Labor instead of Imprisonment?

I'm not quite sure how this'll play out, so I'm posting it in the Off Topic.

The cost of imprisoning one person for a year is approximately $20,000. With that being said, in 2006, there were almost 2.5 Million prisoners in the United States alone.

From January 2006 to December 2006, the U.S. spent approximately 50 Billion dollars keeping prisoners with 1 year+ sentences in jail.

The numbers have only risen.

My idea was as follows;
instead of imprisoning people to sit and rot, waiting out their sentences, as well as inevitably foreseeing trillions of dollars being spent to incarcerate prisoners, would an alternate option be possible to make those same prisoners work some type of labor?

With the right organization, that labor would very well enable prisoners to still benefit society, as well as cut the cost of imprisonment in jails.

It was a thought.

 

Your idea sounds nice but realistically it will never happen.
There are to many factors to take into account, a major one being the safety of the public. I would rather keep them in jail than be exposed to them.

 

Often prisoners are forced to do manual labour within the prison or around the community to contribute something back.

 

Low security prisoners nearing the end of their sentence are often made to contribute to the community. Doing labouring work, such as gardening around places.

At least thats in Australia anyway. I believe they should do something more constructive in prison, to try to give back to the community, but i don't know how you'd go about enforcing manual labour without some of them trying to escape.

 

Yeah, lets do what the Nazi's and USSR folk did, set up labor camps! Great idea!

 

They could start growing their own food and milk cows for milk o,o!

 

The US should legalize weed. That would cut out so many people in jail, thus lowering the amount of money they pay to keep people in jail Thats my opinion Weed IS NOT a drug. It is a plant. God made weed, you think he wants it to go to waste? I don't think so.

 

Exposure to the public doesn't have to be any more or less. The idea is; instead of keeping them in cells, have them manufacture a natural, replenish-able resource into something that can circulate throughout society, gaining a positive income divided by cost of production.

Relinquish certain parts of prison that would have originally been for convicts, and transform the prison into a factory. Same amounts of guards, cameras, etc.

For example, the guy below said 'legalize marijuana'. Why not have the prisoners(workers) manufacture hemp?

Kill many birds with one stone. Make cheaper, more durable clothing. Rope. A lot more oil with a cheaper price and less pollution.

I'm not really seeing a negative, if the idea is funded properly and the proper precautions are put into play..

Eh, idk. I'd assume that the escape rate would be the same as a regular prison, if not less.

The prisoners have less of a motive to escape if they're doing something. Sitting in cells, being victim to the harsh reality of prison is more than enough reasons to escape. However, training them in the field of manufacturing and ensuring them a small compensation for their work when they get out, if they do, lowers the rate of attempts to escape. That's the way I'd imagine it, at least.

Concept over act.

Labor camps were foul places. The idea of labor inside of prisons would be the same atmosphere as a prison, if not slightly better. The prisoners learn a trade, benefit society, and have little to no extra time on their hands for any type of rebellion.

Always a good idea in my opinion, but besides the actual topic, sort of. ^.^

 

It makes sense; the prisoners would be paid a nominal wage and most would learn useful skills to use after their release.

 

Lol as stupid as that sounds, i think it would work :laugh:

 

Not paid that would be stupid people in the real world who can't find jobs, and to go paying prisoners would be a tragic mistake.
They should do labor but it will cost them allot of money for protection outtings etc.... like they couldn't be in public unless supervised also as for farming machines do a better job than man + its faster. Prisoners should be kept in confined places fed only twice a day and have 10 minutes fresh air everyday that's how I see it.

 

Moral of the story.. if you want a job go to jail

 

Don't be an idiot. The law isn't 100% justified in the way they view criminals, and those people should not be treated so harshly. I agree that death row inmates should get that treatment, but not every person is a hardcore lawless asshole.

Prisoner's do get paid for the work they do in the community, UNLESS it's assigned as community service, then it goes towards their credit on that end. However, you can't make someone work for free, it just doesn't happen. You can make them work for cheaper than they would make if it were a job in the real world.

They used to use prisons for making licenses plates, not sure if they do anymore, but it always worked. They were paid a low amount, and the state saved the money from building factories and being forced to fund insurance and all of that stuff, and instead relying on the inmate's insurance from being incarcerated.

The biggest problem with manufacturing anything that isn't state/county/federally used (license's plates, money, and such are all used by the government), the problem is that the product has to meet a certain high level criteria, and a lot of those require extensive training to make the product meet the business criteria. Plus, the businesses would have to pay even more, on top of taxes, to have inmates make their product. Not to mention, if people knew a product was made by prison folk, they'd be just as dumb as the typical person and think it was a bad product.

No one cares about license's plates, but they're required to use them, so it's not really a big deal.

 

I highly doubt it would ever happen, but it seems more logical to get these guys used to steady jobs and working for a living instead of not working for a living.

It seems reasonable, but I don't see this happening for a while.

 

I think it'll only not happen if the idea is never brought to the surface for the people with the power of changing it.)':