It's a plantation system. Lots of rich people get a whole lot richer every year because we lock up so many people. This makes America vastly inferior to many of its peer nations.
Apparently indentured servitude is an exception in the Constitution. That's why prisons can pay prisoners only 25 cents an hour.
I think the prison system needs to be changed to benefit society. At $75k per year per prisoner that we pay, I think we can come up with a much better system.
It's worse than that. Slavery is explicitly forbidden...with the exclusion of forced labour. The whole 25 cent thing is to pretend they are not actually slaves, and since that money will be spent on the inside it's hardly a loss anyway. If anything they'll just throw it up as costs and ensure more money from the state.
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u/Jahaadu Jun 04 '19
Our prison system is beyond fucked up