Re: OT - I may be in the minority


Karen C. wrote:
Barbara Carlson wrote:
I absolutely believe in the death penalty and don't like the idea of
supporting him for the rest of his life! However I don't believe in making
a martyr out of him, either. I think this was probably best in his case. >


I do believe in the death penalty, but I do think he really
wanted to be a martyr; so I agree that I think this is best.

But what I would love to see is life sentences that require *hard
labor* (like those chain gangs of the movies, busting up rocks
and such). Then I wouldn't begrudge having to pay for the bums
during those life sentences. Why can't we at least make them
earn their keep, anyway? Surely we could find work for them that
would pay their way--and then some.

There are too many conflicting social goals to make anything like that
work effectively. One of the things I've learned from working with
prisoners is that most of them really do want to work, especially in
meaningful and productive jobs. There are always far more prisoners
than jobs, and one of the biggest threats to have hanging over their
head is the loss of a job.
Ironically, industry and unions have long opposed prison job programs
because they compete with jobs on the outside. If the company for whom
the prisoners work isn't paying competitive wages, they're undercutting
the businesses in the free world. If they're paying the same wages,
OTOH, there's little reason for them to be going through the bother of
locating their company in a prison. Meanwhile, our country has a long
tradition of boycotting goods from other countries that are made in
prisons for the same reason -- slave wages. We don't want to buy
clothes, for example, made by asian prisoners who get paid ten cents a
day, and we also don't want to pay much more than that to our own
prisoners for their labors. (Most prison jobs pay 30 cents an hour here
in WA.) You wouldn't want to lose your own job to a prisoner getting
paid that, but people would be equally upset if that prisoner was being
paid the same thing as you're paid. Hence, it often turns out to be a
no-win situation no matter what solution is proposed.

AFA meaningless jobs like busting up rocks and stuff like that --
they're more trouble than they're worth. Prisoners develop a lot of
resentment when they're forced to do worthless chores just as
punishment, and it makes the guards' job a lot harder and more
dangerous if prisoners are constantly angry.

Eliyahu

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