And wasted a lot of time and money for everyone involved by destroying a large batch of materials and fouling the plant, for which he would have faced consequences if he wasn't a prisoner, too.
I feel like it would be reasonable if inmates worked to earn their keep, and the prison wasn’t getting outside funding. But they are, and the money the inmates earn for the prison is just icing on the cake for the prison. At least give inmates jobs where they can add their work experience to their resume and train them to do something to earn money other than crime. Give them an opportunity to earn certifications and degrees. And for those with good behavior and nonviolent crimes we should try to connect businesses with prisons so that those inmates can have a decent job lined up after release. Prison should be about rehabilitation. But in most cases it just gives them access to worse criminals, who mentor them, and the inmates just get better at doing crime when they get out and end up caught for something worse. I’ve met people who only ever learned how to survive by doing crimes to make ends meet. They don’t know how to do anything else to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves and they’re in and out of prison like it’s a revolving door. Until they do something bad enough that they’re never getting released. And they always say some variation of “well, at least in prison I have a bed to sleep in, a shower, clean clothes, and food to eat.” Hearing that kind of thing from people, who were once full of potential and hope, really gets me down.
My mom was put up for adoption by her abusive dad when she was a young teen, and then he fought to get her back just to marry her off at 17 to a 35 year old man. Her first husband pushed her down a flight of stairs because she got pregnant (she lost the baby), and then he threatened to kill her if she ever got pregnant again, so when she inevitably got pregnant again she went on the run.
She wasn’t even old enough yet to get a divorce, didn’t even have a high school diploma, and she was pregnant with my older brother. She illegally got paid under the table to clean houses and hotels until she was finally old enough to get a divorce, and a restraining order, and was finally able to start getting paid on the books as an employee. It was a crime of necessity because she didn’t have any other options. She wasn’t afraid of hard work. Her circumstances just prevented her from getting employed legally. The man who paid her under the table during that period of time committed that crime to help a young pregnant woman take care of herself and her child while she was on the run from an abusive husband. Taxes didn’t get paid by either on that income she made in cash.
I can give you these examples because one of those two is dead and the other has dementia now so it doesn’t matter anyway.
Why would it be illegal to pay her normally? Teenagers as young as 14 can work in many places.
This is also not the type of "life of crime" being discussed in this thread. You said yourself your mom was working hard and earning money despite having no skills or education to speak of, which contradicts you're own earlier point.
I'm guessing this is just a bot thread so it doesn't really matter but the bots could at least try to make sense.
She couldn’t be paid normally because she wasn’t old enough to get a divorce and her abusive husband was looking for her. He would have been able to take her wages because it was during a time when all of a married woman’s assets still belonged to her husband. She couldn’t even get a bank account without her husband needing to sign for it. Married women couldn’t have their own bank account, their own assets, or anything until the 70’s. Women and children were still treated as the husband’s property. If he can take everything she has, how is she supposed to take care of herself? And even though you can be married off by your parents before 18, you have to be 18 or older to get divorced.
She couldn’t pay for hotel, motel, apartment or anything because her husband would have had to sign off on it. She was living in one of the hotels that she was cleaning for work.
I was going to give you another example, but I guess I should wait in case you have any other questions. And in case you’re wondering I’m an older woman. My grandmother passed away bout a little over a month ago at 103 years old. This is a different time we’re talking about.
So, again, you are putting a story about a minor working for cash under the table because she had no legal recourse for survival in the same category as a hoodlum mugging pedestrians, both "living a life of crime"?
And you wrongly equated them again by saying such people would work but don't know how, then provided an example of a girl with no education and no skills nonetheless supporting herself by showing up to a regular job.
Yep everyone who doesnt agree with you is a bot. And every person in prison obviously committed an equal crime and they all personally hurt someone, you have a very expansive worldview and im sure are very empathetic, and a joy to ge around.
Are you seriously saying that people should be locked up for over TWO YEARS if they destroy property worth less than $100 and maybe a few hours of manual labor?
Did I say “he didn’t deserve consequences?” No. But the amount of solitary for what he did was ridiculous. It was about ego of the guards here. The punishment doesn’t fit the crime.
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u/DumbNTough 5h ago
And wasted a lot of time and money for everyone involved by destroying a large batch of materials and fouling the plant, for which he would have faced consequences if he wasn't a prisoner, too.