Alabama Agriculture Department Advances Plan To Replace Immigrant Workers With Prisoners

[white_wolf]

The title pretty much says it all, this is disgusting. Are you all ready for the return of serfdom? Seriously, this is disgusting. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/12/06/382852/alabama-agriculture-department-promoting-plan-to-replace-immigrants-with-prisoners-to-farmers/

[DonCoquixote]

1. I hate to say it

But the biggest mistake the nation made was to embrace the whole "malice toward none, charity toward all" that Honest Abe espoused. He got paid for his kindness with a bullet, and the CSA was been trying to rise again ever since.

[bluestate10]

If the CSA rises again, it better not fucking loose again.

Because if it does, it gets General Sherman 30x.

[DonCoquixote]

5. Sadly, I agree

I am trying to remember good southerners, but I would lie if I was not tempted to make a few of these good ol boys and good ol girls scream like cats in a fireplace, especially after hearing them mouth off in their "you know we can kick your ass and you will go to jail, boy!" tones.

[Dawson Leery]

11. The plantation owners and clergy needed to be "dealt with".

The core of that horrible old world culture needed to be eliminated.

[hobbit709]

2. bringing back the Parchman Farm system of slave labor

[MADem]

3. I am picturing "Whut we have heah is a fail-yuh to comm-u-ni-cate..."

Will they pay them minimum wage, or those "prison wages?" The speculation is the latter:

To stave off the disastrous collapse of state agriculture, Alabama officials are seriously considering replacing immigrant workers with prison laborers who they could perhaps pay even less than immigrants.

Of course, "could perhaps" is not "will."

IF the program was entirely volunteer, as other work programs are, AND the workers were paid at least minimum wage (even if they had to put most of their wages in a savings account to be held until they are released, or send the wages home to support a family member), I wouldn't "hate" this program. It would tire out the prisoners so they'd be less likely to get into mischief, and it would give them a nice nest egg to start a new post-prison life with, or enable them to help out their families from behind bars.

IF, though, the program is one of those twenty cent an hour schemes, I'm against it.

[malthaussen]

6. I agree with that sentiment

... but I am also a card-carrying cynic. I think what we have here is the other shoe dropping. I think it would be a great improvement if we could put prisoners to productive work instead of just letting them rot, but historically such systems have tended to be exploitive in the extreme.

Herakles was lucky he didn't have to clean up our criminal justice system as one of his Labors, or he'd be still at it.

-- Mal

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. I live near the infamous Holman Prison in Ala.

It has been the custom for years to use prisoners as hired labor for all sorts of jobs. Homeowners routinely make arrangements for prison labor to help with repairs, lawn care, and hurricane clean up. I have known people who have done this but do not know the rate of pay or who is paid. I do know that it is work release, "trusted" prisoners, who are under the watchful eye of guards,for some jobs.
Conscripted prison labor goes back 100 + years in the South, with some horrific results.
While Parchman Prison is one of the most notorious, looking up information about the old turpentine industry in Fla. will provide cringe worthy stories too.

[Capitalocracy]

7. So then what happens to the "these are jobs Americans can't/won't do" argument?

Why don't they just come out and admit it? These are jobs nobody will do... unless they're desperately poor and have no legal source of employment, have a prison guard with a shotgun standing over them, or are actually paid a decent wage. The third option is obviously a last resort.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

8. What if the prisoners were Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Feith et al?

just sayin'

[MisterP]

9. how very Tsarist

at least we'll get really nice Easter eggs out of all this

[Angry Dragon]

10. All sing together now ........'Working on a Chain Gang'

Cool Hand Luke

[mysuzuki2]

12. Well, if they can have that young woman washing the car .....

it might not be so bad.