Zone1 Prison inmates forced to work or is it a privilege

[lg325]

MSN

Should inmates be forced to work? It's allowed by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Should it be ended? I had a number of relatives who did a hard time and spent 23 1/2 hours a day mostly in a small cell with 3 other inmates with an open toilet and a small sink embedded in the wall they told me they were glad to get out and do anything especially if it was outside.

 

[MisterBeale]

13TH | FULL FEATURE | Netflix​

"Combining archival footage with testimony from activists and scholars, director Ava DuVernay's examination of the U.S. prison system looks at how the country's history of racial inequality drives the high rate of incarceration in America.

This piercing, Oscar-nominated film won Best Documentary at the Emmys, the BAFTAs and the NAACP Image Awards. US Rating: TV-MA For mature audiences.

May not be suitable for ages 17 and under. "

 

[MisterBeale]

Captive Labor: Exploitation of Incarcerated Workers | ACLU

We examined the injustices of prison labor nationwide — and lay the foundation for a more equitable path forward.

www.aclu.org

Forced to work and stripped of standard workplace protections​

". . . From the moment they enter the prison gates, incarcerated people lose the right to refuse to work. This is because the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protects against slavery and involuntary servitude, explicitly excludes from its reach those held in confinement due to a criminal conviction. The roots of modern prison labor can be found in the ratification of this exception clause at the end of the Civil War, which disproportionately encouraged the criminalization and effective re-enslavement of Black people during the Jim Crow era, with impacts that persist to this day.

Today, more than 76 percent of incarcerated workers surveyed by the Bureau of Justice Statistics say that they are required to work or face additional punishment such as solitary confinement, denial of opportunities to reduce their sentence, and loss of family visitation. They have no right to choose what type of work they do and are subject to arbitrary, discriminatory, and punitive decisions by the prison administrators who select their work assignments.

U.S. law also explicitly excludes incarcerated workers from the most universally recognized workplace protections. Incarcerated workers are not covered by minimum wage laws or overtime protection, are not afforded the right to unionize, and are denied workplace safety guarantees. . . . "

The is an argument to be made, that the criminalization of being poor, and America's school to pipeline prison system, would disappear over-night, if corporations were not incentivizing the imprisonment of the poor.

 

[progressive hunter]

MSN

Should inmates be forced to work? It's allowed by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Should it be ended? I had a number of relatives who did a hard time and spent 23 1/2 hours a day mostly in a small cell with 3 other inmates with an open toilet and a small sink embedded in the wall they told me they were glad to get out and do anything especially if it was outside.

they shouldnt be forced to,, if they choose not to that another story,,

it means they get 23 and 1 with minimal freedom and second choice meals,,

every big prison should be designed to have grounds to have a garden to provide food for prisoners,,
the more they do to provide for their confinement the better,,

all based on a behavior scale and with the understanding if they try to escape they will be shot on sight and have their sentence doubled,,

 

[EvilCat Breath]

They really do think prison life is watching TV and working out at the prison gym.

 

[progressive hunter]

They really do think prison life is watching TV and working out at the prison gym.

who are "they"

 

[EvilCat Breath]

Sometimes a prison job is the convict's first job. Oh my the poor have to work. How awful for them.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

who are "they"

Convicts

 

[1srelluc]

In my experience convicts want to work, in fact in most major institutions there are fewer jobs available than convicts wishing to do them.

I used to more or less make-up jobs for them, I had one guy (an amputee) who's only job was keeping the microwaves and water fountains in the cell-house clean.

That was not always the case, with the old field units they worked on road gangs and were employed by the Virginia DOT. That's gone now as DOT figured out it was more cost effective to hire contractors to do the work that the convicts once did.

Back then we raised our own livestock and had a extensive garden. The field units in a region would supplement each other with what we raised and grew. One camp might raise hogs, another cows, and another chickens. One provided us salt fish when the big herring runs were on.

All convicts worked either on the road (our primary mission), farm, or in duties on the unit like kitchen, sanitation, laundry, water treatment plant, general maintenance, etc.

 

[1srelluc]

Someone mentioned that a prison job would be a convict's first job and that was often correct.

I retired from a diversion program run out of one of the old field units.

We took Level 1 convicts with less than a year on their felon sentence and got them real jobs with real street wages.

They lived at the unit but we either took them to their jobs or the employer came and picked them up.

They worked at all manner of jobs from fast food to light industry. They had to pay room and board, any outstanding fines and court costs. I cut many a check on their discharge day for over 10K.

Some even drove away in their own vehicle as we allowed them to to get their driver's license and even had a deal with a local college that taught automotive repair. They would fix donated cars and sell the fixed cars to the convicts.

Some convicts stayed at the jobs after discharge. One guy is now running a county water pumping plant.

It was the best "program" I was ever involved with.

Sadly the last I heard of the three in the state only one is left. It seems when the dems took charge a few years back they shut them down sold the land the other two units were on.

 

[citygator]

I am not up to date on prison operations but I would think that a work release program for non-violent inmates makes sense with such low unemployment figures. Could help to remove the stigma of prision for non-violent offenders getting back into the world. The post above mine by 1srelluc makes sense.

 

[miketx]

They really do think prison life is watching TV and working out at the prison gym.

That's what they did where I worked.

 

[miketx]

MSN

Should inmates be forced to work? It's allowed by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Should it be ended? I had a number of relatives who did a hard time and spent 23 1/2 hours a day mostly in a small cell with 3 other inmates with an open toilet and a small sink embedded in the wall they told me they were glad to get out and do anything especially if it was outside.

Where I worked they offered to work so they could get of the housing unit.

 

[Woodznutz]

Someone mentioned that a prison job would be a convict's first job and that was often correct.

I retired from a diversion program run out of one of the old field units.

We took Level 1 convicts with less than a year on their felon sentence and got them real jobs with real street wages.

They lived at the unit but we either took them to their jobs or the employer came and picked them up.

They worked at all manner of jobs from fast food to light industry. They had to pay room and board, any outstanding fines and court costs. I cut many a check on their discharge day for over 10K.

Some even drove away in their own vehicle as we allowed them to to get their driver's license and even had a deal with a local college that taught automotive repair. They would fix donated cars and sell the fixed cars to the convicts.

Some convicts stayed at the jobs after discharge. One guy is now running a county water pumping plant.

It was the best "program" I was ever involved with.

Sadly the last I heard of the three in the state only one is left. It seems when the dems took charge a few years back they shut them down sold the land the other two units were on.

We had a very popular 'county farm' program for the mentally ill but the Dems shut it down insisting that the residents were being subjected to "involuntary servitude" and should be paid for the work they did.

 

[1srelluc]

We had a very popular 'county farm' program for the mentally ill but the Dems shut it down insisting that the residents were being subjected to "involuntary servitude" and should be paid for the work they did.

Most every county in the land has a "Poor House Road" where back in the day folks were sent to work a farm and support themselves. No work, no eat.

 

[Woodznutz]

Most every county in the land has a "Poor House Road" where back in the day folks were sent to work a farm and support themselves. No work, no eat.

Well, that is a Biblical principle.

 

[1srelluc]

Well, that is a Biblical principle.

I believe the one in our county was run by Pentecostals.

Poor House Farm (location of the old poor house) is still a going concern where the poor house was. There is also a cemetery where the indigent of the county were buried.

Mom said it was still in operation in the 1930s.....It was the height of indignity to be sent to the poor house.