List o' 10 Everyday Things You Didn't Know Are Made in Prisons

I was wondering why a ne're-do-well acquaintance was being trained to make teeth on automated milling equipment.

Slavery by another means, and how does this square up with "Level playing fields" for other businesses?

sidecar-jon, in the US at least, it's not slavery. There's nothing forcing the inmates to take those jobs. They are free to not opt into the work program and instead spend their time just sitting around bored. Many inmates choose to do the work to not only occupy their time, but earn money. I've known a couple of people that went to prison and they really looked forward to being able to get a prison job. It was a lot better than being broke or having to depend on family adding money to their prison cantine account and sitting around bored most of the day. It's no more slavery for those prisoners than it is for any of us on the outside. Most of us don't love to work for a living, but we do appreciate the opportunity to do so.

I personally think that all prisoners should be forced to have a job while inside, either a purely prison job (growing or preparing food for the inmates, laundry, cleaning, etc), or for a contracted outside company. It's good practice for life on the outside. Plus, criminals shouldn't be allowed to just sit around at the taxpayers' expense. They should be doing something worthwhile while they're on our tab. If they wanted more or better job options, they should have stayed on the right side of the law.

@Melissa, it is tantamount to slavery. Prisoners did a vast amount of the (dangerous) work cleaning beaches after the Deepwater Horizons Oil Spill. Many times, prisoners who elect not to work will be counted as uncooperative and don't get the benefits that go with good behaviour simply because they opt out of a "voluntary" but often dangerous or undesirable job.

@Melissa

except that we wrongfully convict people all the time, dirty cops plant drugs on people, and we aren't all in agreement about what should and shouldn't be illegal, especially regarding consensual crimes like drug use and prostitution.

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It's cheap labour that also gives them an excuse to put a "Made in the USA" label on their goods.

Linkie no workie.

nutbastard- I totally agree that people are wrongly convicted on occasion and that we aren't in unanimous agreement on many of our laws that people are fairly convicted on. The enforcement and court system not being infallible is sad. But the laws being not loved by everyone is just democracy. That's how it works. If a majority of people think something should be illegal, well, it sucks to be the minority. You're stuck with what the majority deems acceptable and have to live within the laws the majority creates and keeps in place. Your only recourse is to work to change the laws, not to just violate them.

If you choose to violate laws you don't agree with, you choose to be willing to be pay the consequences. If I want to do drugs, I know full well that they are illegal. I can protest and vote and petition and work myself exhausted to try and get the laws changed to legalize drugs, but until I succeed at that, if I choose to use drugs, I know I'm choosing to be a criminal and choosing to go to jail if I get caught. I am responsible for my own actions. All criminals are.

All that aside, working for a living is not a bad thing. People either would have or should have been working on the outside. Working is not a punishment. Working is an expected part of being a productive member of society. If you intend to have things like a place to live, food to eat, utilities, and possessions, you are expected to work for them. Criminals shouldn't be exempt from that.

I don't mind sharing a little of my pay so that the gov't can take care of folks that are too old or too sick to work for themselves. I don't even mind temporarily helping out healthy folks that have fallen on hard times. I do mind able bodied folks sitting idle on my dime because they chose to violate the law.

Twist- If it's optional, it's optional, that's not slavery. If it were slavery, they'd be denied basics like food, clothing, shelter, etc. or subject to punishment if they chose not to work. Opting out not qualifying you for extra perks is not the same as being forced at all.

Prisoners should take responsibility for their choices like the rest of us. If they want to say no to the undesirable job and not get whatever perks come from "good behavior", that's their choice. If the perks are worth it, that's their choice,too. It's no different on the outside. I personally choose to do an easy, non-dangerous, job, but I also choose to not make nearly as much money as someone who chooses a more demanding or risky one.

It may not be slavery but it is slave labour in the same way we describe the ultra low paid wages paid to workers in the factories in India, China etc. I have to ask, just because you are in prison, why should it be legal to work for less (much less) than minimum wage? I agree that prisoners should work, but not for less than minimum wage. Have them all do jobs, pay them a proper and then make them pay their way insofar as rent and food etc.

You may also want to research of the scandals in certain counties were they have private prisons who have worked in cahoots with corrupt courts, imprisoned countless of innocent individuals, for the sole purpose of feeding the prison workforce, so they can fulfil larger and larger orders.

Did you know, that 1 in every 4 people who are in prison around the world, are in prison in the USA. No other is even close to locking up its people in the same way the good ole, land of the 'free' USA likes to lock up its citizens. Why is that?

Poppajay- I definitely agree on the minimum wage thing. They should be paid a realistic wage and charged a realistic price for rent, utilites, food, toiletries, etc.

I see at least 2 companies on that 'list of companies who use prison production' that are long gone: TWA and Shearson Lehman.

People who insist on calling honest, no pun intended, work ''slavery'' would probably also be calling prisons ''death camps'' if there were NO work programs in existence and inmates just sat around getting brain rot. You'd say they were abandoned by society, weep, weep, weep.

Where is it written that I should produce something for you, take all the responsibilty, pay all the costs of production and distribution and then give it away? That would be stupid. Duh. I would have to stop on day one.

Trade and commerce has always been a part of human history. Stop dissing it and start thanking your lucky stars that the system works as well as it does.

"Breaking rocks in the hot sun.
I fought the law and the law won."
You may wonder what anyone needed broken rocks for. It was for railway roadbeds. Those sharp angular bits of rock settle and grip, so they don't shake loose.

So the way the job market is going, pretty soon prison will be considered a viable career option. (Judging from the number of US prisoners, maybe it already is.)