Discuss: Is Penal Labour Morally Ethical?

[bzcxx]

Penal labour is a generic term for forced labour which is performed by incarcerated and detained people. This is usually an additional form of punishment that goes beyond imprisonment alone.

According to FREEDOM UNITED, “The International Labour Organization (ILO) lists several indicators of free prison labor which, if absent, could point to conditions of modern slavery. These include the right to written consent forms, wages and working hours comparable to those of free workers, and standard health and safety measures. The ILO states that these factors must be considered “as a whole” to determine if prison labor is forced or voluntary.”

Should prisons focus solely on rehabilitation through programs and counselling or should prisoners be subject to penal labour?

Photo Courtesy: Filmsforaction. org

[Effably]

Morally ethical? No. It will be misused.

Justifiable? Probably.

The issue is not that it is bad on its own. At its very best it would allow the imprisoned person to acquire useful lifeskills, procure some funds and be of benefit to society. Effective rehabilitation with everyone being fairly treated and compensated.

The obvious solution is to use an opt-in basis. This would of course lead to various less upright incentives and exploitation. Opt-in with a very transparent and monitored system? Possibly. Of course governmental administrations don't have a good reputation for doing their job. So it depends on the setup. I am convinced there are ways to incentivize yet not force it, while being a benefit to others and not just exploitable, vulnerable cheap labour.

[bzcxx]

Thanks for answering. So you suggest that it should be an opt in basis? Does this mean prisoners will get a shorter sentence in exchange for penal labour?

[Effably]

That is the difficult part. A choice is only truly meaningful if more than one option is reasonable.

What would be considered fair here is a much larger debate. I view a time discount to be nearly forcing it on someone. Even more so when this will automatically tie into good behaviour and other discounts - if they wanted to show their best side they'd after all have to do this too. Leaving only the pretense of actual choice. As such many different ways to demonstrate change is needed and not just work.

My basic suggestion beyond that is that it would entail basic pay. Which could stop it being a business for cheap labour. A limitation of costs makes a proportionately smaller sum still meaningful. The skills learned or work carried out should also be sufficient to guarantee that a willing participant can receive employment after their sentence which is the rehabilitation part and without that I see little to no merit in this at all.

[Anonymous]

Unpaid forced labor? Sounds like slavery to me.

But hey I suppose most felons like murderers and burglars deserve enslavement. Although I still prefer capital punishment for murderers. Kill one to prevent more deaths. Fair deal.

[Anonymous]

I think it should be used in conjunction with rehabilitative programming. Idle hands are the devils playground. Work gives prisoners something to do outside of just sitting around staring at walls and potentially getting into trouble with others. The same concept went into practice in regards to children---before mandatory education, they were often the cause of a lot of crime, but force them into school and suddenly they're too busy to do such things.

Some people argue that it is modern day slavery as the workers are not getting paid, but they are getting free room and board that, we, the tax payers have to fund, so the idea of free labor isn't all the way true (at least in my opinion). Their work is contributing to society whilst they remain incarcerated. Also in modern times, not all penal labor is the type out in the sun with back breaking conditions. Many inmates do things like build furniture, rehab dogs, build military equipment, work in call centers, and general work around the prison like cleaning/cooking.

[avaisfree]

Feels like a bad idea. Like people will start getting locked up because some rich guy wanted more workers.

[Blueeyes81]

Correct

[normalice]

prison is morally unethical, really. A society that produces criminals is a society that should have to live with them.

[Fuentes]

You should move to China, you're the greatest candidate I have ever read about.

[normalice]

I dont speak Chinese. Also the "I don't agree with you so you should go far away" trope is classic far right garbage.

Anyway, I was expressing only a logical ideal. Obviously there is no way that might be practical.

[RolandCuthbert]

I don't have a problem with it. As long as it goes to projects for the state and not private businesses.

[Shayyyy1]

yes i think so the eating tax payer dollars for free its only fair

[bzcxx]

Fair enough but I think it depends on the type of crime. Murderer and rapists should be forced to do manual labour LOL. I think prisoners of conscience should not be put to do penal labour.

[Deathraider]

It’s not ethical.

I believe in order to reduce the harm that prison cost, we need to have inmates in programs that will help them reintegrate into society, and prison labor doesn’t do that.

[jshm2]

It is basically slavery by another name, and the USA is the BIGGEST slave racket in the world to this day.

[USLegionary]

For prisoners yes but it's not ethical for non-prisioners

[slatyb]

No, it's not. It creates a perverse incentive to incarcerate people to steal their labor.

[moosesixty]

Hell yeah penal labor is s*** haven't we put our penises through enough

[BLP11520]

I watch Out Brother Where Art thou and I think sure

[jimmy2]

Prison makes millions now and all the prions do is make a better inmate criminal

[SaoirseS]

Yes, it's both legally and morally ethical.

[Agape93]

Depends on what your morals or ethics are

[TroyDT2]

For certain crimes it should be mandatory.

[monkeynutts]

Yeah, may as well make use of them.

[HippieVeganJewslim]

No. It violates the human rights of the workers.

[Fuentes]

Do the crime, do the time

[Jouth]

Penile labor is probably worse

[Anonymous]

Yes, it most certainly is.

[Calenderagressive]

No it's not

[dingdong331]

In some cases, yes.