The Flaws of Prison Labor

The Flaws of Prison Labor

The debate over prison labor has existed as long as the concept it’s self. Opponents claim that it exploits prisoners, takes away jobs from the general population, and puts people in danger by allowing convicts access to their personal information. While supporters of prison labor argue that it helps the economy as well as benefits prisoners. On this issue I stand on the side of the supporters. By having prisoners work we are accomplishing several beneficial things. First, work keeps them occupied and out of trouble, instead of getting into confrontations with other inmates, they are actually doing something productive. Second, by working they are alleviating some of the high costs of keeping them incarcerated, thus reducing the amount the government has to spend for this purpose. And third, the opponent’s argument that prison labor puts the general population in danger is not a valid one since most perpetrators of identity fraud are not convicts, but regular people with no past criminal record. Even with these positive factors, still there is room for improvement in the institution of prison labor.

Prisoners have a lot of free time on their hands, some of which is spent getting into confrontations with other inmates or making weapons, both of these activities can exacerbate their sentence. So by having them work we are keeping them out of trouble by giving then something positive to do while allowing them to learn skills that will aid them in getting a job after they are released. One of the main problems that we are facing is that a large percentage of former inmates return to prison. “Many prisoners want to work…inmates who work are less likely to commit crimes when they are released.” ...

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... this information for his or her own purpose. This argument has several pitfalls. Assuming that an inmate does use someone’s credit card, the truth will eventually come out, it will be traced to the inmate, and since identity fraud is a crime, this individual will be adding time to his or her existing prison term which is a no win situation for the inmate. The other factor is that very often identity fraud is committed by regular people or trustworthy employees with no past criminal record. A perfect example will be a few of my own former co-workers who were caught using client’s credit cards as well as stealing money. There is no way of knowing what a person may do. Plus assuming that an inmate cannot be reformed is what forces some of them back to prisons since the label of an ex con prevents them from getting jobs that will enable them to support themselves.