Any Country that mandates that Prisoners work for little or no pay while incarcerated is supporting institutionalized Slavery.
I’m putting the ACLU argument forward as the Pro position as it is very well written and touches on all the points that I would simply be restating.
Have fun!
Prison labour should be limited to apprenticeships in order to teach prisoners new skills to reinsert into society. And under no case forced under the threat of i.e solitary confinment.
The way it works in the US is the best way to release people that will instantly get into crime again due to leaving prison with nothing and having no possibility to gain money legally + a potential gigantic debt on the back of their family
Prison should be a place where criminals learn to live normally in society and go back on the right path, find a job, etc, not an institutionalized racket scheme that produces even more desperate and impoverished people who will not change anything about their way of life and keep doing nasty business with the help of all the new acquaintances they made there.
Slave labor isn’t compatible with a free society
Must have scared the hardline right folks off here already. This topic is usually guaranteed to bring them out.
A shame, I would like someone to argue that slavery is a necessary evil.
Realistically it seems to be (not my opinion but my observation):
- Shoes and clothes made in Bangladesh
- Car parts (filters, hoses, tin parts) made in India
- Foxconn China
- Rare earth mining
- Servants and immigrant workers in Qatar and Dubai.
Just to name a few examples of slave labour required to run the world “as is.”
Any country where forced labor is a condition of incarceration fits the definition of slavery fwiw.
Hmmm that’s an interesting topic, thanks for bringing this upz it’s something I never thought about.
So without thinking this through just eyeballing it here’s my take;
Prisons are expensive and the inmate needs to still make up for his crimes. Also being imprisoned without any kind of productive activity could have negative impact on mind and body.
Now there need to be sone rules:
- Additional qualification or study that are beneficial for the resocialisation and could lead to higher future income or better chance of getting a job should have priority.
- Pay should be fair and reasonable, the pay should be split in a fair way is the inmate needs to pay for his crimes (restitution etc). There must be a minimum remainder for the inmate so they have money available while imprisoned and the rest should be made available when they are released.
- Working conditions, breaks, OSHA etc needs to be on par with the standards outside of prison.
Now is enforcing labour still considered slavery? Could be but at least in Europe you lose some (not all) human rights when you’ve been sentenced to prison so it’s acceptable.
Now one disclaimer: This is with only theoretical knowledge about prisons on western Europe. The US prison system is something else all together.
The problem with you starting the debate like this is that you are glossing over the fact that is prisons are inhumane shithouses that actively engage in slavery.
The fact you are making these stipulations shows that the debate is starting off so far from what is happening in reality that no good will come of the debate so it’s pointless to engage further.
Weak attempt to derail.
Not really, I like your points you’re making, I’m just being honest… if we are starting the conversation in a place this far from reality I don’t honestly think it’s going to do any good
First and foremost: OP clearly states “any country” and is trying to make a general point and therefore isn’t focused to the UD prison system which I would consider unworthy of a real democracy.
Now regarding the points OP made I explained my POV and where I agree and disagree. O don’t see where either OP nor me deviated from reality and you haven’t given any evident or data telling us where exactly you disagree. So would you do the honour and lay out your argument?
Well this article is about the ACLU which I believe stands for American civil liberties union so this is about prisons in the United States
So it’s more than likely a misunderstanding… if you are talking about all countries, and I’m talking about usa (where we literally still have slavery) then there’s going to be a huge disconnect as far as what we are talking about
