• octopus_ink@lemmy.mlOP
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        6 months ago

        We treat our own people like slaves, what makes them so special?

        You are super close to seeing the actual point.

        • boatsnhos931@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          That it’s ok to let prisoners work to pay for their own housing and food instead of the taxpayers?

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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            6 months ago

            Profits are being made off of prison labor! That can only mean the amount they produce is greater than what they receive from the state. So they’re not just working for food and housing - they’re working to make someone else richer.

            • boatsnhos931@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              I’m not saying this is not true but profit is made off all labor. Show me some good sources when you get time, I am genuinely interested

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                6 months ago

                If you want an example, the hellhole prison nicknamed “Angola” (because it’s full of black people haha so funny) is a good case study for why this is slavery and not just prisoners paying their way through prison.

                They’re forced to do work or get solitary confinement, make $0.02/hr under inhumane conditions, punish people who get heat stroke, don’t provide shade or fans or clean water (literally, they have to drink dirty water if they don’t use their teeny wages to buy water) or anything, in temperatures that exceed 113°F in Louisiana. They’re forced to water plants with paper cups, pick rotten fruit by hand, weeding by hand, it’s all totally pointless shit an the cruelty is the point.

                • boatsnhos931@lemmy.world
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                  6 months ago

                  Why is it supposed to be funny? It’s true that the majority is black and Angola is a nation in Africa, is that embarrassing to blacks? I asked for a source but I looked it up, It does look pretty tough. So you are saying that because of LAs barbaric shit? It does sound really cruel but it doesn’t sound like it’s pointless work, just sounds like AG work. So you want to use this case to abolish any work opportunities for inmates across the US? When I was in prison, I was everything from a janitor to a highway department worker to a rehab program mentor…Hell at one point I raised 3 dogs that are successful service animals now. these jobs supported me with enough money for basic snacks, phone calls and toiletries… They helped keep me alive because I was facing 20 years at 100% and had a lot of suicidal thoughts. Anyways, what I’m trying to say is that no one is going to listen if you are going for the “all or nothing” stance because a lot of work programs do help.

                  • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                    6 months ago

                    Why is it supposed to be funny? It’s true that the majority is black and Angola is a nation in Africa, is that embarrassing to blacks?

                    Calling the slave plantation “Angola” to mock the Black people forced to work there is clearly a reference to America’s history of chattel slavery of Black people.

                    They helped keep me alive because I was facing 20 years at 100% and had a lot of suicidal thoughts.

                    The heat at the Angola slave plantation literally kills people and causes them to self harm.

                    Oh did I mention this is a juvenile prison?

                    Death to America

                    So you want to use this case to abolish any work opportunities for inmates across the US?

                    The concept of prison labor isn’t inherently bad, I have nothing against gulags for example.

                    I want to abolish the ability to profit from it because it incentivised the creation of the largest prison population on Earth. America is literally the worst on Earth, by the numbers, and it’s solely because of the perverse incentive structure created by for-profit prison slave labor.

                    I also think much of the work is pointless and sadistic makework (like forcing people to water fields with paper cups in extreme heat - how is that supposed to make people not want to kill themselves?) That’s just torture for the fun of the prison guards, not work.

          • NoIWontPickAName@kbin.earth
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            6 months ago

            That maybe we shouldn’t be treating anyone like that and that if we are going to have people work, yes even prisoners, should be paid a fair rate instead of pennies on the dollar.

            • boatsnhos931@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              I’m gonna pass on that and I’ve been locked up working those jobs. What are we treating them like? They have a choice…If you don’t want to, they don’t make you but believe me…you want those jobs…The fair rate is calculated after working in the cost of your housing, a victims compensation fund, your food and medical care… plus you get a reduction on your sentence and you aren’t institutionalized as bad…you never thought about that did you Toby? Now get to picking that cotton boy!

              • NoIWontPickAName@kbin.earth
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                6 months ago

                Yes, you just seem like such a good person.

                I’m gonna stick with we should treat all people as people, not property.

                Especially because in America there is a damn good chance they have done nothing wrong.

                • boatsnhos931@lemmy.world
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                  6 months ago

                  I’m definitely not a good person.and I hope you never meet the majority of the people I was around…Sure a few of them might be innocent of what they were serving time for but they have done a lot more than what they were caught doing and a lot of them spend their time networking with others in their trade and learn how to not make mistakes the next time.

                  • rekorse@lemmy.world
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                    6 months ago

                    You are confusing paid labor by choice with forced labor under fear of solitary.

                    Both exist, ones less bad. People are talking about the forced labor thing though, not the “working the kitchens” for 3$ a day thing.

                    Edit: would help if you’d read the damn post