I Worked in Federal Prison Sweatshops for 23 Cents an Hour

Re:I Worked in Federal Prison Sweatshops for 23 Cents an Hour by pasttense01 on Monday September 04, 2023 @12:22PM (#37381949)

I have no sympathy: any prison inmate costs the government vastly more for his incarceration (housing, food, medical care, guards...) than the amount of goods/labor that the inmate produces.

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Re:I Worked in Federal Prison Sweatshops for 23 Cents an Hour by CottonMcKnight on Monday September 04, 2023 @12:39PM (#37382136)

Prison-for-profit, either privately-run, with slave labor, or both, creates perverse incentives to convict more people of crimes and to keep them incarcerated longer.

This is not just hypothetical. The notorious Pennsylvania 'kids-for-cash' case was particularly egregious.

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Re:I Worked in Federal Prison Sweatshops for 23 Cents an Hour by Simulacra on Monday September 04, 2023 @01:32PM (#37382773)

Another great article when a reporter went undercover. Private prisons are a vicious cycle of depravity.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/06/cca-private-pri...

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Re:I Worked in Federal Prison Sweatshops for 23 Cents an Hour by ranting-moth on Monday September 04, 2023 @12:26PM (#37382001)

But then shouldn't the government get the profits instead of a private entity?

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Re:I Worked in Federal Prison Sweatshops for 23 Cents an Hour by ProllyInfamous on Monday September 04, 2023 @02:42PM (#37383522)

Privatize profits.

Subsidize losses.

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Re:I Worked in Federal Prison Sweatshops for 23 Cents an Hour by mortureb on Monday September 04, 2023 @12:34PM (#37382087)

I agree with you but then the proceeds should go back to the government to pay for those things.

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Re:I Worked in Federal Prison Sweatshops for 23 Cents an Hour by brianwawok on Monday September 04, 2023 @12:23PM (#37381964)

So you are cool with private industry making millions on the back of “captive” slave labor markets for $1 an hour?

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Re:I Worked in Federal Prison Sweatshops for 23 Cents an Hour by intrasight on Monday September 04, 2023 @12:32PM (#37382061)

UNICOR is a wholly owned government corporation not a private company. Average cost to taxpayers per incarcerated person is about $100K. So let them work for free up until that amount.

But even if it were private, how ethically is this worse than private companies making billions building weapons of mass destruction? Or platforms of mass surveillance?

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Re:I Worked in Federal Prison Sweatshops for 23 Cents an Hour by true_religion on Monday September 04, 2023 @12:44PM (#37382168)

Unless you actually use a WMD, the moral cost of simply having it in storage is nothing.

I disapprove of my government using WMDs and I also disapprove of my government enslaving murderers. Whom benefits is besides the point.

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Re:I Worked in Federal Prison Sweatshops for 23 Cents an Hour by jjj123 on Monday September 04, 2023 @01:06PM (#37382435)

Who said it was worse? They can all be unethical.

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Re:I Worked in Federal Prison Sweatshops for 23 Cents an Hour by FreshStart on Monday September 04, 2023 @02:25PM (#37383360)

So they all should venture into software to recapture the value as fast as possible?

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Re:I Worked in Federal Prison Sweatshops for 23 Cents an Hour by ffhhttt on Tuesday September 05, 2023 @01:33AM (#37388214)

> Average cost to taxpayers per incarcerated person is about $100K

Seems to he false? For Federal inmates anyway..

It was just $35k back in 2019. So it can’t be much more than half of what you’re claiming these days.

* https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/09/01/2021-18...

> how ethically is this worse than private companies making billions building weapons of mass destruction? Or platforms of mass surveillance?

Doesn’t seem to be even tangentially related?

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Re:I Worked in Federal Prison Sweatshops for 23 Cents an Hour by bdcravens on Monday September 04, 2023 @12:27PM (#37382013)

Or less - see Texas, where inmates receive no pay for work.

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Re:I Worked in Federal Prison Sweatshops for 23 Cents an Hour by jumpman_miya on Monday September 04, 2023 @12:26PM (#37381998)

yes

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Re:I Worked in Federal Prison Sweatshops for 23 Cents an Hour by pylua on Monday September 04, 2023 @03:01PM (#37383750)

I can hear the companies complaining now … no one wants to be an inmate anymore.

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Re:I Worked in Federal Prison Sweatshops for 23 Cents an Hour by NoZebra120vClip on Monday September 04, 2023 @12:24PM (#37381978)

Perhaps the government should have thought of that before mass-incarcerating nonviolent criminals and petty drug offenders.

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Re:I Worked in Federal Prison Sweatshops for 23 Cents an Hour by danShumway on Monday September 04, 2023 @04:15PM (#37384541)

If the financial costs of holding an inmate are unjustified, the government is of course free to evict them.

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