@@whiteymcgee3597 They already do. In many places, you get an invoice when you leave prison, and if you can't pay, it's back in jail with you, where you incur more fees, that you have to pay once you're released, on top of your old fees.
"The slaves have armed themselves--" "Ooh, I don't like that word!" "Sorry, the prisoners with jobs have armed themselves." "Ok, that's better!" -Thor: Ragnorak, 2017
The “convict poker” shocks me every time I see it. It’s literally just the gladiator games in the colosseum all over again. Putting prisoners in life threatening situations for the general public’s amusement. The extent to which people dehumanize people in prison is nauseating.
@@justalostlocal Do not aim for second best. Unfettered capitalism is worse than capitalism with a collar, but we should work to abolish the tyranny of the capitalists entirely. Socialists are anti-capitalist.
chinga tu you are absolutely right. Dont Lisen to the communist quote of some Russian. USA is the greatest country ever. Jus look at the obesity rate, their flawless gun safety, astonishing health care and amazing treatment of the pore the wealthy are profiting off. USA USA USA!!!!
@Jane Doe the upside is people like them are getting old and dying off. The population that thinks like that will never get to zero but it'll get much much smaller...
"We can't have people who served time in prison and have learnt their lesson, work in emergency services, that's dangerous. But if you're still a prisoner learning your lesson, that's fine." Common sense, right? Makes sense.
@@bobbymounts doesn't matter. If it employs coerced labour plus any of those connection cutting corporate schemes it has fallen right in the the same place.
Saying “crime doesn’t pay” is disingenuous at best. The multi-billion dollar private prison industry is your proof that is does indeed “pay” just not the “criminals”.
True. Certain crimes don't pay. But if you start a fake company, sell shares of fake company's stock, pump up the price then sell all your shares before distributing the proceeds b/n offshore accounts and anonymous crypto currencies... THEN spend 5 years on house arrest, wait... and start spending the millions you stashed, THEN... crime does pay. Just don't do something really illegal like selling 1 oz of marijuana.
Those for whom crime is profitable very rarely suffer the indignities of incarceration. If you want to stesl, rob a bank. If you want to steal BIG and get a medal for it, own a bank.
The problem of periods! In the third year of medical school, I (female) and three of my male colleagues lived in a house together while we were studying at a hospital in another city. When I got my period, I put my supplies on the back of the toilet--like every other woman in the country! One of the guys, a delegate for the other two, approached me, saying the sight of tampons (in a box) made them uncomfortable. I replied, "Oh! You guys must have missed the lecture on menstruation. I'll be happy to fill you in. Half of your patients are going to menstruate. You better get used to it."
Really? They got uncomfortable that you put a reminder of bodily fluids on top of a fucking toilet? The hypocrisy aside, I don't think they have the stomach for doctor's work.
My friend's brother is in Angola. He rides in the rodeo and has done the convict poker. It's all 100% voluntary. He absolutely loves it and gives him something to live for.
Those are absolutely symptoms of a larger illness - putting people's welfare in the hands of corporations who will always put the almighty dollar in front of the humanity involved.
these things arent just in private prisons, they happen in government owned prisons/jails also. its a systemic problem that goes back to old english law that allowed for slavery, that how long this problem has been going on for
@@obviouslyniceduh5521 yeah but they happen because even in those public prisons private companies are in charge of medical care or phone calls or employment or whatever
3:54 the most annoying part about the “crime doesn’t pay” argument is that inmates aren’t asking to be paid to sit in prison (being paid for your crimes), they’re asking to be paid what anyone else would be for the jobs they’re doing. They’re not asking to be paid for crime, they’re asking to be paid for labour.
Dostoyevsky is amazing, thank you for the nice surprise. As for the 'unborn' commenter above me, go fuck yourself. "Perhaps if we've understood a thing quickly, we haven't understood it all." -FD, _The Idiot_
That might just be my favorite part of the show. As soon as he brings up anything to do with phones, coverage or customer service all I can think is ‘how’s he gonna work a diss of AT&T into this’
@@shortstuff780 You were watching this video on your phone, correct? Because where you meant to type 'with', your phone's keyboard auto-corrected it to work haha
As an ex-con and actual ESL teacher, I appreciate your words. I was locked up for selling weed. 4 and a half years. And it was hell in my prisons. Yes, plural. I was in 5 different prisons. The first was Joliet before it was closed and turned into a museum an film site for Prison Break.
And they've also opened Immigration detention centers for profit. Lots of money for certain "connected " companies. Follow the money...guess where it leads
These people have to pay taxes on a $0.15/hr income. That's absolutely nuts. And that warden talking about losing the "good ones" who they can "use" for washing their cars should have been fired immediately after that statement.
Oh come on!! You're being overly dramatic! In the country chalk full of "isms", do you really think they would even entertain the concept of firing someone for such a statement? Quit being so silly with your logic.
@@glennlee6987 well as long as the warden is spitballing about keeping good ones in, he's inviting everyone to start spitballing right back at him. But yeah, he didn't create the problem
Ever notice how frequently the guys who say things like "crime doesn't pay" are usually rich but later get caught committing felonies- particularly financial crimes?
I think they got it from the Fat Albert series where each episode they talk about some sort of educational life lesson. Obviously the irony in this is rich!
As a woman whose husband is incarcerated, thank you very much for exposing the harsh reality and injustice of prison labor and the cost of being in prison to those on the inside and their loved ones. Hopefully we can make real changes soon in this system. It isn’t a fight about why someone is in prison, it’s about actually making change. Who do you want to live next to you? The one treated so unfairly that they become more unequipped to deal with life when they are coming home that they have no choice but to be warped to do worse? I live in CT and our phone call rates are the worst in the country next to Arkansas. Insane.
Caitlin Bodamer wow an actually helpful and intelligent comment. Thank you. I hope we can make better laws that help situations like yours for you and your husband.
I hope things get better for you and your family, and I hope your husband is free soon. I firmly believe it's the prison system itself that does the most harm to most inmates, who are generally *nonviolent* people who either made a stupid mistake (who doesn't?) or who had the deck stacked against them to begin with and turned to crime for survival. Having a loving and supportive family is instrumental in ensuring future success for people in the prison system. He's lucky to have you and you are so strong.
Why are we ignoring that "why" question though? If theyre in for minor drug offences fine. If they're in because the raped and murdered someone, why are we pretending we should be having the same conversation?
Stephen Harris even if you were to exclude that part of the prison population, which is not a large portion, you still have many people who are subjected to this with non-serious offenses. People focus on who is in and why they are in when we need to be focusing on fixing things. If you want to exclude certain populations in the legislation, fine. But something still needs to be done.
"The current system of low wages and high costs is clearly no good for anyone but for the companies who are somehow managing to profit from this." Damn, John, you didn't have to point out that the entire country itself is a prison.
@@robertfalk3767 I'm fine with it, too, but the truth is that being called a communist, socialist, etc even if it's not true by any definition of those words, has become a reason to dismiss anything you say by the people that use those words.
I actually work as a correctional officer in Alabama. What he is saying is entirely true except he missed a couple things like if you don’t do the job you applied to or given it can actually affect you getting out on time or make your parole be declined. And it can even get you in trouble or hurt by other inmates.
We still kill certain people and I have no problem killing those we can without doubt prove are guilty in the same manner most killed their victims. The wild beast would look tame in many cases.
What the fuck does that even mean? Romans were brutal. It's 2000 years later, the enlightenment has happened, we have a declaration of human rights, and this is how human beings are still treated in America? It's not okay. Not fucking okay.
Saitaina Malfoy dude, prisoners are not all rapist and child murders . Some have just made a stupid mistake . and We all make mistakes...so have some compassion
@@Saitaina You want to defend prisoners being gored for funtimes for the sick people that enjoy it. You don't know why these people are in prison, you DO know that some of them are falsely incarcerated but you...dont care. I hope you think about that and let go of that hate inside you.
Virginia law enforcement? Defending a political economy based on enslaving a given social group, then dehumanizing them to wipe away the guilt? Why, I never!!
As a guy from the UK, this is how I see the US court system: - A poor black person has a broken light on his car. - He is sent a fine of $100 he cannot afford - He is sent to jail for not paying - He cannot afford $250 for bail = FREE/CHEAP LABOUR - Repeat a few million times.
In my country you can make an apprenticeship in prison and become a professional carpenter for example, so you can get a decent job when you leave and not need to rely on crime again. Then again, the philosophy is not punishment but cure and reintegration into society
sadly, nothing about the prison system in the US is about rehabilitaton. big companies just profit too much off people relapsing into crime to care about them as humans. i am so glad i don't live in the US .. where lobbies and companies control the politics and lawmaking
Privatization of any systems that people can't opt out of will inevitably lead to corruption mad explotation. It is amazing how corrupt a country america is
I hate the word prison. We're putting people in cages like animals and calling it correction! Is there not a better way to do things, especially with nonviolent criminals?
You can have private prisons if the prisoner gets to decide what prison he goes to. Or at the very least his heard in some capacity as to what prisons he don't want to be held at.
@@couragekarnga8735 fredik dunge is right. Check out the Michael Moore documentary "where to invade next". He does a really good, informative piece on Norwegian Prisons and compares them to American ones.
The “convict poker” is like gladiator games. In fact, it's exactly gladiator games. Convicts being put in harm's way for entertainment is the very definition.
It's actually worse. The gladiator warriors were mostly volunteers or in the early years prisoners of war. Even 2000 years ago they knew that putting regular convicts in arenas was wrong.
The rodeo is actually 100% voluntary. My friend is in there for life. The convict poker is the most coveted thing among the inmates. It's fought over to get that job. He's done that many years in a row. The rodeo is the only thing that makes him want to keep moving forward.
Think "us and them" and how "they" deserve to be treated like this and "don't do the crime if you can't do the time" comments. Great...if you assume you'll never get rolled into this and that the justice system is "fair." The more you know, like watching videos of police encounters with minorities...
It’s also designed so that even if a prisoner learns a trade, chances are high nobody will hire them because they are ex-cons and don’t deserve a second chance
"Convict Rodeo" is one of those things that if you told me it was real I wouldn't beleive you, cause it sounds like such a hackneyed dystopian novel idea. And yet here we are I suppose
Nobody Knows so you’re telling me a bunch of desperate people who literally make cents want to make more money by doing something extremely dangerous, you’re telling me we can’t find a better solution. Before the brilliant invention of “no poop on the streets”, guess what we had everyone. Poop in the streets!
Nobody Knows gotcha. But also I meant compared to the usual prison jobs where they make cents, of course they would sign up for something where they could make significantly more money. Really warps the perspective of choice there. Im a pessimistic idealist. I know shit is bad but I still hope for a better way. In an I ideal world where prison is meant for rehabilitation (except serial killers ofc), that shouldn’t be a thing. Focus should be on reintegration into society (learning skills so they don’t come back). How is what they’re doing now going to help except help them get money. That is literally just a few hundred bucks.
@@restreven4455 in a for-profit prison system, it is not in the interest of the companies that run the prisons to rehabilitate prisoners. They want high recidivism, because that is more money for them. And right now society in the United States is also not built for rehabilitation. If you finished your sentence (and repaid your dept to society) you have problems finding a job, a house etc. And you get little to no assistance to reintegrate in society.
R vdB yup. That’s my beef with this. This prison rodeo is not helping with anything. Forgive me for being dramatic buts it’s really reminding me of prison gladiators in the goddamn coliseum.
This implies that the work that the prison is forcing the prisoners to do is actually a crime and that they should not be paid for it. That's what that means. They're forcing the prisoners to commit crimes by being underpaid or unpaid labor.
You would have known quite a bit on this, if you had watched Tulsi Gabbard roasting Kamala Harris on her record as prosecutor and Attorney General of California during the debates last week. If you haven't watched their exchange yet, I definitely recommend checking it out!
I had a prison pen-pal years ago I've basically ignored for longer than I care to admit. Right after watching this I sent some canteen money and phone credits.
@Caligula6 Shoshon Did you not watch the part with the formerly incarcerated woman talk about making $4 per month? Is working an entire month for a box of tampons really something that sounds like a solution to you? Are you dumb or a monster?
@@Iffem Not providing feminine hygiene products is like not providing toilet paper. It's a normal bodily function which you cannot control. And at least when men go to the bathroom, they don't have to carry it around in their pants all day like women do with their blood.
@@Henrik46 there actually are work arounds to that law, tipped work or internships. Some companies have "internships" that are just free labour (the difference is that a true internship should teach you something, but a lot just have you fill out excel sheets or fetch coffee)
"Crime doesn't pay." "Crime Doesn't Pay." "Crime doesn't pay." They kept repeating that and it hankered down in my soul, cause there was something so fundamentally wrong with the statement in the context that it didn't actually register in the logic centers of my brain at all. It was intuitively wrong. I knew it was wrong before I knew why it was wrong. It defies common sense. By the end of the video it still hadn't settled. Then it congealed. The thing is these prisoners who are working in these prisons are no longer committing a crime. They are working for pay, in most cases about the furthest extreme from crime as one can get. The boss at my first job said something that has stuck with me even seventeen years later and was something I instantly agreed with. "An honest day's work, for an honest day's pay." Surely there can be no simpler or more ethical contract. "An honest day's work, for an honest day's pay." a simple value that surely any society would wish to impart on to any criminal element. "Crime doesn't pay." is so completely beside the point that it's amazing they got it out of their mouths. What they're basically saying is that these people who have committed crimes and are being punished for them should not be paid when doing honest work, because it would be a reward for the crimes that got them put in prison to begin with. Rather than part of their rehabilitation and an activity that they do while serving their sentence. As if going to prison was basically an employment program that they shouldn't be allowed to benefit from. For fuck's sake, either pay them for their work or keep them in their cells and hire people you'd actually pay for the work to do the jobs.
Well, you know how they get paid for their work? 3 meals a day and a roof over their heads. I think that's more than what a lot of people outside prisons have. Heck if it weren't for the possibility of getting raped and killed by my inmates I might actually want to be in there.
@Willa Bukata I don't get why that's an issue though? A person commits a crime, the person must pay for damages. I never really understood the whole point of locking people up just to lock them up. What purpose does that serve? Primarily prison should be to remove a public danger. Secondarily it should be to force the person to work to pay off damages caused. Only tertiarily should it be to lock the person up for the sake of punishment. But America does #1, and in the process of doing #1 seems to really love #3. America doesn't seem to care at all about #2. Why?
@@georgebrantley776 Financial requirements are sometimes part of a criminal ruling. More often, they happen civilly. (Think O.J Simpson - won the criminal case, lost the civil case.) To go a little further in answering your question, the vast majority of these jobs do not do anything for a community, they simply help the prison owner get more money.
@@thegrayyernaut If by slave, you mean forced to work without pay, under suboptimal but not inhumane conditions, and given food and shelter for the period of the slavery, then yeah, I think that is quite fair. Slavery should last until costs incurred have been paid off, at which point the tab has been cleared and the criminal may reintegrate back into society. Essentially I am suggesting that locking someone up does not really do anything to provide compensation to the victim. It only penalizes the criminal. So we should use labor instead of just jail time as a way to act as both penalty and compensation.
My brother worked at a McDonald’s for 10c an hour double shifts. He said he did it for the food (in prison all they fed them was pb &j sandwiches) and to get away from his cell mate- he said he was evil.
Honestly, John Oliver and the Last Week Tonight team are surely the best news commentators we have today. They remain factual, even with all the comedy inserts, and delve deep into the actual workings of the story. Great job everyone! Keep it up.
Jody Owen he also cites everything on screen. If you can find something to contradict what he said with a meaningful citation then please share. Otherwise you are spouting off because your feelings are hurt and your world view got challenged.
Jody Owen I love how a big portion of you argument is basically just the fact that he is not from the US and therefor shouldn’t have an opinion. I almost hope you’re a troll.
Jody Owen except for the fact that he is married to a US citizen and lives here. And that doesn’t sound like a citation to back up your claim. You are really arguing from feels right now. His nationality is also completely irrelevant.
Crime doesn't pay, and so it shoudn't. But inmates doin a proper job should be paid. Fighting fires aint a crime. There is only one country in the world where companies make huge profits on inmates, ironically it is the country that calls itself the land of the free.
Rmnstr Here in Norway, we have prisons with free monitored WiFi for prisoners. We also allow them to keep working in their jobs while serving their sentence if the work can be done by internet calls and documents, with full pay which will be payed with interest after you left the prison.
Well, look at the bright side. When (fingers crossed) Trump goes to prison he will have to actually work for once in his life! (He won't, he has money. Damn...)
@@Lunictd For the first time in his life, yes sadly. But considering it's nearly all illegally obtained he will be back into debt from fines like he has been since he started.
Except that their work is mostly doing their laundry, cooking their meals and cleaning their home... They are providing services to their fellow inmates. John makes it sound like the rest of us are benefiting from their slave labor, but the labor is mostly just to look after themselves. I am all for paying them a minimum wage, but then should we be charging them for the rent, laundry services, food, etc. prepared by the other inmates? Lets make it a real economy?
@@SimonHomeintheEarth some of the prisoners are not working, though, because working is actually a privilege. So the guys who work in the laundry or the kitchen are taking care of themselves and their fellow inmates. Plus, as you saw in the video, sometimes prisoners are used to do work for the actual prison, like maintaining cars, or maintaining the yards, and occasionally as road crews. I'm not in favor of paying them minimum wage (because their room and board is free to them), but I am in favor of paying them a decent wage so they can afford the shit like phone calls and tampons and other necessities. Their punishment is supposed to be their incarceration, not slave labor.
It’s disgusting the way that officer complained about “good” prisoners being released. His need for free car washes and oil changes shouldn’t have any bearing on sentencing or discharges.
What's the logic here. You are an inmate and you can work as a firefighter, but once you are out you can't? They just want cheap labor, the cheapest kind.
I really appreciate what John and his team do. They take really important but perhaps not eye catching issues and dive deep. People should watch this show and others like in instead of CNN and Fox News.
@Tv 5150 that's emt not firefighter and paramedic is higher in the rank than an average firefighter. When I looked at what you said I thought "this assholes got no idea what he's talking about"
@Tv 5150 you do realize that mandatory minimums are there for simple possession. Most inmates are not addicts, especially after time served. Think. You're in prison for possession of 1 gram of cocaine that you were not aware of when given a package. You get pulled over, and that cocaine is found. You're sentenced 15 years for possession. Then you get out after having worked in medicine in prison, but jackasses like you claim their addicts who can't get off drugs and thus can't work in medicine.
I need to know how John and his staff don't go insane when researching these injustices. Even with the "What can we do?" portion, I still end up curled up in the corner weeping. Also, I work in HR and have a favourite mug (the one that holds the most coffee) so I feel personally called out by Zazu here.
My adopted sister’s bio dad has been in and out of jail for awhile. Before we adopted her, we would visit her dad in a halfway house and let me tell you. He looked like a totally different person. He had meat on his bones, color, he looked well rested. It was crazy, but then he got out. He couldn’t get a good job, couldn’t buy a car, he could barley afford bus fares. So he went back to what he knew got him those things, he had no other choice. Now I’m not saying her dad was a good man, I don’t like him, but now he is back in prison for a long time. He could’ve been an upstanding citizen, he could’ve had a relationship with my sister, but he was failed by a system that doesn’t believe in second chances.
On one hand, I get it. Hire somebody random off the street, and they end up showing up on drugs, or helping themselves to the cash register - and that's one thing, but hiring someone with a drug or theft conviction, and it's not hard to see it as asking for it. But the fact remains, they're still people who need money to survive- and if they're in a position to fill out applications, they've already paid for their crimes.
I appreciate this comment. My father spent most of my life in jail or prison. He was nonviolent, and worked hard when he was out. But the system failed him, he chose to do the things he knew, and it always led back to incarceration. It is not a CORRECTIONAL system. It is just incarceration.
@@digitalutopia1 But the fact that someone has done something before doesn't mean they would do it again. And the fact that someone hasn't done something before doesn't mean they wouldn't do it. I wish people would realize that giving previous inmates a chance doesn't mean they are exposing themselves to risk.
@@playlist4637 Just mentioning companies profiting does not cover the issue I am talking about. I am talking about prison call centers doing telemarketing, or some prisons where light manufacturing/assembly work is done for companies.
This is the reason why "Gone With The Wind" should be screened more often, instead of being shamed out of screens. Former plantation owner lived in opulence thanks to slave labor. She lost her wealth when slavery was outlawed, only to rebuild it by turning towards prison labor and using it in much the same way she used slaves before. THAT is important.
@Maya Rader because first you have to teach what is or isn't the law and the difference between state and federal systems and once you do that you have way too many people with a minimum level of education to easily take advantage of. The general rule of thumb for why something isn't taught is that it is easier to take advantage of those who are dumb or uneducated. Ideally you would have a populace of people who are dumb and uneducated, but beggars can't be choosers lol 😉 (Side note: I have no idea why my reply keeps posting itself before I finish typing. I apologize if it flooded your notifications)
You’d still need to impress upon the audience that Scarlett making convict leasing her field of work is not, as the story suggests, her making her own living her own way.
That doesn't seem like a good argument to me for screening a 70 year old movie with hurtful black stereotypes, a very unsympathetic heroine who treats everyone horribly except the man she 'loves'-- who doesn't love her and never did, but wasn't man enough to tell her to back off. In the book she's even worse. And the romance is stupid between her and Rhett Butler. Everyone is relieved when he leaves her at the end and I for one hoped Scarlett never gets him back. He deserves way better. Good riddance to GWTW and they should stop showing it in favor of 10 Years a Slave or even Lincoln (Spielberg production.) I'd even take that Tarantino film Django Unchained over GWTW any day.
Crime shouldn't pay, but a job should. If you insist on not paying inmates by saying "crime shouldn't pay", you are admitting that forcing them to work is criminal.
Let's solve the problem of law-abiding citizens getting livable pay first. Criminals get free room and board, but the rest of us don't. We need that money more than they do so we can just survive.
The average prisoner costs $26K - $32K per year in order to house, feed, and keep. The average worker works 80 hours per paycheck accumulating at 2080 hours per year --> $25,000 / 2080 Hours work = $12.50 - $15.38 $ per hour, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. This means the average prisoner who works earns more than the average american who works. Saying anything different is ignorance, as at the minimum if a prisoner was going to work he/she must pa back their debt to society.
@@stephencoldbear Good plan, instate an actual living wage as the minimum wage, no exceptions. That will solve both at the same time. Any business that can't afford to pay a living wage can't afford the employee and is just pretending they can.
@@BenjaminSodos That must be why we're always hearing about people breaking into prisons. I'm sure most inmates would be willing to forego some of their in-prison living expenses (such as tasers, 16:36 ) if you were to ask them nicely.
The "crime doesn't pay" thing is a double-edge sword, because by paying prisoners virtually nothing for the labor they're doing, they end up figuring that honest work doesn't pay either.
I personally know someone who had a “good” prison job making $0.18/hr. Meanwhile they have to buy toiletries, clothes, shoes, phone cards, etc. It’s a total racket. And he was in one of the “better” prisons.
@@kumonetta Our Federal and state and local taxes go to the salaries of prison staff and to the lucrative contracts for companies that build, maintain, and service them.
I know someone who was in a Bob Baker for profit prison. He said everything bore Baker's name- from their uniform and soap. He was paid about 10cents an hour.
I don’t know anyone in prison. Because I choose not to break the law and associate myself with people who could potentially hurt me or my family. You know what’s a racket, people who want to commit crimes and then be paid to serve out their sentences. You want to make money, stop breaking the law. Maybe if people grew up and stopped committing crimes you pussy people wouldn’t be shedding tears for underpaid murderers, rapists, sex traffickers, drug smugglers and who knows what else. Grow up. Fuck off. They made their choice. Learn to wipe your own ass and move on. #NoPayForPrisoners
Wow, watching people get attacked by bulls for entertainment sure sounds a lot like the bread and circuses we like to call the ancient Romans barbaric for.
If you're referencing gladiators the Romans highly valued them and they killed one rarely, there's a video of Adam ruins everything talking about it, I highly suggest that you watch it.
Exactly. I'm surprised John didn't point out the obvious there. They are not being paid for the crime they commited, but for the work they're doing. Their sentence was just "deprivation of liberty", not "deprivation of liberty and of getting paid"
No, they need to lean responsibly, prison isn’t supposed to be a paying gig. It’s supposed to be hard, give them hygiene products but no pay. Reform the prison system, to help them reform themselves to live life outside.
@@holecow1975 nah, being deprived of walking freely is plenty hard. also prison itself isn't the "gig", they're not getting paid for just being there, they're getting paid for putting in work. simple as that.
Crime shouldn't pay. Especially not the judges, the wardens, or the owners of the prison. Don't incentivize society to create and maintain a "criminal" population.
@@joeyw.7131 that was his point. He's saying that currently the criminal justice system pays all the people he listed and so they try to maintain a large prison population
@matt rascon you wanna know which prisons never have problems with any riots or unrest? Rehabilitative prisons. Their prisoners have the lowest rearrest rates, highest level of effective treatment for addictions, etc.
@@humanbeing5918 That would be fair, if they could refuse having a job without economical pressure. But if they are forced to have a job, at the very least they should be paid.
My nephew was in prison in California and got out a couple of years ago. The hoops his mother had to jump through to send him ANYTHING were absurd. There was no way at all contraband could have been sent to him through her. Even if she wanted to send him items, they had to come from a small selection of mail-order vendors. (Yes, I think Amazon was among them.) Yet, the prisons are awash in contraband. Staff and guards are literally the only way anything can get in. California, and all state prison systems, must have a profoundly ingrained culture of corruption that no one has even acknowledged let alone tried to root out. And to use this as an excuse to deny prisoners simple human comforts is evil.
@@communistinternationalco.6776 He was stupid, and was with the wrong person at the wrong place at the wrong time. Because of this, he got the absolute minimum sentence the judge could sentence for the crime he had technically committed. The actual perp is, last I heard, still in the county jail. He'll get life, and knows it, and is using every trick he knows to delay his transfer to a state prison, including assaulting other inmates.
It is illegal to bring material made through forced labour to the US. Meanwhile US manufactures most of it's military helmets, roadsigns and many other such materials through forced labour.
Glad he mentioned the amendment that includes the reasoning. Prisoners lost their freedom for a reason, and gave up many of their constitutional rights. They don't deserve to not work, nor do they deserve minimum wage. That being said, they absolutely DO NOT deserve some of the abuses they are forced to endure. One doesn't have to take a single side on an issue. This isn't black and white, most things in life are not. That's what I love this show for. You don't leave out the nuances and advocate many sides, admitting why things should happen, and still calling out the horrible conditions some are forced or pressured into. Keep doing what you do John! Love your show
@@fmrodr can you explain how that graph relates to the work incentives that the OP is talking about? (It doesn't, by the way, it just shows amount of incarceration x time)
The problem is that prisons are private and run as a business. Or just the latter (as I'm sure some public prison might be run like this too) Any type of business will always have the same goal: make money. I live in Norway. And like with all the other Scandinavian countries, our prisons are government run and paid for by taxes. This again means that keeping people in prison becomes an government EXPENSE, which obviously nobody wants unnecessary amounts of. The difference is that one system makes people money for keeping people IN jail for as long as possible (even makes money when people violate probation and are sent back) while the other system only has costs (including the employees), and no profit margin, which only motivates the prisons to actually rehabilititate prisoners so they DON'T end up back in prison after their sentences. I swear to God - nobody would be sent to prison for 10 years for simply dealing marihuana if prisons was a rehabilitating government expense. Oh no. And if you ever wondered why some punishments are so unfair - well there you go. Money. It's always money.
Only 8.4% of the US prison population is in private prisons. Our prisons are in fact overwhelmingly government run. Private prisons are easy to demonize but if you only go after them you're going after a very small part of a very big problem.
Indeed. The problem is that even the private prisons are often subsidized by the government, so they take taxpayer money _and_ all the money the make from exploiting the inmates by hiring them out as day laborers to other companies (who then pay the prison a fee, instead of paying the inmate for their labour, except for a small pittance).
@@PrometheusLKR If so, then that is surely a smaller amount than I first thought. But that small percentage then still has quite the influence overall wouldn't you say? :S
I know a man who was in prison and his family would smuggle him in his favorite snacks. That's literally it. Sometimes it's something like shampoo or extra tampons. And I don't see anything wrong with that considering most inmates are generally nonviolent people who made a stupid mistake or who had crappy life experiences and virtually no opportunities or societal support systems. Inmates who are lucky enough to have families who love them, are SO much more likely to reform. Their mamas aren't likely going to send them weapons or drugs. Don't get me wrong, I don't think murderers and the like should be allowed to walk free, but it's the prison system itself that does the most harm to most inmates.
Anyone ever watch the show 60 Days In? The people who go undercover as inmates only ever uncovered prison staff smuggling in the contraband, through laundry and the cafeteria generally.
The prisons in Utah have catalogs loaded with stuff sold by the state. They claimed you cant send a prisoner a book unless its ordered from this high priced cataloging where the proceeds go to the warden and cops working in the prison. My son was sent to prison. They had him working cutting trees. The money he made was paid to Aflec insurance company so that in the event he was hurt or killed the state got the money.
u n b e l i e v a b l e. As a European I can't wrap my head around these mis treatments. ESPECIALLY knowing it happens in a free western country. Extortion.
The prison system in the USA seems to be a rotating door policy. You commit a minor offense. Get time, then can't get a job as you have a record and no money or skills. Commit bigger crimes to get by and then end back in. Repeat until a junior offender becomes a hardened offender with a life sentence and nothing to lose!!
Exactly: and all these private corporations profiting off inmate suffering, instead having a public social systeml who is suposed to be helping you REHABILITATE, the very first time you step into jail so you dont reoffend again. BUT WHY BOTHER; if there's all those corporations waiting to FILL THE JAILS and make money off suffering? if the jails start to have less inmates, they start to make less money, and their shares start to go down .SO WHO IS MOST INTERESTED N PRISONERS REOFFENDING? you do the math. $$$
@@proculusjulius7035 tax evasion doesn't really benefit you much once the legal process has stripped you of your assets, income and wealth... And the meals are literally slop nothing worth eating
That was the first thing that I thought watching this piece.. no crimes are being done by people doing laundry or fighting fires... that work deserves payment.
the problem for those old crusty farts goes like this: 1. keeping costs down requires you to keep competition up. 2. Competition for cheap labor means people will be unemployed 3. if prison paid minimum wage, then the unemployed people may go to prison in order to find employment Conclusion: competition for low-wage labor decreases.
@@dralarco yes. i agree with the fact that they should be payed min wage. BUT from that min wage they should pay the expenses for their housing and food...
@@NewandForgiven yeah, and with capitalism this involves all classes of society. When ideas is the foundation of the money production authoritaruan cunts are no longer the sole profiteers, like slavery, communism and such involuntary business models.
@@lilyydotdev what did I miss? Prisoners have resigned their rights by violating the rights of others, except if it's drug trafficking or other non-aggressive 'crimes', then what does it matter?
