3 ms·

Wait, are people in jail forced to work or is it opt-in?

• bryanrasmussen 4y ago
  How it works is up to the state, for example in Utah it is opt in if you are in a part of the system where you can work. However Utah has a parole board to determine when to release you on parole, thus if you get sentenced on a 2rd degree felony 1-15 years, then it is up to the Parole board if you do one year and get parole or 15 years without parole. So the system says they want everyone to have a job in the prison as part of their rehabilitation, if you refuse a job then you are obviously not trying to rehabilitate therefore when you come up to the parole board you will not be getting that 1 year parole, but serving out your sentence (next hearing 2 years probably) so when you want to not do 15 years you take the job and you do a good job to show the board you are getting rehabilitated. Of course the wages are very low, but still the monetary incentives to get a job still exist as you can purchase overpriced items from the commissary, and it can be nice to have those items, so people who don't have anyone to put money on their account will work to earn that money. I believe in a number of the Southern states, historically familiar with slavery, the forced labor emphasizes the forced much more.
• Pakdef 4y ago
  For a lot of them, their slave work is basically sitting in a cell so that the for-profit prison gets a paycheck from the government. https://truthout.org/articles/for-profit-prisons-eight-statistics-that-show-the-problems/ https://truthout.org/articles/for-profit-prisons-eight-stati...