Fun fact, a lot of those new joyless McDonalds remodels had their CAD work done by UNICOR.
Remember, prison guards get special bonus' for managing inmates that make the prison money. Now imagine that you are constitutionally a slave (according to the Thirteenth Amendment) and that your prison guard's bonus is tied to your work. You don't get to say no to extra shifts. You don't get to take sick days. You don't get to stop the line (for those making physical products). You don't get to challenge the safety of your workstation (for those making physical products).
I'm not saying these programs shouldn't exist, but you need actual safeguards to prevent the current rampant abuse of prisoners (at least on the UNICOR side). Guards should never be 'special UNICOR employees' tied to the program (they really start to see inmates as slaves, their job only exists as long as their facility's UNICOR program is 'successful') and should never have bonus' tied to inmate work output. Currently both of these things occur.
> Some crime victims would rather have their perpetrators “rot in hell” than see them have these kinds of privileges, said Randall Liberty, commissioner of the Maine Department of Corrections, and victims are notified, and their concerns considered, when offenders line up remote jobs.
I can understand those very human feelings. But the state justice system should not be retributive, no matter how much victims want it to be.
It should focus on protection (keeping criminals off the streets and the rest of us safe), deterrence, rehabilitation, and restitution. And its constraints should be fairness, transparency, and speed/efficiency.
UNICOR tried to get into electronics recycling here in California under SB20.. while Google and MSFT and Apple ran away as fast as possible! not just the management either, lots of ordinary employees in those huge companies knew that electronics recycling is a liability, not "maximizing revenue" .. meanwhile UNICOR looks for more hooks for more contracts.. UNICOR has no concern about the outcome of electronics recycling .. they would make guranteed trash throw-away anything if it meant a new prison labor contract.
real
edit Walmart uses prison labor to assemble bicycles for kids.. source: eyewitness at a store in California
How about we treat prisoners as humans having value to begin with? Americans should start with the fundamentals before moving on to exploitation.
This just reflects that the parole system is broken, among other things.
This wouldn't bother me if the USA had universal basic income, public healthcare, free university education, and lower homeless rates.
Remote jobs because of the altruism of these Maine corporations? Or because prisoners come cheap and don't have access to 99% of the job market?
I don't want prisoners to be eligible for any jobs. They distort market wages heavily and take away jobs that other, more deserving, individuals could have. If you want to argue that they should be job eligible, then they should just be free in the first place at that point.
How can I compete with a prisoner that works for ramen?
Are there any software engineers here working from prison?
Let's hope this expands to other states.
Prison has been proven to be a horrible idea (Stanford prison experiment) that turns normal people into monsters. The whole thing needs to be abolished.
Call me crazy, but the golden rule should be applied to all people. “Do to others what you would have them do to you”
I believe that if someone needs to be separated from others because they are dangerous or insane, the government should be obligated to say “this is what I would want done to me”, and treat them as such the entire time. Raw Punishment is asinine and insane, especially when the average person doesn’t even believe politicians who make the law are the most virtuous citizens.
Objectively good policy. Helps better distinguish violent vs nonviolent crimes as far as rehabilitation
Comes with free healthcare benefits too.
There is too much emphasis on incarceration. It seems like a fair amount of correctional system bureaucracy could be replaced by public horsewhipping. Send a message and send ‘em on their way.
I really hope this doesn't devolve into just demonizing everyone who is incarcerated, and acting like making bad choices as a teenager means you deserve to be broke and unsuccessful for the rest of your life.
I would hope that society would rather me work and pay taxes, offsetting the cost of keeping me here, and giving me hope, responsibilities, discipline and a reason to continue making good life decisions when I am released.
95+% of those incarcerated are getting released one day.. People who have nothing to lose, no sense of self worth, or any feelings of identity with the rest of society are likely not people you want moving in next door to you.
I might be in prison but I lead a team of developers and contribute to open source regularly. I found my passion and I am now a contributing, tax paying member of society and no longer identify with the prison subculture at all.
It's difficult to see how this outcome could be viewed in any way as negative. I know that I made poor decisions, and I am not proud of them, or who I was at the time at all. I wanted to change my life and Maine gave me an opportunity to do that through hard work and I am extremely grateful for it.