California Tells Court It Can’t Release Inmates Early Because It Would Lose Cheap Prison Labor
Out of California’s years-long litigation over reducing the population of prisons deemed unconstitutionally overcrowded by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010, another obstacle to addressing the U.S. epidemic of mass incarceration has emerged: The utility of cheap prison labor.
In recent filings, lawyers for the state have resisted court orders that they expand parole programs, reasoning not that releasing inmates early is logistically impossible or would threaten public safety, but instead that prisons won’t have enough minimum security inmates left to perform inmate jobs.
The debate culminated Friday, when a three-judge federal panel ordered California to expand an early parole program. California now has no choice but to broaden a program known as 2-for-1 credits that gives inmates who meet certain milestones the opportunity to have their sentences reduced. But California’s objections raise troubling questions about whether prison labor creates perverse incentives to keep inmates in prison even when they don’t need to be there.
The debate centers around an expansive state program to have inmates fight wildfires. California is one of several states that employs prison labor to fight wildfires. And it has the largest such program, as the state’s wildfire problem rapidly expands arguably because of climate change. By employing prison inmates who are paid less than $2 per day, the state saves some $1 billion, according to a recent BuzzFeed feature of the practice. California relies upon that labor source, and only certain classes of nonviolent inmates charged with lower level offenses are eligible for the selective program. They must then meet physical and other criteria.
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http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/11/17/3592964/how-californias-program-to-have-inmates-fight-wildfires-could-be-keeping-people-behind-bars/
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And welcome to DU! 
Gosh, I love my Blue state. 
at the local cemetery where I install headstones for a private contractor. I asked them what they got paid, like 25 cents an hour and I asked them why they do it. They told me that the conditions in the prison are so crowded and horrific that any chance to work outside they would take. And, there is always the chance they can meet someone from the outside who might leave a pack of cigarettes and some matches just laying there on another headstone. 
CCA has a horrible rep here in Idaho. Prisoners got their faces smashed in. There was gladiatorial combat in these rent-a-prisons.
cheap labor, like prison labor, so to let 'em rot in prison is so American, right-wing-styled. 
