It's voluntary. So long as prison conditions are humane enough to make remaining in jail a viable option, this can help prisoners.
The real danger would be the possibility that this is incentivizing the government to increase the prison population in order to reap the fruits of greater prison labor.
Of course, that's all to say nothing about the national disgrace that 5% of the world's population has 25% of the world's prisoners.
It is not. The power differential between the prisoner and the state is so great that any consent is null and void. As such it can never be voluntary. It is the same reason a prisoner cannot voluntarily have sex with a guard, except the relationship between prisoner and state is even greater of power difference than that between prisoner and guard.
Taking the drug war into account, it does become painfully clear that the present system is morally reprehensible, arguably even amounting to a continuation of African-American slavery, in a modern form.
In my original comment, I only had the hypothetical scenario of prison work in mind. It should have been a lot more obvious that actual context summarily demolishes any argument for it.
Comments
It's voluntary. So long as prison conditions are humane enough to make remaining in jail a viable option, this can help prisoners.
The real danger would be the possibility that this is incentivizing the government to increase the prison population in order to reap the fruits of greater prison labor.
Of course, that's all to say nothing about the national disgrace that 5% of the world's population has 25% of the world's prisoners.
It is not. The power differential between the prisoner and the state is so great that any consent is null and void. As such it can never be voluntary. It is the same reason a prisoner cannot voluntarily have sex with a guard, except the relationship between prisoner and state is even greater of power difference than that between prisoner and guard.
California prisons are horrifically overcrowded, literally they are under court order to reduce it, so your qualifier fails.
I will certainly accept that the qualifier fails; I am well aware of that our prisons have serious problems.
It's worth reading an interview with Chomsky, talking on this subject in 1998: http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/199804--.htm
Great link.
Taking the drug war into account, it does become painfully clear that the present system is morally reprehensible, arguably even amounting to a continuation of African-American slavery, in a modern form.
In my original comment, I only had the hypothetical scenario of prison work in mind. It should have been a lot more obvious that actual context summarily demolishes any argument for it.
Prison-industrial complex up in this :(