Could "chain gangs" work in Detroit?

[Barbara_10]

With all the money troubles the city has.....wouldn't it be a cash saver to put all these prisoners to work? Isn't it time they gave something back to the city they've taken so much from? Taking graffiti off of the walls, cutting and cleaning up the parks and overgrown, abandoned feilds, helping community centers and churches with lawn care or basic maintenance? There's a whole list of things they could take care of that would help them learn a trade and prepare them for real life.I've seen that some human rights activists think this is modern slavery,inhumane. Others that think you're endangering the public by putting hundreds of criminals in the parks and neighbourhoods. Why do it when they have work programs right in the prison doing laundry and stuff like that.I don't really see it that way though. Slavery? IWhatever...they're in prison, they're criminals. They have raped and pillaged the city, they owe the people as a whole, not just the ones they victimized. Inhumane? Noone will be asking them to do anything any honest, hard working citizen isn't doing already.Endangering the community? Well...they won't be out there by themselves, right?I guess chaining them together could potentially be a safety concern for them...but there has to be a way to keep them under control. How about the good ol' ball and chain and a couple guards with shotguns or rifles? That should do just fine.I think it would help most re-intergate into society. Who's going to be able to go from constant 6x8 to freedom in a normal way? It just makes them harder to deal with when they're released when you remove them from interacting with society for years at a time. Maybe it would give them a sense of community and a willingness to want it to stay nice and safe after they see how much damage they've caused by being out there and experiencing what kind of energy is required repairing the damage.I don't know...it's just a thought. What are yours?

That would be cruel and unusual punishment.

[Barbara_10]

I love the idea. I would also like to see people collecting welfare and unemployment forced to contribute time to cleaning up our state.

Welfare and unemployment are not the same, just as Medicare and Medicaid are not the same.
Medicare and unemployment are paid for by the people getting it.

[lilpup]

I love the idea. I would also like to see people collecting welfare and unemployment forced to contribute time to cleaning up our state.

No prisoners, just those able-bodied unemployed collecting welfare and/or food stamps. It can pay them minimum wage, teach them a work ethic, and generate references for them. If they fail to show up and do the job their assistance stops.

[mikefmich]

i just read somewhere today that since California decided to put the death penalty back into the swing back in the 70s its cost 4 billion dollars.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/20/news....htm?hpt=hp_t2

Since 1978 they've had 13 executions, making the average outlay $308 million per.

[Hypestyles]

it could be argued that prison labor is another form of outsourcing.. why pay minimum wage for ditch-diggers when one can pay .50 an hour [[or less)?
in any case.. there need to be more work-furlough programs, particularly for non-violent offenders, working with non-profit agencies to mainstream them with training and counseling, including after parole.. urban areas are starkly more affected by returning ex-offenders with little or no education/job skills/life skills..

[Zacha341]

Thank you for making this 'crucial' distinction. Crazy how they get confused to be one in the same. Especially unemployment vs. welfare.

Welfare and unemployment are not the same, just as Medicare and Medicaid are not the same.
Medicare and unemployment are paid for by the people getting it.

[ridgeabilly]

I'd like to give a shout out to all the cross eyed patriots on this thread who shake their heads as they speed through Detroit and moan about how nice it used to be back when their grandfathers were throwing rocks at the Ossian Sweet house.

[GOAT]

...because the status quo has worked so well thus far. At least the streets would be clean.

And fuck the unions and their bullshit "this is my job". Because the job is too big and too expensive for just "them" to be doing it [[and a lousy job they do anyway). Bring on the work of convicts!!!

[stasu1213]

Chain gang or use them to keep up the city's gardens and farms. No cable television just the Bible and other books to read

[Django]

You all sound like a bunch of politicians trying to out tough each other. "Give me a break" to take a quote from the time period from which most of you think from.

[oldredfordette]

sickening, ain't it?

[kryptonite]

I like the idea of chain gangs doing public work details, but in the few places that have been able to implement such a plan it has been expensive. the prison has to draft a protocol plan, they have to find a pool of volunteer prisoners that want to sign up for a work detail, transport the prisoners under heavy guard, keep guards posted every minute the prisoners are outside working, transport them back from the work assignment, etc. For the taxpayer it's cheaper just to leave the prisoners locked up.

Several years ago Tennessee experimented with a prison gardening project. Volunteer prisoners were allowed to work outside on prison property planting and maintaing vegetable gardens. I never heard a follow-up story to that experiment. Whether it worked or not, etc.

[Hermod]

Chain gangs could build high speed rail:

Attachment 10014

In the south, sheriffs used to run their departments [[and pay themselves) by renting out chain gangs. If they got a call for fifty laborers and didn't have that many available in the jail, they would send the deputies out and round some up [[drunk and disorderly, loitering, vagrancy, no visible means of support). They could always come up with the numbers needed by companies wanting to hire a chain gang.

[canuck]

Chain gangs could build high speed rail:

Attachment 10014

In the south, sheriffs used to run their departments [[and pay themselves) by renting out chain gangs. If they got a call for fifty laborers and didn't have that many available in the jail, they would send the deputies out and round some up [[drunk and disorderly, loitering, vagrancy, no visible means of support). They could always come up with the numbers needed by companies wanting to hire a chain gang.

Yes, and I can almost pick out one of the Astor or Vanderbilt heirs chained up in that picture. Funny how times change and opportunities for hardworking dishonest folks abound. Somebody passes the buck and another will pick it up.

[Lowell]

...because the status quo has worked so well thus far. At least the streets would be clean.

And fuck the unions and their bullshit "this is my job". Because the job is too big and too expensive for just "them" to be doing it [[and a lousy job they do anyway). Bring on the work of convicts!!!

Convicts do the work. Non-union and union workers lose their job. Unemployed worker steals to get by. Gets caught and put on the chain gang. And so the downward spiral spins. Now you know part of the reason China has a labor cost advantage over North American workers.

"What we got here^ is a failure to communicate."

[old guy]

Private prisons actually have lobbyists in Washington pushing for longer sentences and stricter laws. What does that tell you?

"According to JPI, the private prison industry uses three strategies to influence public policy: lobbying, direct campaign contributions, and networking. The three main companies have contributed $835,514 to federal candidates and over $6 million to state politicians. They have also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on direct lobbying efforts. CCA has spent over $900,000 on federal lobbying and GEO spent anywhere from $120,000 to $199,992 in Florida alone during a short three-month span this year. Meanwhile, “the relationship between government officials and private prison companies has been part of the fabric of the industry from the start,” notes the report. The cofounder of CCA himself used to be the chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party."

"The Justice Policy Institute [[JPI) has released a report chronicling the political strategies of private prison companies “working to make money through harsh policies and longer sentences.” The report’s authors note that while the total number of people in prison increased less than 16 percent, the number of people held in private federal and state facilities increased by 120 and 33 percent, correspondingly. Government spending on corrections has soared since 1997 by 72 percent, up to $74 billion in 2007. And the private prison industry has raked in tremendous profits. Last year the two largest private prison companies — Corrections Corporation of America [[CCA) and GEO Group — made over $2.9 billion in revenue."

This is not a path we should be heading down.

[kryptonite]

When I was a boy I remember seeing ball & chain prisoner gangs in Ohio picking up litter along the highway. boy am I old.