3 ms·

It could be rehabilitation, if they were actually able to work as firefighters after serving their sentence. Also, I am concerned by the lack of death benefits

It could be rehabilitation, if they were actually able to work as firefighters after serving their sentence. Also, I am concerned by the lack of death benefits for the families of those that die. It's a pretty clear statement that their lives are nearly worthless. Indirectly telling someone their life is of very low value, then putting barriers in the way of them returning to work and society after they have served their debt to society does not sound like rehabilitation to me.

will_brown 8y ago
There is a lot there. Lack of death benefits/life insurance speaks to a much broader issue facing most non-incarcerated individuals, including, many with high risk jobs. However, if they have the resources the family could take out life insurance policies, and even if waivers are signed if the program was negligent in training or providing faulty equipment to the participants then the family/heirs have access to courts and lawyers take wrongful death cases on contingency. For example, look at Walmart, using sophisticated computer systems they take out life insurance policies on their employees (including minimum wage workers on food stamps/SNAP) and cash in when the employees die and give the families nothing. Whether they participate in this program or not, it is true there are barriers in place to a living wage for people transitioning out of incarceration. Again I’d say the reality is there are many barriers for people who have no criminal record to getting a job. The question might be does this program hurt them from getting a job...well obviously if you die yes, but otherwise, it can only help. Personally I don’t think it’s society or the system, it’s individuals in the companies making decisions with the reality of the number of people competing for the same job...despite low unemployment numbers I believe all potential employees are low value.

will_brown 8y ago

There is a lot there. Lack of death benefits/life insurance speaks to a much broader issue facing most non-incarcerated individuals, including, many with high risk jobs. However, if they have the resources the family could take out life insurance policies, and even if waivers are signed if the program was negligent in training or providing faulty equipment to the participants then the family/heirs have access to courts and lawyers take wrongful death cases on contingency. For example, look at Walmart, using sophisticated computer systems they take out life insurance policies on their employees (including minimum wage workers on food stamps/SNAP) and cash in when the employees die and give the families nothing. Whether they participate in this program or not, it is true there are barriers in place to a living wage for people transitioning out of incarceration. Again I’d say the reality is there are many barriers for people who have no criminal record to getting a job. The question might be does this program hurt them from getting a job...well obviously if you die yes, but otherwise, it can only help. Personally I don’t think it’s society or the system, it’s individuals in the companies making decisions with the reality of the number of people competing for the same job...despite low unemployment numbers I believe all potential employees are low value.