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> a woman who has been recently released from prison comes into a society that is not prepared structurally or emotionally to welcome her back To me, this was
by csense 13y ago
> a woman who has been recently released from prison comes into a society that is not prepared structurally or emotionally to welcome her back
To me, this was the most important statement in the article (although I think this issue affects all prisoners more-or-less equally, regardless of gender).
I was reading a story recently about a Wells Fargo employee who was fired after seven years on the job, when his employer discovered that he once put a fake dime in a washing machine nearly fifty years ago.
If we as a society decide, through our laws and legal system, that someone is not sufficiently dangerous that they need to stay in jail (or be executed), we should make every effort to be sure that person becomes a productive, functioning member of society again. That outcome is in the best interests of everyone (well, maybe not private prison operators, but that issue's another discussion entirely).
But if people are refused jobs, education, passports, government assistance, etc. due to a criminal record, how are they supposed to recover their lives? How are they supposed to feed themselves or their families?
We need to be more forgiving of people's past. I think this will be inevitable as people become more searchable due to the Internet and social media -- not everyone has a criminal record, but everyone makes mistakes, and as a greater fraction of the population has a greater fraction of their past in public view, more and more of those mistakes will become visible, until it won't be possible to find anyone who's "perfect."
- chongli 13y ago>But if people are refused jobs, education, passports, government assistance, etc. due to a criminal record, how are they supposed to recover their lives? How are they supposed to feed themselves or their families? I think the answer is basic income. We're at a point right now where the demand for labour is so low that people's lives are subject to the whims of fickle employers. This problem will continue to grow as automation makes more and more people redundant. It will take the economic pressure off the less fortunate and open the doors to their future. With basic income we can turn productivity gains into a force for benefitting all people. We can free the creative masses from the mundane and unnecessary. We can build a labour market that is less regulated and more competitive. Capitalism functions best when its participants are able to make free choices.
- csense 13y agoBy "basic income," I assume you mean the government pays everyone enough to live. Welfare by another name. What keeps people from just taking the money and doing nothing? Some fraction of people will probably always want to work because a job makes them happier, or they desire the luxuries that the increased income makes possible. But in the time between now and the techno-utopia where robots and computers do all the work, how do we know that this fraction will always be big enough? Why won't our society won't collapse due to too many people opting to live on the public dime, and there not being enough workers left to produce the food, clothing, shelter, etc. needed by the non-workers? Isn't this basically how communism collapsed?