Not a Win-Win Situation

While working today, ideas that I've been reading about came alive for me. A few books have mentioned prison industry as not only a stimulus to the economy but also a way for prisoners to gain a new skill to use when they get out. I've read that places that use such programs for their inmates see a much lower recidivism rate than we see here in Texas (which has alarming recidivism rates (pg.4) however you look at it..) Inmates provide service for the outside world and further their marketability.

As it is here, we have four hoe squads that have about forty people each and are not much different from the legendary chain gangs. The only difference is that we are not linked together on a chain and we can walk freely. We still experience the brow-beating insults from the bosses and the almost meaningless manual labor.

For example, today our squad of twenty-five (about fifteen are enrolled in classes) spent four hours from 7:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. tilling and making rows on a 1/3 acre plot of land while continuously being yelled at and insulted.We didn't even finish making rows on the plot, leaving about four rows undone.

I got to thinking that the work that we did, the twenty-five of us, could have been done by one person using a tractor and a couple of different accessories in maybe two hours. So not only would the work have been completed but you would also have twenty-four other guys to train and put to work doing something useful. Honestly, what business today would hire a person who has been using a hoe to manage land for the past few years? How backwards is this prison system? Not even farmers today work their land by hand like we inmates do.

It would help us inmates and many businesses if we were used for relevant business activity such as manufacturing, assembly, phone support, or anything other than the senseless hitting the ground that we do now. For the first time in history this country has 1 in 99 citizens behind bars. Give inmates training and exposure to a business and in return receive one of the largest workforces on the planet. Win-win.