In Maine, prisoners are thriving in remote jobs

Wow. Just wow. The US really is on a trajectory back towards slavery between this and re-legalizing child labor in some states.

This stuff truly is a disturbing view of the future of the US.

>earn above a certain amount, 10% goes to the Department of Corrections for room and board

Yep. There it is. Sounds nice now right? Until in 5 years they decide, well it really needs to be 20%. Then it 5 more years. Well they are in prison so 30% should be resonable. Then as tax deficits grow .....weeeellllll maybe 70%..... Then it will be well prisoners shouldn't really be getting rich in prison so we take 100% but when they get out they will still have that job to fall back on. Just wait and see.

To be clear I'm not against giving people a chance to reform. This is not that. If a person is reformed enough or behaved enough at a chance for reform then they should be on probation at worst. Not propping up a industrial prison complex for nonviolent crimes like 20+ year sentence selling drugs.

"trajectory back towards"?

Simpler explanation: "slavery" never ended, it's just called something else now

I know. You know. Tried to avoid the downvotes but to no avail lol. HN is a bit naive.

well maybe don't rape people. I get that the TV camera is able to visit the jail and tell a story and make people cry. But maybe they should witness the crime first hand before they put on the story.

What are you on about? The guy the article focuses on is in jail 15-30y for "intent" to distribute opioids.

Also "intent" is cop for we didn't like your face.

There was state run prison slavery before the institution of chattel slavery in North America, there was state slavery after it. Why wouldn't there be? The government always exempts itself from laws of that sort.

What was gross margin per average (because the cook picks no cotton) of your typical plantation?

I'd bet it's a whole lot less than the federal .gov's margin on someone in one of the 20+% brackets. State .govs are probably all over the place.

Hard to account for because the .gov "doesn't show a profit" in the same way that "we're totally a nonprofit <wink>" hospitals don't but should be a doable calculation.