Comment by const_cast

Comment by const_cast 3 days ago

That cost should be taken by our government and the tax payer, as a disincentive to locking people up.

If you can lock someone up and get close to free labor for it, then we're going to start locking a lot of people up. I mean, it's free labor. Which is why we used to give people 20 years for possession of marijuana. What, you think it's just a coincidence we were throwing primarily black Americans away in prison for ludicrous amounts of time where they'll spend their days picking cotton?

That's what happens when imprisoning people is cheap.

brulard 3 days ago

If a prisoner costs $50k a year, and "if" he would work a job where he would make $50k a year and if he didn't receive a dime from it, does it look to you like a free labor? He merely makes up for what he costs the system, not taking into consideration the likely damage that he has done that made him end up in prison in the first place. And I don't expect prisoners to have anywhere close to $50k salary jobs.

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const_cast 3 days ago

The problem here is you’re really asking for abuse with this mentality.
Prisoners should cost money, lots and lots of money. Otherwise we might just decide to imprison you and extract your labor. And that is exactly why we used to see 20 years for possession.
What, did you think we were just burning money for kicks?

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- brulard 3 days ago
  
  That's what I tried to refute in my previous comment. So in case I miss something, explain to me how is it economical for someone to enslave you, if it costs him $50k/year and he will almost certainly extract less value from your work (from data i found $20-$25k/year jobs are common for prisoners). That's the exact opposite of free labor. It is very expensive labor. I would agree if the cost was like $10k and you would extract considerably more from the job done. But it is not the case. Maybe in countries where they don't spend much on prisons what you say works. I don't think it does in US or in any other developed country
  
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  tristan957 3 days ago
  
  Government is not a business, nor is it 0-sum. Well-functioning societies with low rates of recidivism invest much more in their prisoners. We should be investing money into prisoners, so that they can re-integrate into society and become successful tax-paying citizens, just like the premise of the blog post we are commenting on. As the co-founder said, the Department of Corrections in Maine takes a cut of the inmate's salary.
  NPR did a great article on the prison system in Norway: https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/05/31/410532066/.... They are quoted as spending $90,000 per prisoner with a recidivism rate at half the US rate.
  
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  const_cast 3 days ago
  
  Cheap labor is still valuable, I don't know what to tell you. 20k salary net is very cheap. I don't know why you think it's expensive, because it's not. What you're maybe missing is the job needs to be done regardless - it's not like if we stop using prisoners for labor that need for labor just - poof - disappears.
  
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  brulard 2 days ago
  
  Do you mean that the benefit of cheap labor goes to private companies, but the cost stays with the taxpayers? If so, I see the logic. If we are talking about imprisoning someone, because we get cheaper labor for example inside the prison, than that doesn't make sense. Of course I count that the job needs to be done.
  Scenario A (person not imprisoned):
  - Prison cost: $0
  - Labor cost: $25k (hire someone)
  - Total cost: $25k
  Scenario B (person imprisoned):
  - Prison cost: $50k
  - Labor cost: $0 (prisoner does it)
  - Total cost: $50k
  
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pyuser583 3 days ago

Do you think prisoners are literally picking cotton?

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const_cast 3 days ago

I don’t think, they literally are. Feel free to look it up. Our prison labor systems in the south are direct descendants of Jim Crow era America.

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tristan957 3 days ago

In some states like Louisiana, picking cotton is still something some prisoners do.

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