Posted on 04/02/2018 5:36:51 PM PDT by BBell
The Louisiana House of Representatives voted 75-7 to potentially expand the use of state inmate labor by the government Monday (April 2). The legislation generated no debate from lawmakers on the House floor, but all seven lawmakers who voted against the bill are African American Democrats.
House Bill 84 would allow the governor to authorize prisoners to do work other than custodial duties at the Department of Corrections headquarters in Baton Rouge. Officials are currently using prisoners to build a fence around the building, among other things, and it's "unclear" if inmates can be used for those jobs. Gov. John Bel Edwards supports this legislation. The Senate will now take it up for consideration.
Currently, with the governor's permission, Louisiana prisoners are allowed to do renovations, maintenance, construction projects worth less than $200,000, custodial duties, cooking, gardening and landscaping at the state Capitol, governor's mansion and correctional facilities.
Prisoners also clean many state office buildings and local jails, though the type of work they can do in these facilities is more limited. When prisons work off-site in state facilities -- regardless of what they do -- they either use the work to earn credit toward an earlier release or get paid 4 to 70 cents per hour.
This legislation wouldn't increase the number of prisoners working at state office buildings, but it would ensure they can continue to do jobs that they already perform at the Department of Corrections' headquarters.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
“I’m shakin’ it, boss!”
I was waitin for a cool hand Luke reference. Didn’t take long.
They use prison labor to take care of the capital complex. Does any other state do that?
Of course someone has a problem with this.
In the old days, they were used in chain gangs...just like Cool Hand Luke.
The state pen, Angola, had one of the best gardens in the state back then....LOL
TN
To create a govt monopoly of slave labor.
The Constitution of the USA is just that.
Most of the prisoners want outside to clean up.
As long as the prisoners are getting paid and volunteer for the job it’s a win/win for everybody.
Graffiti Be Gone!
Let them harvest turnips or peaches or whatever. That might alleviate the shortage of farm labor and have then earn some real money.
I have seen chain gangs but not around where I live very often.
Three of us were putting in emergency preparedness systems into corrections. i did 15 states. Two other guys went to Louisiana. They passed out reading the firt 5 minutes because it wasn’t shipped in advance. All Lt/s and above. A Lt pulls done of them aside. These boys can’t read too good, maybe you’d better just explain it. This was 1985ish.
At that time a starting guard made 395 a month and they made extra money selling cigarettes and hygiene products to the inmates for cash.
“...Angola is still a self sufficient prison. I think it’s the only one left in the country....”
I heard in the old days, that they didn’t even need much of a fence there. They worked em from dawn to dusk so hard that they were too damn tired to attempt an escape. I also heard that there was only one road in and out, that the prison is on a peninsula of the Mississippi River on three sides. No one could swim across it due the fast moving water. They couldn’t go thru the woods as it was stocked with eastern diamondback rattlesnakes and thus no real need for a big fence. I suspect many probably tried and died doing so back then.
Of course, today, the libs have probably totally mucked all that up like everything else they touch.
It’s a hell of a lot better than just sitting in the day rooms...you get better food (Mickey D’s/Wendy’s etc.... you earn your hot water type of thing. But you gfet out and actually do something.
Nevada Smith escaped.
Yep - many a Rochester, NY street was shoveled off by prisoners back in the Winters of the ‘40s and early ‘50s...
It’s good for the prisoners and good for the taxpayers...of course many Democrats have a problem with it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.