My thought is that prison guards are paid because their work is a "debt to society", to force people to slave labour on a daily basis can not be good for you. In the same vein, I think society looses by systematically making prison guards slavers. I believe this is the case for ordinary prison guards as well, but in that case at least the correctional part could be believable.
A capitalist or communist ideal(s), for example, can be good. People dealing with each other by beneficial mutual agreement. People cooperating out of social solidarity. Both exist (imperfectly) in the world.
The problems come when we overapply these ideas. Justifying abusive labour practices or banking excesses because Adam Smith's village baker parable must apply to all things always. Building whole worldviews from a core ideal, as if it were F=ma.
Modern prisons evolved entirely out of their ideals. Imprisonment wasn't a common punishment until modern times, and the early logic (eg bentham) was about rehabilitation. Lots of (retrospectively ugly) ideals about morality and character were at play. Lots of horrible things done in their name. The project essentially failed, and rehabilitation aspect of prison devolved into vestigial formalities.
I imagine the rehabilitation ideal seemed enlightened, relative to the punitive ideals of previous eras. The US' 18th century "cruel and unusual punishment" concept related, I imagine, to these new enlightenment era ideals. A few hundred years later, and we can't even imagine a society without prisons. We're not even quite sure what they're for. At least, we don't agree on what they're for.
Sorry for getting so abstract.
Is there a reason other than "because they can get away with it"?
Just don't look into how much prison shit costs.
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/commissary.html
https://www.prisonerresource.com/interview/how-much-money-sh...
https://www.prisonphonejustice.org/#:~:text=Currently%2C%20i....
https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2020/dec/1/cost-communi...
>prisons get less heat if they can say they payprisoners for work
Who cares how much they get paid? They're prisoners! /sarcasm
Yes.
Lock her "Hillary Clinton" up, and lock him "Donald trump" up are very real wishes of many Americans. The war on drugs, poverty, and in general garbage tvlike live pd, Jerry Springer, dr Phil, has helped to breed this retributional bent into American culture.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_takes_a_village
>"Many adults who have experienced disrupted or deficient attachments when young will, from whatever source, find sufficient resilience to grow into well-balanced adults."
We, all off us as society, have a role to play in ensuring that all people are sufficiently resilient. Furthermore, to breed this resiliency we must all occasionally make sacrifices so that those with great need do not suffer neglect.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247755669_Using_att...
For a practical discussion we can look at community crime prevention.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Crime_Prevention
Ultimately, we can pay for success on the front end (prevention) or failure on the back end (imprisonment).
>"The sooner at-risk students are identified, the more likely that preventative "remediation" measures will be effective."
As a matter of principle though... the principle is violated inevitably. A prison guard "profits" (or rather, makes a living by) imprisonment. Any company supplying a prison profits. Community service is forced labour, etc.
That said, I totally agree on incentives. It's dangerous, especially private prisons.
The pay rate does bother me... I can see why real pay isn't done, but just paying pennies per hour does not sit well. Maybe a 3rd party should get the money, and this could take on a restorative rather than punitive aspect. There might even be a case for demonetize prison labour, supply the food directly to food banks instead of for market.
The phrase, "debt to society" is used often. Debts are not redeemed by suffering, generally.