Calif. Tells Court It Can’t Release Inmates Early; It Would Lose Cheap Prison Labor (xpost from GD)

[KamaAina]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025832854

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.

more

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/11/17/3592964/how-californias-program-to-have-inmates-fight-wildfires-could-be-keeping-people-behind-bars/

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. So now the ugly truth is clearly spoken.

All the more reason to get those prisoners out of there.

And I thought slavery was illegal.

[antiquie]

2. Reposting my GD offer on the subject...

In California, we still have high youth unemployment, especially in minority communities. We need our great Governor Brown to reinstate the CCC. The newly released, as well as the unemployed can assist the professional firefighters. We did it before.

CCC Firefighting in the Southern California Mountains

The Civilian Conservation Corps companies were assigned to many types of conservation work, for many different government agencies. But whether their focus was soil conservation, forestry, agriculture, or park development, all the camps had one important job in common: firefighting. No matter what work they were doing, the CCC boys had to be ready to drop their tools and rush to the trucks when called to fight a fire. In summer and fall, fighting fires was the main job. It was a rough, dangerous, exhausting, dirty job, too. Poison oak was a constant annoyance in southern California, men were sometimes injured, and the threat of death was real. According to Corps chronicler John A. Salmond, forty-two CCC enrollees nationwide were killed fighting fires.

[frylock]

3. excellent solution

[pinto]

6. Plus, time permitting, they worked on general State Park & trail upkeep.

[antiquie]

7. Yep and all the people won.

For some, it was an opportunity to gain useful skills.

[barbtries]

4. aww, they need their slaves.

gee.

[daredtowork]

5. omg slavery

my mind boggles.

I heard helicopters overhead last night that probably related to Ferguson-linked protests/actions in Oakland.

The official media is invoking out-of-town rabble-rousers.

I hope it is a genuine grassroots uprising.

keeping people in prison for slave labor. wtf - having trouble even processing that argument can still be made out loud among civilized human beings...