The concept of prisoners guarding other prisoners has been around for ages. They’re called trustees.
And if it helps teach convicts responsibility and at the same time also happens to save money, hey, that looks like a win-win to me.
I don’t see it as being all that different from other inmate work details. They aren’t going to put the violent gang banger types out there with axes. It’ll be the same type of guys that clean the floors at the courthouse, or serve as trustees in the jails/prisons. And it gives the guys a chance to learn a skill, turn their lives around. It’s dirty, hard, dangerous work…but there is also an element of rehabilitation to it. I’d support it, provided they were used to supplement existing firemen, not replace them.
Trusty. And that practice, at least regarding the control of other inmates, has been abolished.
(Nitpick: trusties.
A trustee is something different.)
Have you guys ever seen the show Pitbulls and Parolees? The gist of it is this woman who runs a pitbull rescue employs ex-cons to help her with the dogs and other manual labor. I think the idea of giving cons a meaningful job they can be proud of is an excellent motivator, and it can also be quite productive. Just because someone spent time in prison doesn’t mean they are useless human beings. Considering how many nonviolent drug offenders we have in prison, the pool of good applicants for something like this would be quite large. I’m sure there are other caveats to having them work as firefighters, but if everything else got ironed out I think it’s a great idea.
You know, everyone says how illegal immigrants are stealing American jobs, but the way I see it, convicts are doing exactly the same thing - except there are more of them, and they work for less.
I’m not sure I get your meaning here. How are convicts stealing American jobs?
How are they not? Any job that is being done by a convict at a cut rate (see the quoted rates up-thread) is a job not being filled by fully-paid non-convict. Unless all of the jobs are things that would go undone, which seem unlikely.
Now I guess you could point out that it’s still an American job, but clearly it’s a different type of employment than one normally considers when using that term.
There is no limit! No one knows prisons better than prisoners, so… prisoner wardens, prisoners parole boards.
And jeez, when you think about public officials end up in prison, it would be better and cheaper for society if the start there. Prisoner mayors and council members, Representatives and Senators are just around the corner.
I must have missed that. It didn’t occur to me that convicts get paid that much less than anyone else, but I guess it makes sense.
This will clearly end with a newspaper expose of a kickback scheme and the warden blowing his own brains out while his inmate bookkeeper escapes and flees to Zihuatanejo.
I’ve seen the word “Trustys” on prisoner outfits on chain gangs. At first I thought it was poor spelling, but now I’m not so sure. 
This is not a new concept. New York has had inmates working as firemen for decades. (There was a well-established fire crew at Wallkill CF when I worked there back in 1984.) They responded to local fires and marched in local parades.
And while it’s not done in New York, several states use prisoners to guard other prisoners.
Also kapos.
[QUOTE=Jenaroph]
This will clearly end with a newspaper expose of a kickback scheme and the warden blowing his own brains out while his inmate bookkeeper escapes and flees to Zihuatanejo.
[/QUOTE]
As long as Morgan Freeman narrates, it can’t be all bad.
[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]
prisoners parole boards.
[/QUOTE]
This is going to end with people tossing salad for early release, isn’t it ?