Why do we spend so much money on people in prison instead of making them work for it?

Question

Like cultivate their own crops for their own food, etc..Why do we have to pay for their wrongdoings?

Answer 1

Is it more expensive to produce something than to hang out?

Interesting response and probably the result of numerous "true" non-productive government studies.

Actually the reason is based on laws developed by political and legal parasites. These laws class work as cruel and unusual punishment.

They do not put work requirements on the prison system out of deep seated personal fear of one day being where they also belong.

A similar situation is seen in holding to privacy of conversations in technology. It is personal knowledge of their own thinking and their own private speaking that fuel our so-called Constitutional protections.

Answer 2

You have a very good point. Not to mention, how much better reform would be if they had to take on projects like cultivating crops, etc. Maybe hard work is something that might reform them into more responsible people. And if it costs less than the current system, I can't see why it is not done.

Answer 3

I have worked in the prison system in Texas. To force a prisoner to works considered cruel and unusual. Yet the jobs the prisoners are allowed to do the prisoners fight for. It gives them something to do to break up the boredom. At one time in Texas the prisons did grow their own crops to eat and to sell. They even raised chickens for meat and eggs and beef. Cotton was there big money crop. When a prisoner was released he was given a horse, a suit of clothes and I think it was $5. If the prisoner had not taken care of his horse he did not have one to ride home .

Answer 4

I'm guessing that there is a lot of $ to be made in the Prison System/Industry. This fact may corrupt an honest attempt to reform/rehabilitate.

I think that inmates should DEFINITELY have to work more and be more productive. Also, I think we should execute a lot more of them and do it way faster. Moreover, lethal injection, potassium chloride, poisons organs and tissues of the inmate, which means no organs and/or tissues can be harvested for the benefit of the general population. We must devise a fast, humane way to execute inmates, while leaving all viable organs and tissues unharmed.

When he was younger, Dog the bounty hunter was in prison for a spell and he was made to work hard, and claims he was greatly reformed because of it.

Allahu Akbar n' Shalom.

Answer 5

There are prisons that grow their own food and even sell some of it. S.C Dept of Corrections has many self sustaining prisons with out any luxuries. S.C. is a very poor state and ex Governor Beasley changed the prison system 9 or 10 years ago. It saves the state lots of money.
edit
they even make and sell furniture.

Answer 6

There are prison industries.
And there are prisons where they have their own dairies and they do grow their own stuff.
Problem is....got too many people sitting in the joint for relatively minor drug charges.
And....prisons are now de facto mental institutions.
But...violent criminals.
Why make them work?
Better they should sit in cell.
It is worth every penny to keep them off the streets.

Answer 7

They used to do that. Then somebody sued and the courts ruled it as forced labor. So now, prisoners have a lot of time on their hands to riot, fight, and think about new ways to harrass guards.

Answer 8

Because it would cost more in terms of guards, infrastructures, and repairing all the stuff they'd tear apart out of sheer stupidity than to simply keep them locked up and away from human beings.

Answer 9

how about we spend the money on the front end? Better schools, more support for the mentally disabled i bet we would spend less then we do when it's too late and folks end up in prison.

Answer 10

yes, putting prisoners to work would help, but is it realistic to have millions of murderers, etc working side by side near where you work and/or leave.