Re:Chinese may take over Mombasa port: Ouko
by learc83 on Wednesday December 26, 2018 @11:02AM
(#18762752)
>Your argument is that, because they had a fair trial and were found guilty, it is ethical to force them to work without compensation?
Yes to some extent. I think forcing prisoners to cook their own meals, clean up after themselves etc... is fine. I draw the line at contracting out prisoners for money, or selling products that prisoners make--not because I think requiring work as a part of fairly meted punishment is inherently wrong, but because I believe it creates perverse incentives.
My primary argument is that requiring work as a part of punishment for an offense for which they were convicted at a fair trial is not remotely comparable to forcing hundreds of thousands of unconvicted political prisoners into labor camps.
> Over the years, the courts have held that inmates may be required to work and are not protected by the constitutional prohibition against involuntary servitude. They have also consistently held that inmates have no constitutional right to compensation and that inmates are paid by the ‘grace of the state.”
https://www.gao.gov/assets/220/217999.pdf