On 25/01/2012 17:44, Clive George wrote:
On 25/01/2012 17:19, harry wrote:

My prisons would be cheap. They would work and pay for their keep.
They would remain there working until they had paid (in cash)
full compensation for their crimes to their victims.
They would not be a nice place to be in either.

Where would you get the money from? We've already got an oversupply of
labour - how would yours be any better? Would you undercut normal
working people to get your work?

On the simple point of undercutting labour, that is not a problem -
China is already doing that. As we already have to pay for imprisoning
people, getting them to work for no pay would simply be repatriating
work that has been outsourced and would produce "profit" (reducing
prison costs) at no cost to UK jobs.

However, it may be more cost effective overall to get prisoners
perfoming work that is more likely to be useful in getting a job after
release.

SteveW