ABikerSailor
Diamond Member
What in your opinion is a no good reason? If the implication is we are locking people up for cheap labor, nothing can be further from the truth. It's not like we have too much room in our prisons. Most of our prisons are overcrowded. Judges (like the ones in my city) often find themselves in a bad position because on one hand, they are trying to keep the community safe, and on the other, they are being pressured to not send people to prison because there simply isn't enough room.
If you aren't a murderer or rapist, you don't belong in prison. Done.
Of course, we have a P-I complex, for making rich people richer... The fact that we don't have enough room doesn't bother the one percenters.
So if you rob a bank, you don't belong in prison? If you extort money from a person or company, you don't belong in prison? If you shoot somebody in the commission of a crime, and don't kill them, you don't belong in prison? How about beating somebody to near death with a bat? Arson? Conning an 84 year old woman out of her life savings?
Prison work isn't free, in fact, the law states companies must pay at least minimum wage. Work is optional as well. Nobody is forced to work in prison. However prison can get pretty boring, and some have a conscience about repaying their debt to society, so they work if possible. It helps them pass the time.
Might wanna do some research on that one Ray. No, prisoners are NOT paid minimum wage. Current average wage for prisoners is around 86 cents per day. And, while there are jobs that pay by the hour (anywhere from 33 cents to 1.41), those are only about 6 percent of the prison jobs. Many prisoners don't get paid at all.
How much do incarcerated people earn in each state?
Prison wages come up again and again in the context of prison conditions and policies. So, we found the most up-to-date information for each state.www.prisonpolicy.org
One major surprise: prisons appear to be paying incarcerated people less today than they were in 2001. The average of the minimum daily wages paid to incarcerated workers for non-industry prison jobs is now 86 cents, down from 93 cents reported in 2001. The average maximum daily wage for the same prison jobs has declined more significantly, from $4.73 in 2001 to $3.45 today. What changed? At least seven states appear to have lowered their maximum wages, and South Carolina no longer pays wages for most regular prison jobs – assignments that paid up to $4.80 per day in 2001. With a few rare exceptions, regular prison jobs are still unpaid in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, and Texas.
Incarcerated people assigned to work for state-owned businesses earn between 33 cents and $1.41 per hour on average – roughly twice as much as people assigned to regular prison jobs. Only about 6 percent of people incarcerated in state prisons earn these “higher” wages, however. An even tinier portion of incarcerated workers are eligible for “prevailing local wages” working for private businesses that contract with states through the PIE program. The vast majority spend their days working in custodial, maintenance, grounds keeping, or food service jobs for the institutions that confine them.
My information is from the leftist LA Times. Here is what it says:
When private companies contract with prisons, the labor isn’t cheap. Federal law requires contractors to pay minimum wage for inmate work. The state may garnish those wages to cover the costs of incarceration. If inmates working for private contractors are cheated of a fair wage, the fault lies not with the business that hires prisoners but the system that confines them.
Op-Ed: Think prison labor is a form of slavery? Think again
When a prison inmate prays for release from her cell, prison industries can be her first salvation.www.latimes.com
Your "information" is from an op-ed piece, not based on actual information like the link I provided.
Your confusion here is because you don't read. You didn't read the story I posted, and you didn't even read your own.
Your link clearly states that they are paid very low wages for non-industrial work. In other words, they get paid for taking care of the jail and outside grounds. Business has nothing to do with that.
My link explains the reason they are paid under minimum wage is because they don't get a direct paycheck from the company they do the work for. The company pays the prison, and the prison takes deductions out of their check, but they are technically still getting paid at least minimum wage.
So this theory that companies are virtual slave labor employers is false.
Sorry, but inmates that get to work outside of the prison system are only around 6 percent, meaning that 94 percent of the prisoners either get zero wages, or slave labor wages.