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Curious how they can make telemarketing calls if, as they say "Our Inmate agents are not permitted to make calls to private citizens in their homes".. Perhaps B2B style calls only?
But.. Then it comes down to.. is this a skill that you want to give to ANYONE? That's the last thing we need.. More telemarketers.
Ha, so they did that in Oz? I haven't watched many episodes of it. The outrageous part of the article that I read (I think in Reader's Digest) was that a rapist was using the system to stalk his victim. And some of the others were memorizing credit card numbers and using or selling them.
Originally Posted by Kalisiin
Ah, yes...and Dubya did SUCH wondrous things for the 'Murikkkan workforce, didn't he?
Quote:
Originally Posted by bs13690
I see what you did there.
Don't some prisons also employ prisoners as telemarketers/call center employees? I thought I read an article about that once.
I was hoping someone would notice that.
It was quite intentional.
I really do not know if prisons employ prisoners in any telemarketing capacity...although it might be a good way to use them, since the average telemarketing job is little better than prison, anyway.
I'd have to think they'd need to be real careful about doing this, though, since said telemarketers could then gain access to people's credit card numbers.
I think the OP was talking more about having the prisoner working for the county or state. Work release prisoners basically have a regular job, they just don't get to go home at 5 pm.
Yes they do. They go home-sweet-home to their little 6 by 9 foot home. With bars.
A huge amount of crime especially petty quality of life crime like bike theft and muggings are committed by recreational drug users desperate to get money for their next fix.
How do you think a junkie loser gets drug money?
Not every recreational drug user is a "junkie loser" - just as there are functional alcoholics, so too, there are functional addicts.
Bike theft and mugging are already crimes in and of themselves, and we have laws to deal with people who do them. and being high on drugs when committing said offenses is not a valid defense.
How do you justify wasting our tax dollars on incarcerating people who have harmed nobody but themselves, using recreational drugs?
Because if they do any actual crime under the influence of drugs or not...then there's already laws to deal with that.
We would be far better off legalizing most drugs, taxing them, and using the profits to offer free rehab to those who want it. Leave alone the ones who don't want it. But you pay the price if you don't want rehab...in that employers can and will discriminate against you...and if you DO commit any crime while on drugs - or in order to GET drugs....then you can and will be prosecuted for those crimes.
For those that are possible, have them start doing civil projects. It eases the burden on the taxpayer to have people employed, WITH A POSSIBLE LENGHTY PENSION, for services many inmates could perform.
1) Cleaning. All civil service offices need to be cleaned. To the extent possible, have them clean them and reduce the maintenance staff.
2) Grounds Care....see number 1
3) Light repairs....certain candidates apply....
4) Motor Pool of said civil service entity
5) HIGHWAY cleanup...anyone that takes one lap around I-285 in Atlanta knows PRECISELY what I mean...have them pick up the various lawn mowers, mattresses, McDonald's wrappers, tires, tire treads, body parts, ladders, branches, buckets, plastic jugs, landscape materials ad nauseum that we see DAILY...great, have 10 DAILY crews pick it up???
6) Dead carcass removal. Right now, Fulton county spends about 45K a year or so for a contractor to do it....
7) Snow Removal....hmmmmmmm.....sure could have used some of them these last few days
8) Landfill workers....
9) Highway workers.....
All of this imputes monies back into the government treasury. A thought. Christ, I would have them cut and mow OUR lawns as WE are paying for the food, healthcare, bedding, shives, etc....seems like THEY could pay us back?
They are already getting medical care, 3 meals, a roof and access to books, tv, visitors, and what have you. Because other people "don want to do" some of the jobs you mentioned why should inmates get paid to do them - they are prisoners not princesses. It's not slavery -
CFoulke:
That is actually an excellent description of life on an Antebellum cotton plantation (minus the tv, of course). By the way you forgot free clothing, something that both prisons and Antebellum cotton plantations provide(d).
This issue has been debated, and debated, and debated by numerous legislative bodies, and occasionally punctuated by court decisions, since the mid-1950's. Here is the resulting verdict: The punishment we administer to convicted criminals is to deprive them of their liberty. We do that by placing them in jails or prisons. Period. Paragraph. End of story.
Requiring them to do anything else without providing some form of compensation (paltry though it may be) is slavery, and we fought an entire Civil War over that one.
CFoulke, you don't have to like it. You just have to learn how to accept it. That is, unless you wish to change several key provisions of the Constitution, a document which you doubtless hold in extremely high regard.
I have scanned this entire thread, and I have to say I'm sorely disappointed. There is no meat, no substance here -- only ignorance, opinion, and ignorant opinion. Please understand that I write this with nothing but respect for all posters -- I'm not trying to pick a fight with anyone.
The original question was why we don't utilize prisoners. The answer, repeated many times and in many ways in this thread, is that we DO utilize them; something that several private for-profit companies don't appreciate. The second question had to do with compensation. The answer was, and is, that this issue was settled through legislative and court actions many decades back: we have to pay them if we expect them to perform any work; to do otherwise is slavery, something we fought a civil war to eradicate.
The rest of this fairly extensive thread is just kvetching and b*tching and quibbling back and forth over mostly-nothing. With all due respect, and IMO, this is not the best use of anyone's time, attention and talent.
But hey, what do I know? I'm just a simple Alabama country boy. As always, YMMV.
The fact is the "race card" exists only because of bigots like you that hate on Obama just because he is black. And don't tell me there aren't a lot of them out there.
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