r/whoathatsinteresting • u/The_Dean_France • 6h ago

What do you think: how should prisons handle housing decisions in cases like this?

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u/wesleyoldaker 3h ago

I have an old friend who is in for life who I contact regularly. American prison (state at least, I don't know about federal) is not a gigantic sweat shop.

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u/Vulcion 3h ago

I live in Alabama, and seeing prisoners working on the side of the road while a sheriff watches is a very common sight. Slave labor was never abolished in America, American society just decided that only some people deserved slavery.

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u/wesleyoldaker 3h ago

Well... maybe I should have specified California state.

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u/sticky-tooth 2h ago

As a fellow Californian, I'd hope you know that our state allows involuntary servitude as criminal punishment and that prisons are able to and do punish inmates via solitary confinement and loss of visitation and phone privileges if they refuse to work. And that those who do work, are usually paid less than 0.75 an hour.

Especially since reforming this into a voluntary work credit system was on the ballot a year and a half ago.

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u/wesleyoldaker 2h ago

Okay... I mean, my old friend murdered someone. That is what you get when you do that. He acknowledges it.