that prison labor going into a product isn't advertised. It's literally the reimplementation of slavery and no one gives a damn because to oppose the practice is to be soft on crime.

reply to post by cuckooold


I work with someone who was in prison for almost 10 years. He was one of the biggest drug dealers in this area.

(non-violent... dealing drugs which gets people hooked to the point of stealing and/or selling their bodies to get more, even killing for it at times)

He made a LOT of money at it... it was also the only life he knew.

He got caught, he went to prison. They "forced" him to work 8 hours a day 5 days a week, at first in the prison kitchen and then he got into one of the programs in the prison where he was taught and became a licensed HVAC technician. He continued to work as an HVAC technician until he got out of prison.

Once he got out of prison he makes a decent living as an HVAC technician, while it does not earn the amount he made as a drug dealer he can support himself without difficulty and he can hold his head up with pride at who he is today. He doesn't have to look over his shoulder constantly and worry about going to prison, because he makes an honest living.

He regrets what he did, and is against drug dealing today. At the time he thought it wasn't a bad thing, the people were going to get it somewhere it may as well be from him... but now he sees it as being a part of the problem and feeding into it, rather than being a solution.

And drugs ARE a problem, just look at the inner cities today and try and tell me they aren't!

But, if it weren't for prison he wouldn't have the life he has today, and he is happy he got the opportunities that he did while he was there.... not everyone is so lucky to get a second chance... for some people, prison really is a second chance.

And what I see in this thread, is people acting like working 40 hours a week in prison is somehow a bad thing...and wanting to take away a real second chance from people who should be able to get it for the good of our society.

reply to post by OpinionatedB


Poverty is THE problem of the inner city.
Drug use and abuse is just as prevalent among the surburbian utopias all the way up to the highest of "society". It is just well-hidden. And if a problem gets too bad, rehab is affordable for these tiers. Toronto's mayor, much? But I don't want to distract from a great thread too much...

The person you know is lucky...most of the time prison only works as a means of networking for convicts. Very few programs are available for re education or reintroduction to society. Or helping people turn their lives around.

reply to post by donlashway


Reading through the replies, some say it's OK prisoners working. I agree, in fact I think prisons should be self sustaining. No tax dollars to run them. But by farming their own food. Making their own cloths. Selling some surplus. Yes, they should maintain the facility themselves.

I do not think they should be getting manufacturing jobs, IT jobs or any other jobs that would normally be paying more than minimum wage. If they are viable industrial workers then shouldn't they be allowed to form their own collective bargaining units? Think that might keep the abuses to a minimum or just add another layer of corruption?

This had been a reply to a reply in a old 5/23/12 post Prison inmates or disposable slaves?

The original story Lawsuit alleges toxic exposure at prison in Fla.

That's the problem for me who protects them? Who makes sure they are safe? OSHA think again, budget cuts, no authority in prisons over prisoners but the staff sure thing.

Exploitation of anything or anyone is a bad thing by definition.

reply to post by OpinionatedB


If the drugs that are flooded onto our urban streets are brought into the country by agencies like the CIA (and I've heard plenty of rumours regarding the DEA), which was proved to have happened in Vietnam (anyone remember Air America?), and also Iran-Contra, does that not make the laws seem somewhat rigged?

Here's a tiny taste of what may be going on behind the scenes;

www.foxnews.com...

Now nowhere in my post did I say that drugs are not a problem. What I did say was that for a lot of people they should be classified as a health issue, and not a criminal one. Should someone go to jail for smoking a weed, or sticking a piece of metal in their arm. These are not criminal offences to my eyes - yes, if this person breaks into my house to steal something of value, that is a crime, but for seemingly arbitrary laws (seeing that the 2 most harmful substances whch cause more deaths per capita are in fact legal), I think this a mere excuse to justify targeting certain groups and leaving others alone. If you ever reach the point where you see the 'War on drugs' for what it really is, you may understand why no matter how much money they throw at the problem, it never gets better. Once you work out that the same team is batting and fielding, you understand that the laws prop these people up, and they'll fight with everything they've got to hold on to their lucrative business.

I have no issues at all with someone in prison being trained at something which will give them valid skills which may be used upon release, but it seems that many prisons are simply acting as a cheap labour hire force, allowing the U.S to be competitive with such bastions of workers rights like Bangladesh and Indonesia. I'd be surprised if any great skills were being developed in such places.

Working in prison 40 hours a week may not be a bad thing if certain things are provided, like safe working conditions, and having the opportunity to better oneself in a capacity useful for society. If it's just a cheap slave labour force to line some shareholders pockets, then I think it disgraceful.

this thread demonstrates..

TRAITOR COPS ARE THE MAIN REASON FOR TYRANNY!

EVERY BADGE PARTICIPATES IN THIS HORRIBLE PRACTICE.

can't wait until the complete breakdown, then all former cops will be labeled, hunted down and brought to JUSTICE, for it is the redcoats CAUSING the TYRANNY!

every last OUNCE of TYRANNY.... IS DIRECTLY a result of POLICE ACTIONS!

reply to post by donlashway


WHy would they let dangerous criminals out of the prison so they could possibly escape? I mean you can't really believe that they want to work for such a crappy pay, they're just looking for any opportunity to bust out and this is a gem for them.
Stupid idiotic states. Bet NJ is one of them. Because they have no common sense here.

reply to post by donlashway


The quoted source for the article,: The Prison Industry in the United States: Big Business or a New Form of Slavery? Global Research

There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. According to California Prison Focus, “no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens.” The figures show that the United States has locked up more people than any other country: a half million more than China, which has a population five times greater than the U.S. Statistics reveal that the United States holds 25% of the world’s prison population, but only 5% of the world’s people.

We are number 1,We are number 1, oops that's a bad thing?

What has happened over the last 10 years? Why are there so many prisoners? “The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners’ work lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce.

For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.

Thanks to prison labor, the United States is once again an attractive location for investment in work that was designed for Third World labor markets. A company that operated a maquiladora (assembly plant in Mexico near the border) closed down its operations there and relocated to San Quentin State Prison in California. In Texas, a factory fired its 150 workers and contracted the services of prisoner-workers from the private Lockhart Texas prison, where circuit boards are assembled for companies like IBM and Compaq. [Former] Oregon State Representative Kevin Mannix recently urged Nike to cut its production in Indonesia and bring it to his state, telling the shoe manufacturer that “there won’t be any transportation costs; we’re offering you competitive prison labor (here).”

Was filled with more information and links to even more.

Something that came out in replies, not sure who posted but adds to the story, you can't get out until all your bills and fines are paid? Wow! Get paid to house them, make money working them, charge them for the pleasure and add time or fees as you please. What a deal.......

reply to post by donlashway


however, free board and lodging...free everything, except you, that is

reply to post by reject


There have been stories of people getting into prison just for free health care.
Remember one local bank robbery where the guy just went outside and sat in his car awaiting the police.

I hear they are hiring....

reply to post by charles1952


I think it has to do with the fact that not all prosecutions are accurate and that convicts as deemed by the law are just that. Deemed by the law, that with 2.4 million prisoners at least a few of them don't belong in there and are being subject to slave labor.