Comments on: Alternatives to Incarceration

By: jmtfh

jmtfh — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 02:50:02 +0000

WOW! 2.3 million behind bars. I once lived in a northern Great Plains state where the whole population of the state was only 650,000!

By: Warren Jewell

Warren Jewell — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:45:13 +0000

CrisDee, you are on to one fine program.

We could train for useful trade jobs with levels of the income spread in
- a gradually decreasing level for the upkeep of prisoners, and
- an gradually increasing share given
- – first to any dependents of the prisoner, and
- – an increasing level of real pay
- – - adding in part to dependent support,
- – - in part up to 25% going into his pocket and
- – - the remaining 75+% of his part into savings toward his release.

How this would work for any prisoner would be based on any abiliy he brings into his incarceration with him and how long his incarceration term will be. His attitude toward cooperating in this program could go toward ‘merit’ pay increases as well as his productivity at his work. Perhaps, he could earn performance bonuses to go into his savings. Any overtime pay could be more at his discretion for sharing.

Perhaps, too, the prisoner could ‘earn’ early parole or release based on some employer willing to take him/her on into a full-time job.

By: CrisDee

CrisDee — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:13:50 +0000

I simply don’t understand why any prison should cost taxpayers one thin dime. Maybe it’s a simplistic viewpoint, but it seems to me that a prison is a “captive” source of manpower, with enough potential “employees” to produce enough to at least sustain their own facility – perhaps even generating a profit. This would also teach the “employees” actual SKILLS that they could use in the public sector when eventually released. It would also reduce prison violence by giving these people something to do, to accomplish, rather than bashing each others’ brains out. I’ve heard arguments that this method would have a negative impact on the economy, but I cannot believe that it would be enough to offset the myriad of positive results that productivity brings.