Slavery Haunts America's Plantation Prisons
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http://www.truthout.org/article/slavery-haunts-americas-plantation-prisons
Type of Content: Article On an expanse of 18,000 acres of farmland, 59 miles northwest of Baton Rouge, long rows of men, mostly African-American, till the fields under the hot Louisiana sun. The men pick cotton, wheat, soybeans and corn. They work for pennies, literally. This scene is not a glimpse of plantation days long gone by. It's the present-day reality of thousands of prisoners at the maximum security Louisiana State Penitentiary, otherwise known as Angola. The block of land on which the prison sits is a composite of several slave plantations, bought up in the decades following the Civil War. Read »
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We have 2.5 million people in jail right now. The vast majority are in there for victimless "crimes." Over 2/3 are non violent offenders. Any rational person would conclude that incarcerating over 1 of every 99 adults in any country is insane - another symptom of America's addiction to coercion.
Contrary to popular belief, it does not cost very much at all to house America's prisoners. Wardens in the federal system boast that they can feed them on less than $2.00 per day. What they spend on the bloated system itself and to employ 20 people to imprison each one is another matter altogether. Whatever money they are spending, they are not spending on the prisoners.
Look up an organization called UNICOR. The federal prison system makes huge revenues off of it and they pay the prisoners about 12 cents an hour. This widely promoted idea that prisoners "have it easy" is just one more piece of government propaganda designed to get people to support another HUGE government program.
Tom Mullen
www.tommullen.net
www.myspace.com/skepticsongs
"Question with boldness even the existence of a God" - Thomas Jefferson
okay,
First i wanna reiterate. I know there are mountains of laws that need to go, and i know there are discriminatory practices that have to be routed and cut out of the legal system like cancer. Those same prejudicial practices incarcerate a disproportionate amount of latinos as well.
Tom, maybe the food they eat, their cell thats paid for 20x over, and their uniform and bed sheets are that cheap, but that doesn't account for the guards that protect them from one another more than anything else, the necessary bureaucrats (exclude the unnecessary ones but recognize their existence) the warden, the doctor, councilors, mental health professionals. As many prisoners as there may be, at $2 a day, it takes a whole cell blocks entire $2 every day for a year to cover one guards salary. That figure is really quite ridiculous.
Then if we really wanna step our game up and provide a quality education, and extensive therapy and rehab treatment, those professionals will also need salaries.
I'm not saying that the current system in place doesn't need reform. Thats a given, federal, state, county, prisons need to be reformed along with just about every other function of government in one way or another.
But i think this is something that needs to be looked at through an objective lens and not through the eyes of a journalist with a bleeding heart.
How are the "victims" of this institution doing on the outside??
Are these men finding work when they get out of prison?
Are they able to maintain that job?
How often do these men go back to jail??
I think these question deserve objective answers before the practice is condemned. We know those currently incarcerated are gonna piss and moan about having to work, agriculture aint easy, especially not for Sierra Leone wages, and in that hot humid air they have on the gulf coast, but how about the guy who did a few years 20 years ago, retrospectively, how does he feel about his time in those fields? What about the data, what does the data show?
Government has solved the age old dilemma of the alchemists. In order to turn lead into gold, just add blood.
Personally I find it to be in poor taste, and I KNOW there are discriminatory practices in the legal system, from sea to shining sea, BUT putting convicted criminals to work, is NOT slavery. Working prisoners only slightly offset the cost of their imprisonment. As long as the work conditions are safe and the treatment humane, I feel that every prisoner in America should be working. Sitting in a cage, working out, and gambling for ramen noodles does not constitute paying a debt to society. Putting in a 40 hour work week doing something productive, regardless of the industry, is great.
this is a maximum security prison, most of these people are there very deservedly for violent crimes that rob the public of their safety, and then cost hundreds of thousands in tax dollars as prisoners. I say let them reduce their damage to the good honest folk in every possible way as long as they are supplied water and a break here and there.
Maybe to rectify the public relations issue, the men should be paid a reasonable wage, and then be billed for the costs incurred to confine them, because of their poor decisions. But then they would get out of prison with nothing to show for their work still, and massive debt. But at least on the books the men would earn a living wage, and then away from the prying eyes, behind locked doors, they would be appropriately charged for their accommodations.
Government has solved the age old dilemma of the alchemists. In order to turn lead into gold, just add blood.
I started to get pissy:) I think its fair what you wrote about them working off their accommodations. And another part of me wishes that our prison systems were in some way actually getting to the root of the problem, therapy/rehabilitation etc, but of course like every problem discussed on this forum it largely (in my opinion) comes back to inequality and financial distress.
"free thinkers are dangerous, and beautiful"
I'm glad you think its fair, because fair is my goal. Not popular, just fair.
I wanna get rid of bogus laws, so we can close prisons, reduce the population at existing prisons.
I also wanna educate, and rehabilitate. That requires professionals that require salaries that can be paid for through the labor of prisoners. i really think, if government would do the right thing with the money, that work programs like this, could benefit the prisoner and tax payer/victim alike.
After all, idle hands are the devils playthings, and hard work builds character. Gimme a while to dig up some more cliches. LoL Just kidding, i use those cliches, because I have found them to be 100% true in my own personal experience.
there is a lot of work to be done, but i'm just not sure i'm ready to dismiss this labor program as some evil throw back to slavery.
Government has solved the age old dilemma of the alchemists. In order to turn lead into gold, just add blood.