General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Is forced prison labor 'slavery' under color of the law? [View all]One_Life_To_Give
(6,036 posts)Is there a difference between ordering a convicted person to pay a fine vs ordering them to perform some work/service?
Does it matter if the work is done for profit, public service or for no purpose at all?
The world is rarely black and white.
We expect a prisoner to make their own bed in the morning. Not to wait for the maid service to come in and clean the room each day and provide fresh shampoo and conditioner along with the fresh towels.
And we also need to recognize that doing even pointless work be it making little rocks or linen napkins has benefits from helping to pass the time to teaching skills.
On the other hand we do not expect a private employer to make extra profit because they are using prison labor. However when each inmate costs the state $40,000 per year to incarcerate. The public benefit of offsetting 10 or 15 thousand by shifting from making little rocks to making Levi's causes confusion on where the line is drawn.
I think there is a very fine line in there between offsetting public expenditures and turning punishment into slavery.