Isle prisons become key source of labor

[dkf]

The demand for prison work crews as cheap labor for nonprofit groups, schools, churches and state and city agencies has skyrocketed over the past two years in an economy that forced deep cuts, layoffs and a mounting backlog of repair and maintenance projects.

Prison officials can't keep up with the requests pouring in for inmates to clean, do heavy lifting and even scour Leeward Coast beaches for medical waste in the runoff from Waimanalo Gulch Landfill last month.

Since the economy fell apart in 2008, "there has been a vast increase in requests for the past two years," said Francis X. Sequeira, warden at Oahu Community Correctional Center, who oversees 12 prisoner "work lines." "We can only address a finite amount of requests," Sequeira said in an e-mail.

Prison officials do not track the number of requests from all islands for prison labor, but there has been a clear increase, said Michael Hoffman, institutions division administrator for the state Department of Public Safety.

The Department of Public Safety pays inmates 25 cents an hour, and the agencies and organizations that request help provide lunch for each inmate.

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/20110214_Isle_prisons_become_key_source_of_labor.html

[mike_c]

1. this is sickening-- why would any compassionate human choose slave labor...

...over paying a living wage to workers in need? Shameful!

[Luciferous]

5. +1

[dkf]

8. I think the inmates volunteer to do this.

I was actually wondering how people are supposed to get jobs if prison labor is so cheap.

[mike_c]

9. I don't doubt it-- but that still begs the question "why accept their services..."

"...as slave labor?" I don't care that they volunteer. Inmates volunteer for THEIR own reasons, often just to have something constructive to do with their time. But the state makes their labor available to others at slave wages. Inmates who work deserve decent pay, just like any other worker-- or labor should be part of their sentence and the money should go toward paying the costs of their incarceration. But it galls me that anyone would pick up the phone and ask "Is this where I call to get the park cleaned up for a fraction of what I'd have to pay free workers?"

[Hello_Kitty]

2. Jobs non-prisoners won't do! eom

[Angry Dragon]

3. Yea .........25 cents per hour and a free luch

Where do I sign up??

[malaise]

4. Slavery by any means is still slavery

Humanity appears to be going backwards.

[midnight]

6. Prison Planet is making it impossible not to be a law breaker...

Prisoners are big business, and profitable....

[Hannah Bell]

7. what business does the prison system have providing labor to churches?

let their membership volunteer.

slave labor camps, just like the commies.

[nebenaube]

10. Arbiet Mach Frei n/t