4 ms·
Pay the prisoners fairly, deduct a portion for the cost of incarceration, and keep a large chunk saved away so that the prisoner, once released, has enough mone
by mschuster91 3y ago
Pay the prisoners fairly, deduct a portion for the cost of incarceration, and keep a large chunk saved away so that the prisoner, once released, has enough money to start a new life without needing to fall back to crime just to survive. Easy as that.
- ndsipa_pomu 3y agoIt doesn't seem fair to charge prisoners for the cost of their incarceration - it strikes me as a system open to abuse. Prisoners should be able to not work and not accrue debt for that choice (it may not be a choice for medical issues etc) and then it would be unfair to only charge those that do work.
- speeder 3y agoTrust me. In some countries either you charge prisoners... Or you don't make prisoners (meaning kill criminals even for small crimes. Or let them roam free and have the population kill them instead).
- ndsipa_pomu 3y agoWell that sounds like a false dichotomy to me. There's always going to be some prisoners that are either too ill or considered too dangerous to be allowed to work, so how do they get charged for their stay? Also, the prisoners that have no reasonable chance of recovering their freedom are not going to have much incentive to work and what do you do when they go into arrears - put them in double prison?
- ben_w 3y ago> deduct a portion for the cost of incarceration How much is a portion? Cost per prisoner varies a lot, but a quick google suggests the US average cost per prisoner is about 50%-100% of gross national average salary depending on who I ask. (And the cost per prisoner in the UK is about double national average gross salary).