USE OF PRISONERS for productive work

michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Tue Jun 29 16:51:39 PDT 1999


No. Retrain them as MBA's. Most of them have excellent business experience. Recall Doug's post about MBAs a few months ago.


>
> Yes John, plenty of people have expressed similar feelings to me.
>
> If you ever notice the do-gooders always want to "retrain" prisoners as
> welders, bricklayers, electricians and as you point out computer
> programers. I say why not "retrain" them as brokers, investment bankers or
> lawyers! :o)
>
> Tom L.
>
> "John K. Taber" wrote:
>
> > Doug Henwood said:
> > Subject: Fwd: USE OF PRISONERS for productive work
> >
> > <
> > [Thanks to Kirsten Nielsen; from the Wall Street Journal]
> >
> > USE OF PRISONERS for productive work simmers as an issue for unions.
> >
> > The number of prisoners doing work -- like making
> > gloves or furniture -- rose to about 80,000 in 1998, mostly in state
> > prisons, from 76,500 in 1997, says the Correctional Industries
> > Association in Baltimore. The AFL-CIO backs the idea of inmates working
> > but wants it done "carefully." Low-wage or unpaid "prison inmates are
> > just one more group being added to the ever-expanding list of sources
> > for cheaper labor," says Joshua Miller, an economist for the American
> > Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
> >
> > Guards who are AFSCME members find busy prisoners easier to
> > manage, but the AFL-CIO says the union is losing work like computer-data
> > entry to inmates. The Federal Bureau of Prisons notes that Congress bars
> > an adverse effect on any one industry by the 100 federal-prison
> > factories.
> > >
> >
> > Years ago I wrote a paper opposing Ribicoff's computer crime bill,
> > and I touched on this very subject.
> >
> > In 1980 prison programming was a very small but growing industry
> > for the Feds. Leavenworth programmed all sorts of applications,
> > including fund disbursing programs, for the Dept of Agriculture,
> > in COBOL (now, that is true punishment).
> >
> > But Federal prison industry is only part of the story. My
> > impression was that the states were ahead of the Feds in using
> > what amounts to slave labor for computer programming. At that
> > time, Minnesota had a bill in Congress to permit interstate
> > commerce for computer programs written in prison. The Federal
> > law blocking interstate commerce in prison produced goods
> > was seen as a detriment to the growth of such industry. I was
> > unable to follow the bill closely enough to see if it passed.
> >
> > Since I was a programmer, I felt very threatened. The proposed
> > "crime" was so badly defined that it invited abuse. In effect
> > it criminalized computer programmers by defining common practices
> > as offenses. As a result, management and an obliging prosecutor
> > could put any of us in prison for no other reason than management
> > irritation (the General Treedle offense for those of you who remember
> > Catch-22). In my opinion, this is what happened between Intel and
> > Randal Schwartz a few years ago. And learning that I could be forced
> > to write COBOL programs for state governments or the Feds didn't
> > cheer me up.
> >
> > I think that the Federal Bureau of Prisons is being disingenuous.
>
>

-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu



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