- cross-posted to:
- politicalmemes@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- politicalmemes@lemmy.world
The most successful political propaganda in our time was convincing millions of people that caring for others and the planet was somehow a threat to America.
The most successful political propaganda in our time was convincing millions of people that caring for others and the planet was somehow a threat to America.
To be fair requiring people who have been convicted of a crime by a jury of their peers through a fair and just legal system to do labor isn’t itself a form of slavery. Also worth noting that in some cases prisoners work these jobs to generate income for themselves (usually so they can buy snacks and things from the prison commissary.)
For-profit jails are the exception since such an arrangement encourages false imprisonment but this is more a matter of making sure our legal system operates justly and fairly. Have some places used bogus charges to imprison people to use as labor? Sure, but again we need to make sure that we don’t conflate that with all prisoners doing labor when it’s only some of them. The citizens ensuring that their justice system is working properly and free of corruption is the solution to this.
And we have historical examples of it working to remove corruption. There was a for-profit juvenile detention center that got caught trumping up charges in order to lock up kids which generated more fee’s and money for the jail and they found out the judge who had sentenced the kids was corrupt and working for the company than ran the jail. The individuals who engaged in this were caught, tried and imprisoned and fined millions of dollars for their crimes.
Of course the kids shouldn’t have been scammed like that to begin with. However, I’d remind you that our justice system punishes people who have committed crimes when we can prove it to a jury of our peers. A justice system isn’t designed to prevent crimes, we can try to deter them but thats merely our hope, the actual purpose is to remedy an injustice. While we’d like to not have had kids overly punished for minor crimes (most of the kids had done stuff like getting caught smoking weed and other misdemeanors) whats more important here is that the people who abused our justice system for personal gain were eventually punished for their abuse.
But at the heart of it the majority of prison labor isn’t really slavery. Heck, lots of prisoners enjoy such jobs, not only because it gives them a few bucks but it also gets them out of the monotony of being in prison all day. When done properly it can actually help to rehabilitate some of these prisoners.
For one, the conviction rates for the exact same crime wildly differ based on your race. If you are black, latino, or indigenous you are more likely to be convicted of the same crime than a white or asian person. Not to mention that your chances of getting stopped or arrested to begin with are dramatically higher if you’re black or latino.
The more pertinent point, though, is prison conditions. Did you know that it’s very common for prisons to either provide very little or no menstruation products? Did you know that some prisons will sell them in the commissionary at crazy high upcharged prices while inmates make pennies on the dollar? Does that sound like a choice to you?
Here’s something that’s allegedly a choice: food. Prison food (with very few exceptions) is borderline inedible. There are a lot of states who have incentives to cut costs in prisons wherever possible, and they will buy the cheapest, lowest quality food possible. This food is often prepared in unsanitary conditions by workers who are not trained in food safety because they are also inmates. Oftentimes it is extremely difficult to stomach and people will get food poisoning. I personally know somebody who was in prison for a while and worked in the kitchen and there were multiple times that spoiled, rotten food was cooked and served, and there was even a time where a rat got into the food and the kitchen staff just cooked the rat along with everything else and served it anyway. This person would often just not eat as a result. The prison commissionaries sell junk food like chips and cookies for a crazy upcharged price. Anything is better than what you get served in prison.
One last thing: is the bail system “fair and just”? Is it fair that if you have money and pay you don’t have to go to jail, while somebody who does not have money has no other choice? What about other fees that they charge you? Court debt is a thing. What about the laws themselves? Being homeless is illegal in many parts of the US. You will get arrested for sleeping under a bridge or in your car.
Highly recommend reading the book the Warehouse by James Kilgore and Vic Liu if you want to learn more about how the American prison system works. It’s an incredibly disturbing read, but it’s the reality we live in.
TL;DR
What a worm.
No one cares what you “think”. It’s defined. You could have saved us both time if you just read the 13th. It’s says “slavery”. SLAVERY.
Big surprise, we have the highest incarcerated population in the world.
So many members have contacted me to warn that LocalAreaMan is in fact a Russian shill.
Are you mad that your internet got disrupted this week?
As long as they enjoy (forced labor) it, then it is not slavery is not a very good argument. Even outside of prison wage slavery is a real problem. Having someone work in prisons for decades and then released with barely anything to show for it is the very definition of exploitation. Likely leading to more recidivism since without the capital crime is the easiest way to support oneself after missing out on society for decades.
Wow, this sounds a lot like right wing or red fascist talking points. Nevermind that it’s punishment this is used for and not rehabilitation. We punish drug offenders while we let white collar crime to run rampant.
Lots of time work programs for prisoners are used for rehabilitation.