fellow americans, i need help defending our prison system...

Arbitrary already exists. Parole, and, again on the released convicts determination, or, by his parole officer in kahoots with Prison Industrial Complex conspiracy.

 

I'm sure there's already somewhat of a conflict of interests, but the more that prisons are used for essentially slave labor, the more that they'll become this way.

Our incarceration rate is going to skyrocket over time if this trend continues.

The Infowars types love to use the phrase "Prison Planet", but this is a real life case where the phrase actually applies, although it would be more like "Prison Country."

 

People go to prison as punishment. They don't go to prison to be punished. Slavery is anti-American.

 

I guess that would depend on what the precedent is for situations like that. I'm not exactly sure whether legal precedent has established that a sentence must continue to be served or not once something formerly illegal is legalized.

I'm assuming we could simply look at how things were handled after the end of Prohibition.

Drug testing. Employers can test for both legal and illegal substances. If you're intoxicated while causing an accident or other problem, then the fault is on you.

Permit systems exist for alcohol and tobacco production. They aren't airtight, but they work. You get a fine if you violate them.

This argument makes little sense for the simple fact that tobacco hasn't caused this problem despite major profits from it.

The market is large enough for food that demand itself is enough to handle things.

Also, there are competing products in some food markets. Corn for food and corn for ethanol is balanced by market demand, for example.

The vast majority of the agricultural market is corporate anyway, so there is plenty of incentive to grow food when you deal more in volume than in margin (like ADM).

That's a fair caution to take. I enjoy discussing the ramifications, and I realize that many legalization advocates haven't thought it through. I have though, so feel free to throw more stuff at me.

 

Except for those that were actually innocent, which our appeals process shows a huge portion are. It is wrong to enslave an innocent person.

The only way I would allow this system is that if a wrongly imprisoned innocent person is released on appeal they can then sue the corporation they were forced to work for into non-existence. As in, you forced me to work for you, I am entitled to the full value of your company.

 

Want to defend our prison system? You have to do some things first

1. Take out mandatory sentences for drug possession. Mandatory sentences mean no discretion of the court based on actual facts of the case. A recipe for overcrowding and violence.

2. Limit the death penalty to only the worst of the worst. Mass murderers, serial killers and contract killers. The overwhelming majority of overturned death sentences or of wrongly convicted people with this sentence are with felony murder. It doesn't belong in the same category.

3. Don't even bother me with privatization. Its a recipe for abuse and malfeasance.

 

Open your eyes:

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-08-12/...ella-detention-center-sandy-fonzo?_s=PM:CRIME

 

One judge out of thousands, hardly a great example of wide-spread corruption.

 

I cant help you. I think we need more capital punishment not less, specifically for violent criminals...

Just cause theyre helping to pay for their confinement doesnt bother me at all. Not in the least. It costs 35,000/year to keep em in prison. They should be forced to work.

BFD !!!

 

and even then it's not what the OP is discussing.

Whre's the smoking gun?

 

are you guys really so dense you aren't getting it? they aren't helping pay for their incarceration... they are helping companies like dell and compaq make larger profit margins. i would be ok with this if dell and compaq were paying the costs of incarcerating them but they aren't. the tax payers are. quit being smug and actually look at the issue.

 

i get it, you dont care its obvious that this is way over your head and all you are hearing is bad people forced to labor for free so that's good. you refuse to look at who is profiting from it. its not the people paying for the labor. next time you buy an electronics device you can feel double good about it since you paid for the labor twice and the company that made it didn't pay for it even once.

 

You are not paying attention. It's not about whether they work to grow food for themselves, to keep their quarters clean, to pick up litter along highways, etc. These slaves, repeat, slaves are being used as a source of cheap labor in the broader economy. Their $1/day forced labor is now in competition with your contractual labor, because the people who can't compete with slave wages will then do other jobs for less, all the way up the chain.

 

You don't know what you are asking...

 

thank you. i guess im just doing a horrible job of explaining what is going on. starting to feel old since things like thsi bother me while everyone else just looks at it and says "good they need to do hard labor" and completely ignore who is profiting from it.

 

1 in 100 in prison is higher than any other country on Earth. Not even China has prison rates like that.

 

Because it's a great idea that's why. The state pays a flat rate for the prisons, no worries about prison guards unions, Cadillac pensions or benefits.

It'll be much cheaper then the above.

Personally, I could care less how the prisoners are treated. Give 'em green Baloney sandwiches and stale chips. Better yet make a nutritious mush for them to eat for all 3 meals, eat it or don't. Approx 60% to 70% of the people who are in prison have been there before, so obviously it's no deterrent the way it is. We need hard labor camps for the repeat offenders. Prison needs to be a place no one ever wants to go back to. That's the easy part, don't break the Law.

 

It wasn't just one. You are keeping your eyes firmly shut.

 

I'm all for blocking prison guard unions, but privatizing prisons isn't the way to go.

Prisons should be publicly funded, but workers shouldn't be allowed to unionize.

That's the cheapest option in the long run.

 

That's because China has no appeals, no technicalities, no civil rights. When you receive the Death Penalty, you go from the court room to the courtyard, down on your knees and one shot to the back of the head and your family has to pay for the bullet. U.S. recidivism rate 60% to 70%.....

 

You explained it clearly. You just can't accept that the mentality of those who support injustice is flat-out evil. I had a hard time with that myself.

It's easier to understand once you accept that many people on forums such as these are just evil, and they are only here to serve evil.

 

I think we all get you gchamblee. There is great potential for harm, to the civil liberties of these inmates, and, the racial hype of slavery is being used to highlight that potential harm to them, and that fear based initiative, also incorporates the evil capitalist corporate world.

So we got race, civil liberties, capitalism and corporate evilness all wrapped into one themed video, with comedic presentation, as the most successful methodology of distribution being used.

Hell...if they were making solar panels, there would countless calls to release them all for saving the planet.

 

The problem is your not going to be able to put the Genie back in the bottle on the prison guards unions. Look at how they reacted in Wisconsin. Privatizing is the only way to rid ourselves from the scourge of the public sector unions.

 

again, this is not about how the prisoners are treated. this is about corporations making money off of the prisoners that arent contributing to the expense of incarcerating the prisoners. i would prefer the tax payers profit from them, not the corporations that dick us around and sell us (*)(*)(*)(*)ty merchandise at inflated prices and stopped viewing us as a customer a long time ago.

 

You agreed with the legal situation so I'll find a place for compromise as well.

Common sense and a good trial attorney don't always go hand in hand. Reference OJ... Should it be perfected to the same level of alcohol testing I'll concede this point.

Perhaps people would get the permit, but there is no legitimate method of enforcement so I doubt anyone would. I simply don't see the great tax revenue this would supposedly create. Unlike producing alcohol its easy to grow a plant. Quite frankly, why wouldn't people just grow their own? There would be very little need to buy it from others.

If the US legalized pot, it would also be legal to sell as an export commodity. Where do you think so much of our food goes now? We don't eat it all. That becomes a danger. Have you ever seen all the US cigarettes across the globe? You can get US cigarettes anywhere, why would US pot be any different? Its also very low maintenance in comparison to other crops. I don't think it would destroy our agricultural industry, but it would change it in unforeseen ways.