Florida prison inmates on strike

[nolhtairt 0]

http://www.newsweek.com/us-inmates-strike-against-prison-slavery-and-inhumane-conditions-martin-luther-781367

So, a bunch of prison inmates plan to strike on MLK Day over conditions they say amount to modern day slavery. Inmates are angry at being used as unpaid clean-up crews for storm debris in sweltering temperatures after Hurricane Irma struck the state. But there are also a long standing list of grievances...

Seems to me they forgot to read the fucking Constitution of the United States of America. Specifically, the 13th Amendment, which, summarized, states: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, EXCEPT as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

In short, if you can't do the time, don't do the crime. Morons.

[DanG 1]

Do you think the 13th amendment was intended to allow private companies to profit from the slave labor of prisoners?

- Dan G

[nolhtairt 0]

DanG

Do you think the 13th amendment was intended to allow private companies to profit from the slave labor of prisoners?

It does not differentiate between private or public prisons. So, what I think doesn't matter.

Besides, prison isn't supposed to be pleasant or club med. It's supposed to be a very unpleasant experience, so you don't want to ever go back again.

Don't like it? Petition congress for a change in the amendment.

[DanG 1]

I'm fine with the 13th amendment. What I don't like is the privatization of the prison system. Is it Constitutional? Probably. Is it a good idea? Not in my opinion. Not everything that is allowed by the Constitution is right.

- Dan G

[nolhtairt 0]

DanG

I'm fine with the 13th amendment. What I don't like is the privatization of the prison system. Is it Constitutional? Probably. Is it a good idea? Not in my opinion. Not everything that is allowed by the Constitution is right.

Agreed, which is why the founding fathers set the constitution up so it could be amended as times changed.

As for these inmates, well... "What we have here, is a failure to communicate."

[normiss 622]

It seems to me, legally, it becomes slavery when it's a for profit privately owned prison though.

[Bob_Church 7]

And aside from the inmates being farmed out, they do just about all of the work in the prison from cleaning, doing the prison laundry and the big one of course, cooking and serving the meals. It can get complicated when they refuse to work.

[Bob_Church 7]

And a lot of the problems of privatization aren't limited to privatized prisons. Even state prisons are contracting out things like food services and health care with pretty much the results you'd expect. Food services, for instance. By hiring an outside company you now feed the inmates while turning a profit which means something has to give. That something tends to be the food itself, which is sort of like an old joke in that it's not fit to eat and there isn't enough of it. Inmates go hungry so they they use the money the earn or is sent to them to buy snacks from the prison at prices that make truck stops seem cheap. So the prison saves money on food services then makes money selling the inmates junk they buy to keep from going hungry. In West Virginia they serve a lot of meatloaf, but a serving is the size of half a slice of white bread. Meals used to be the one thing they looked forward to.

[BIGUN 1,069]

normiss

It seems to me, legally, it becomes slavery when it's a for profit privately owned prison though.

Quote

All contracts between private companies and prisons for inmate labor must abide by PIE program rules, as established under the Percy Amendment to the Justice Improvement Act. Championed by Senator Charles Percy (R., Ill.), who had just seen how idleness became deadly in the 1978 Pontiac prison riot, the law and the PIE program require private companies that use prison labor to pay inmates the prevailing minimum wage.

In addition to the minimum wage, other conditions imposed by the Percy Amendment are that local labor-union officials must be consulted, and must agree that local non-convict labor is unaffected, and that goods produced in the prison must be from an industry that isn’t experiencing local unemployment. Of all the unions in the United States, only the IWW supported the recent prisoner strike. Other groups in the AFL-CIO kept mum, because this kind of slavery gets their blessing.

If union bosses approve of the minimum-wage setup for the PIE program, why are inmates’ wages so low? The net wages earned by inmates skim the surface of slavery because many deductions — “LFOs,” or legal financial obligations, such as taxes, restitution, room and board, and other costs associated with the prisoner’s criminal processing and incarceration, which the prisoner can be made to repay — can eat away as much as 80 percent of a prisoner’s paycheck.

SOURCE: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/443747/prison-labor-laws-wages-make-it-close-slavery

Its a fairly long article. Some will agree with other points; while others won't. For me; I believe the gate-wage (amount a convict receives when out-processing) should be higher to reduce the recidivism rate.

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.