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Exclusive: Inmates to strike in Alabama, declare prison is “running a slave empire”
Salon ^ | April 18, 2014 | Josh Eidelson

Posted on 04/21/2014 8:34:06 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Seriously?! It’s prison ... not an all inclusive vacation hotspot!


81 posted on 04/22/2014 4:29:51 AM PDT by al_c (Obama's standing in the world has fallen so much that Kenya now claims he was born in America.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Don’t like the time? don’t do the crime.


82 posted on 04/22/2014 5:07:07 AM PDT by bikerman (God is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, but Satan is most definitely a Democrat.)
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To: freedomfiter2

That’s essentially what happens but wage garnishment from the courts for things like child support or taxes would probably overrule the state getting their cut.

Remove all the weight lifting equipment. gone


83 posted on 04/22/2014 5:13:58 AM PDT by AppyPappy
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To: EQAndyBuzz
Sure it does. The local economy sees the benefits. Those companies who make the money can hire other workers. Workers who could have very well been the victims of these animals.

The local economy would do even better if they hired the citizens to do the work instead of using the convict labor at a fraction of the cost. Convict labor puts the honest citizen out of a job.

The only labor prisoners should be doing is breaking rocks, digging ditches, and cleaning public roads, not fattening the pockets of Insider Corporations at tax payer expense.

84 posted on 04/22/2014 6:13:17 AM PDT by Count of Monte Fisto (The foundation of modern society is the denial of reality.)
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To: dfwgator
And are they not learning a skill they could apply in the real world once they get out? Sounds like a “Win-Win” to me.

I like it too. I would be in favor of using prisoners in areas where they could become skilled, and where the company would promise to retain them as employees upon release.

They ones who work would get better food, and access to entertainment. You don't want to work? Get used to baloney sandwiches and oatmeal.

85 posted on 04/22/2014 6:24:37 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: RegulatorCountry

I don’t have a problem with that


86 posted on 04/22/2014 6:29:14 AM PDT by Nifster
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To: Jonty30
If I’m a furniture manufacturer and, if I’m paying a woodworker $27/hour, plus the employment taxes, it might cost me $75 in labour to have somebody make a table. However, if I only have to pay an inmate $9 to make that same table

Right there is the flaw in your reasoning. You assume the inmate can do as good a job, and as fast a job, as a skilled and experienced woodworker. If an unskilled idiot could do the same job as the $27/hr woodworker, you would save even more money by putting the factory in a right-to-work state, and hiring minimum wage labor.

The value of prison labor, is that the employer can invest time in some of the prisoners to get them skilled, which will give them a trade once they get out of prison.

87 posted on 04/22/2014 6:31:16 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: Jonty30

I have NEVER heard of a case of someone ‘screaming at night in the cots’.....Your hyperbole is too much. You seem to avoid the fact that FELONS are in PRISON for doing bad things. Taking my property, threatening me with a weapon, killing people are not behaviors I want to encourage in any form.

You of course don’t mention the fact that prisoners can get their education on my dime if they so desire. They get medical care that I pay for. They eat on my dime. The fact that tax payers foot the bill to feed, house,cloth, and care fore these miscreants seems to not be part of your thought process. They should not be given prevailing wages or anything like it unless you want them to pay for their entire stay at full cost.


88 posted on 04/22/2014 6:34:08 AM PDT by Nifster
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To: MurrietaMadman

And it is not worth warm spit but nice try

“The Global Research website was established on the 9th of September 2001, two days before the tragic events of September 11. Barely a few days later, Global Research had become a major news source on the New World Order and Washington’s “war on terrorism”.”

Just another NGO with a view point. I have heard the commies and libs for YEARS tell me how awful the US prison system is. What is TRUE slavery is spending your children’s and grandchildren’s wealth.

There is not one specific business named in the so called article. There is lots of fluff and bluster.


89 posted on 04/22/2014 6:46:47 AM PDT by Nifster
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To: octex

And I bet you and I agree that this was a good use of the their labor


90 posted on 04/22/2014 6:49:41 AM PDT by Nifster
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Reading that put to mind the orc ditty from the Rankin-Bass version of Return of the King.
I’d sing it to them sarcastically too.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VoAfb3f04mo


91 posted on 04/22/2014 6:53:35 AM PDT by Darksheare (Try my coffee, first one's free..... Even robots will kill for it!)
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To: octex
Prisoners in US prisons are probably more coddeled than those in other countries

I ran medical clinics in prisons for almost twenty years.

Prison is a horrible place, and the inmates live a brutal existence - not, it's true, from the authorities, but from each other.

Prison in its current form should be abolished. There are many more effective punishments.

92 posted on 04/22/2014 7:21:48 AM PDT by Jim Noble (When strong, avoid them. Attack their weaknesses. Emerge to their surprise.)
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To: Jim Noble
There are many more effective punishments.

Such as....

93 posted on 04/22/2014 7:22:23 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Nifster
“The Global Research website was established on the 9th of September 2001, two days before the tragic events of September 11.

Sounds like part of one of them conspiratorial theories but that's one reason for the FWIW.

Another reason was it provides the names of companies who are alleged to use prison labor if you wanted to check them out.

IBM, Boeing, Dell, Compaq, Microsoft, Revlon, Intel and Motorola are listed on the graphic as among some of the companies that are alleged to have operations inside state prisons.

94 posted on 04/22/2014 7:31:27 AM PDT by MurrietaMadman (Reading... it's FUNdamental.)
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To: MurrietaMadman

I know in California some of those companies do TRAINING for inmates. They teach them a set of skills that they might use if and when they ever get out.

I hardly consider that to be USING slave labor.

I guess my biggest gripe is that when the lefties want to damage the US they don’t care what the facts are they just spew propaganda


95 posted on 04/22/2014 7:38:39 AM PDT by Nifster
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To: dfwgator

“Such as?”

1) Hanging
2) Lashes
3) Indentures for restitution.

There is a wealth of evidence that, far from being an effective punishment, prison makes most inmates worse.


96 posted on 04/22/2014 7:41:04 AM PDT by Jim Noble (When strong, avoid them. Attack their weaknesses. Emerge to their surprise.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

A prison is a government institution. Like all government institutions, it is subject to fraud and abuse. While I’m all in favor of putting prisoners to work as part of their punishment and rehabilitation, we do need to be careful to make sure that the system isn’t being used to exploit people beyond which is fair or just.

At the same time, of course convicts who don’t want the work are going to complain about it. And crying “wolf” too often leads to people not treating the real thing seriously.

It’s a tough issue - there needs to be oversight, but not to the point where the process can be used to subvert the legitimate goals.


97 posted on 04/22/2014 7:43:46 AM PDT by kevkrom (I'm not an unreasonable man... well, actually, I am. But hear me out anyway.)
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To: Jonty30

Another possible compromise might be to only use convict labor for public-works projects, to eliminate the profit motive entirely and really focus on the whole “debt to society” angle.


98 posted on 04/22/2014 7:45:33 AM PDT by kevkrom (I'm not an unreasonable man... well, actually, I am. But hear me out anyway.)
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To: AlmaKing
Is slavery or involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime allowable under our Constitution?

Well, yes. That's what the phrase "except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted" means.

99 posted on 04/22/2014 7:48:40 AM PDT by kevkrom (I'm not an unreasonable man... well, actually, I am. But hear me out anyway.)
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To: Jonty30
No prison I know of, and I have worked state and federal institutions, has the capability to suppress cell phone activity as it would bleed over into the civilian population, also most correctional workers only have cell phones and wouldn't allow themselves to be cut off from their families and friends. many gangbangers try to buy or smuggle phones in, but many loosely run institutions have inmates using internet and wifi connections. there are a lot of tech savy inmates that can scam the system and play on line.
The feds pay inmate labor on hourly and piece work for Federal Prison Industries, they also get job longevity pay. they usually only can manufacture things not in competition locally or with union workers they have made boots and shoes for military and mailbags for ups also furniture for IRS and federal offices also Cable work for military equipment while they don't make union scale 3-5 hundred a month is not unheard of. they also have to make restitution payments etc. the states don't have the money to pay inmate labor much but for those working they get some money as an incentive. but most inmates have to work to make the time pass and learn a trade when they can or if they are going to get out. I know of no state that could survive the litigation of incarcerating innocent people but there are corruptible and desperate people working in all areas of government and institutions usually on the county jail level could they stay hidden for a while.
100 posted on 04/22/2014 8:30:32 AM PDT by bdfromlv (Leavenworth hard time)
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