The new economy

[jreading]

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03 ... -missiles/

This spring, the United Arab Emirates is expected to close a deal for $7 billion dollars’ worth of American arms. Nearly half of the cash will be spent on Patriot missiles, which cost as much as $5.9 million apiece.

But what makes those eye-popping sums even more shocking is that some of the workers manufacturing parts for those Patriot missiles are prisoners, earning as little as 23 cents an hour. (Credit Justin Rohrlich with the catch.)

The work is done by Unicor, previously known as Federal Prison Industries. It’s a government-owned corporation, established during the Depression, that employs about 20,000 inmates in 70 prisons to make everything from clothing to office furniture to solar panels to military electronics.

Unicor used to make helmets for the military, as well. But that work was suspended when 44,000 helmets were recalled for shoddy quality.

[gunderwood]

Hmm, seems like a bad idea to employ generally unskilled labor to perform skilled jobs.

Edit: On a side note, is this a conflict of interests since the government is now directly profiting from the increased prisoner population thanks to things like the war on drugs?

[jreading]

exactly my point, more prisoners = more cheap labor....

read this....

http://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2011 ... r+Arizona)

[P]rison labor for the private sector was legally barred for years, to avoid unfair competition with private companies. But this has changed thanks to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), its Prison Industries Act, and a little-known federal program known as PIE (the Prison Industries Enhancement Certification Program). While much has been written about prison labor in the past several years, these forces, which have driven its expansion, remain largely unknown.

Somewhat more familiar is ALEC’s instrumental role in the explosion of the US prison population in the past few decades. ALEC helped pioneer some of the toughest sentencing laws on the books today, like mandatory minimums for non-violent drug offenders, “three strikes” laws, and “truth in sentencing” laws. In 1995 alone, ALEC’s Truth in Sentencing Act was signed into law in twenty-five states. (Then State Rep. Scott Walker was an ALEC member when he sponsored Wisconsin's truth-in-sentencing laws and, according to PR Watch, used its statistics to make the case for the law.)

More recently, ALEC has proposed innovative “solutions” to the overcrowding it helped create, such as privatizing the parole process through “the proven success of the private bail bond industry,” as it recommended in 2007. (The American Bail Coalition is an executive member of ALEC’s Public Safety and Elections Task Force.) ALEC has also worked to pass state laws to create private for-profit prisons, a boon to two of its major corporate sponsors: Corrections Corporation of America and Geo Group (formerly Wackenhut Corrections), the largest private prison firms in the country.



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This is the downside of privatization, it ain't all good....

[gunderwood]

This is the downside of privatization, it ain't all good....

It's not really the privatization that's the issue, it's the corruption between the criminal system and the for profit companies. It's funny how many of the local prisons are run by family members of the judges, etc. They always are full for some reason, eh?

[Reverenddel]

"little-known federal program known as PIE (the Prison Industries Enhancement Certification Program). "

And I remember the "pies" from "Shawshank Redemption" with the pay off's in the box for private groups who need contracts...

[dorminWS]

On the other hand, if the deal is/can be run on the up-and-up with no corruption and adequate quality controls, it is an opportunity for society to have the prison population at least partially support itself. Why should the fact that you're in prison excuse you from the obligation to support yourself? In Virginia, local prisons aren't run by judge's families unless they can get elected as sheriff of the county in question. Sheriff Joe Arpaeo (spelling?) out in Arizona is a hero for finding ways for the prisoners to support themselves, and he ought to be. I see no difference in hiring these guys out as labor to private contractors PROVIDED that it is voluntary (prisoner can opt out) and the contractor pays a reasonablr wage that doesn't give him an unfair advantage. I know of work-release programs where prisoners take boring, repetitive jobs for minimum or relatively low wages just to get out of the cage. Seems to me like it has its redeeming qualities.

Anything can be made repulsive if you're willing to assume the right kind of misconduct.

[SHMIV]

Sheriff Joe not only found ways to keep prisoners productive (which raises the income for the prison system), he has also done away with luxury (which lowers the operating cost).

Further, he has made the prison a very miserable place to be, which should start lowering the population, after some time.

It's my understanding (though, I could easily be mistaken) that there are so self-sufficient that the burden on the taxpayer is almost non-existent.

[Diomed]

Prison labor is awfully seductive, but it's such a slippery slope, just begging for abuse.

I do like how the government has rigged it so that they can put someone in prison and then effectively enslave them, while perching itself on a high horse about slavery, exploitation, child labor, etc.

[gibbs1911]

Ya, so much for the government apposing sweet-shops

[Palladin]

They've got something against confectioneries?




J/K

[fireman836]

Ya, so much for the government apposing sweet-shops

Whats wrong with sweet shops I love candy.