In Minnesota anyway, prisoners are not allowed access to the internet.
now, there you goā¦a quality commentā¦I learned something from your post 
Btw, how do you know? 
Bing is serving ten to twenty for driving a foul 1981 Oldsmobile diesel.
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Yeah that would have put me out of my misery instead of the prolonged agony. I knew people that worked in the prisons and did a lot of business with prison industries.
Perhaps Bogartās best screen performance!
It is so strange yu bring up prisons, my one big beef, 86 year old lady, I cut her grass, snowblowed her sidewalks, No ac, she sweated out the summers, yet it was cruel and unusual punishment for a prisoner in jail not to have air conditioning. She was a sweet lady, living off her savings, but how can a prisoner in a jail have rights to something she did not even dream of.
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I dunno, we all have different ideas on how prisoners should be treated. Some think the pink jump suits are cruel. The Sheriff here was getting jumped on because he served catered chicken dinners too much. It was cruel to have to eat chicken all the time. Of course the town people wished they could eat chicken more. I used to broast chicken so Iām sick of it myself. Some places charge the inmates rent for heavens sake and then pay them 50 cents an hour for detail. The inmates Iāve met are really the full range of people just like on the outside, from folks that just made some bad decisions to those that are truly scary. Iām not big into the whole punishment thing. Restitution for the damage they did yes, and get violent folks off the street, but Iām not into the road crew thing. Its bad enough to lose your freedom without having to swelter all day and night too. But it sounds like some politicians want to outlaw air conditioning anyway. Back to the 50ās and fans and wet towels.
What disturbs me is companies, individuals, etc. getting filthy rich exploiting prison labor
Iām not sure what that means. Prison industries was big in Minnesota and still is. They do manufacturing, make office furniture, install office furniture, printing, warehousing, and about anything they can find that there is a market for and that will provide some vo-tec training in the process. The Minnesota Line was a prison industry ag line that produced high quality farm wagons. They used to even grow hemp to make high quality rope before the feds outlawed it. The complaints though are from businesses believing that they are being under-cut by prison labor. So rather than getting filthy rich off of prisons, they are losing business. Maybe you are referring to the private prisons or the vendors supplying inferior meals and so on, but thatās a matter for administration.
Where do you live that have AC in prisons. Ours donāt. And during the winter the heating systems can barely keep up. Not unusual for them to be in the 50ās
I agree with Mike. Ther was a spot on the radio news about the inhumanity conditions in the DC Jail this morning. The HVAC system is antiquated, and temperatures are unbearable. The guards union is also pushing the city to do something about it. The guards at least get to go home.
I think they have a good point. Even if you subscribe to the idea that prisoners shouldnāt get any comforts whatsoever (I tend to disagree with that notion), you should remember that a prison is not only a home for criminals, but also a workplace. Not many of us would tolerate it if the boss decided to make us work in a 100 degree sweatbox of an office. Why should prison employees?
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I suspect that this reprehensible trend is what db4690 was referring to.
In Pennsylvania, the state privatized the juvenile correction facilities several years back, but the private contractor thought that it wasnāt getting enough money, and they wanted more kids locked up.
So, they bribed a totally corrupt PA judge to sentence kids to long terms of incarceration for even very minor offenses.
Nice, huh?
The only good part of this sordid tale is that the judge was finally convicted of his crimes, and was sentenced to 28 years in prison, but before he was arrested, there were literally thousands of kids who were locked up for extended periods of timeāin barely humane conditionsājust so that the private contractor could make more money.
The idea of a company making a profit from the suffering of individuals is something that is abhorrent, IMHO, and it is also something that is highly prone to corruption once that private contractor finds greedy judges who are willing to play ball for their own benefit.
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Yes, thatās one of the things I was thinking of
I donāt like the idea of incarcerated people sweating blood in cruel conditions, so that an individual or corporation can rake in money hand over fist
Some crimes do warrant losing your freedom, IMO
But thatās no excuse to treat somebody like an animal, while an individual financially or corporation profits off of somebody elseās misery
A few weeks ago, I heard an interesting interview on npr radio, with a well-known high-end guitar maker. He learned his trade in prison. But Iāll bet you guys lunch, that he was treated decently during his incarceration
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Hi there. Could you please bring this back toward the topic? Thanks.
Will do!
That corrupt judge was driven to prison in a Chevy Tahoe.
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Getting back to cars . . .
At an ASE exam years ago, there was an older guy . . . who was obviously well-known to many of the other mechanics there . . . who said he learned how to be a mechanic while he was in prison
i canāt imagine they still let convicts do that kind of work nowadays . . . many of the tools could be used for other purposes, and it might be more trouble than itās worth
Not everybody is in for violent crimes. I.E. Martha Stewart or the ex governors of Illinois. Iām pretty sure they do a risk evaluation on each prisoner.
There was one case in my hometown where someone just chose jail over paying alimony. He wasnāt going to kill anyone. During the day, he was allowed to run errands and mow the courthouse lawn.
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Convicts need to work too. There are good and bad people whether convicted or not.
And people still think that privatizing prisons and other Government agencies is a good thing.