glommer 3 days ago

they take an (actually very reasonable) cut, but he is free to take his salary.

  • Spooky23 3 days ago

    Huh? Universities take a 60% overhead in some scenarios.

    The dude is is prison, slave like conditions are ridiculous, but there should be a healthy overhead.

  • kgwxd 3 days ago

    No cut is reasonable.

    • esteth 3 days ago

      Presumably the prison is providing the "office" where the person works from, the Internet connection, etc.

      • lukan 3 days ago

        Also food and accomodation ..

    • jjmarr 3 days ago

      They need money to pay for oversight. Any time prisoners talk to someone on the outside, it's a potential conduit for contraband or organized crime.

      • Balinares 3 days ago

        The exact same is true of people working outside of prison.

    • bryanrasmussen 3 days ago

      "No cut" is reasonable, but also "Some cut" is reasonable. However while arguing that "no cut" should be mandatory is reasonable, given that "no cut" would itself be reasonable, it is probably not pragmatic. Therefore in order to best support this kind of thing one should determine exactly how much "some cut" should be.

      • osigurdson 3 days ago

        Isn't this largely just a one off situation that happened to work out? I doubt there will be legions of prisoners working remotely. If that future did come to be, it would be rather dystopian imo.

    • conductr 3 days ago

      I disagree. The cut should support the program itself and then further offset taxpayer expenses related to housing, feeding, and caring for the prisoner. I could even see a case for taking it as a way of ensuring it was saved and returned at release.

      • franga2000 3 days ago

        Fuck no! Lowering the cost of keeping people in prison would make it even easier for the government to lock people up for smaller crimes and with bigger sentences. It's even worse with the privatised prison system that the US has. They already know the "market price" (what the government is willing to spend) so adding "free money" into the equation just makes it easier for them to raise prices and end up pocketing even more money than they already do.

        Framing it as offsetting the cost would also make it very easy to increase the cut, bit by bit, until it gets to a truly unreasonable level. And since the person is already in prison and we have to pay for them no matter what, why would they choose to work if the deal is so bad?

    • mp05 3 days ago

      Don't you suppose that it's "fair" to request compensation for the room and board if the person is making a "fair" wage?

      • BlarfMcFlarf 3 days ago

        No. Prisons should cost society money. If you are taking away someone’s freedoms, there should be a high cost so you don’t do it flippantly when another solution will work.

    • hashstring 3 days ago

      Why would it not be reasonable?

      • hildolfr 3 days ago

        Google feeds staff members and provides rest areas , why are they paid?

tartoran 3 days ago

Even in the case he doesn't, it's still an amazing opportunity to learn that would lead to a better future for sure.

  • cooperaustinj 3 days ago

    Why not just pay them in exposure? I hope you can think about why the proposal in your reply is problematic.