On Apr 25, 5:46*pm, aemeijers wrote:
HeyBub wrote:
hibb wrote:
For some reason, that statement made me think of that Prison Warden in
the movie "Shawshank Redemption". I wonder how many prison wardens in
Texas are making a few extra bucks off the free labor of their
prisoners.

Could be. But prisoners don't work outside the prison. For example, the
Little Rabbit School District sends a school bus to Texas Correctional
Industries (TCI) to be refurbished. TCI puts in a new engine, rebuilds the
cab, straightens the frame, and so on, then sends the bus back. The school
district is charged the cost of refurbishment.

Some inmates buy craft materials and produce things from pot holders to
hand-crafted boots which are sold at the prison store to visitors. The money
goes into the prisoner's account (there may be a small commission).

I don't think prison labor is hired out. And even if it were, the prisoners
would much rather be winnowing someone's wheat than sitting in a cell all
day.

Sounds like maybe they have cleaned up their act a little. First half of
20th century or so, and probably back in the 19th as well, it was
routine to rent out prisoners as field labor. Some counties were known
to arrest transients on trumped-up charges and have a make-believe
trial, when they were short a few bodies. The plantation mentality died
real hard in some places. If you were poor and barely literate (and
usually black), in those pre-Miranda day, if you got busted, well, not a
whole lot you could do about it.

Don't get me wrong, I think prisoner work programs can be a Real Good
Thing, if everything is done on the up-and-up, and the prisoner gets
some OJT in salable skills, and maybe a better attitude. But from what I
have read over the years, some of the programs in the old days were
little more than thinly-disguised slavery.

--
aem sends...

I agree but it did tick me off a bit when I lost a good contract with
the local city to a prison labor program from a neighboring county. I
had the contract for years and they made damn sure I didn't hire any
ex-cons to work in the police department and then they let me go and
hire convicts.