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In Maine, prisoners are thriving in remote jobs

(www.mainepublic.org)
245 points voxadam | 1 comments | 22 Sep 25 22:51 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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amiga386 ◴[23 Sep 25 00:55 UTC] No.45341615[source]▶
Remember when Pennsylvania judges took kickbacks to send teenagers to for-profit detention centers? They ruined thousands of people's entire lives, but hey they made a quick buck!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal

How many others are profiting from keeping prison populations topped up? Perverse incentives, ensuring the US has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, with only the People's Republic of China rivalling it for prison population. Make slavery legal again with this one weird trick called the 13th amendment's "except as punishment for a crime"

I am OK with prisoners being rehabilitated, this includes them working. I am not OK with their jailers profiting. Nor am I OK with employers profiting by having unfair power over pay and conditions they wouldn't have with free citizens.

replies(2): >>45341759 #>>45341890 #
jihadjihad ◴[23 Sep 25 01:21 UTC] No.45341759[source]▶
> Remember when Pennsylvania judges took kickbacks to send teenagers to for-profit detention centers? They ruined thousands of people's entire lives, but hey they made a quick buck!

And one of the judges [0] in the “kids for cash” scandal had the remainder of his federal sentence commuted by President Biden before he left office.

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Conahan

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1. zzrrt ◴[23 Sep 25 19:02 UTC] No.45351340[source]▶
Dang, TIL. Not that it really excuses it, but for more information: that convict was one of many given clemency who were already on home release due to COVID and had behaved well. Seems he had about 2 years left.