Harness a Possible Cheap Energy Source 2

When I wrote my article in June I had no idea that it was in operation since at least 2004. I also did not know how perverse the government would make the idea. To recap my proposal was to use prison labor with equal safety and standards as anyone else and equivalent credits to their release (a credit being a prison "currency" which a prisoner could use to any number of purposes, these credits would only work in prison thus preventing drug smuggling to a certain extent). Well, this idea of prison labor was already in operation. The prisoners earn at most $1.15. Some earn as much as 25 cents. This is the first area where my plan is altered.

To add to the madness in the example the representatives used 160 prisoners were given a job while 80 civilians were laid off. This is where the operation goes away from being a net benefit for society.

The amount the prisoners earn is not going to convince them that life outside of prison is any better working as they are compared to committing crime. There is also no reward for their work (25 cents, seriously?). Then, laying off non-criminals, those who have not harmed society, to give jobs those we separated from society for safety is just ridiculous.

These prisoners will not be reformed. The prison environment they experience is nothing like society, which my proposal achieved. This is "insourcing" jobs. We all know outsourcing is when a company sends jobs overseas for cheap labor, well the government, our own government, is insourcing. It is taking jobs of Americans and giving them to a cheaper source under complete control of the government.

The current system reminds me of the gulag system of the Soviet Union. You worked in exchange for housing, food, and right to life and there was no market for which anything you made was usable. This system has prisoners working in exchange for housing, food, and 23 cents to $1.15 with prison exchange. The difference is the amount of time the prisoners in our system are officially in has a deadline. However, since it does not reform them and seems guarantee a return the gulag never loses the prisoner. What proof do I have for this lack of a reformed prisoner? The fact that the government has free insurance to employers who take the prisoners later and suffers the problem of the "reformed" prisoners continued criminal actions.

This must stop now based on two arguements:
1. The prisoners are not reformed and the overall net return is not beneficial.
If that isn't good enough:
2. They are taking the jobs of citizens who need the continued experience of a valuable society in order to avoid entering the zone of poverty most enabling of criminal intentions.



U.S. Representatives Pete Hoekstra's and Dave Camp's article: http://hoekstra.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=159687

My article in full: http://rhkinc.blogspot.com/2009/06/harness-possibly-cheap-energy-source.html

The Federal Prison Industries in question: http://www.unicor.gov/?navlocation=AboutUNICOR