They should get paid the same as anyone else. If they're not good enough to get paid a fair wage, then you don't need their labor, and they don't need you.
Want to keep people out of prison? Teach people that they're valued and that their work has value.
According to the Vera Institute of Justice, incarceration costs an average of more than $31,000 per inmate, per year, nationwide.
I'd call the amounts they get paid to work are more than generous since they do not have to repay the cost of their incarceration.
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And not directed specifically at you, but those in general in this thread griping about how little they get paid and how expensive stuff is in prison commissaries... commissaries aren't there to provide basic needs in most cases, they are there to provide rewards/amenities like canned foods and vending machine type foods, radios, televisions, mp3 players, soda, ice cream etc depending on the facility. There are numerous prisons in the united states that have cable/satellite tv in-cell or in common areas (the company Correctional Cable TV alone serves more than 140 facilities across 21 states).
Getting paid ANYTHING for the labor is a reward. Never mind that in many prisons being allowed to get a job is again, a reward, that you can get for following the rules and not causing problems.
Try seeing it in another light: that is our punishment for failing to create a society that removes the need for crime.
How much of those 30k/year inmates are we wasting tax dollars incarcerating because we refuse to acknowledge that marijuana is not worthy of a schedule 1 certification? How many because we failed to provide an equal opportunity education system?
The prisoners are already being "punished" by having their freedom taken away. I don't see why they should have to pay for the mechanisms that remove their freedom at the same time. They're still citizens. They have paid and will continue to pay taxes. They still participate in the system despite being a prisoner of it.
We don't make people pay per usage of the existence of the FDA. Why make them pay for their own prison?
> I'd call the amounts they get paid to work are more than generous since they do not have to repay the cost of their incarceration.
Prisoners do not have any control over how much their incarceration costs, therefore have no obligation to pay any of it back. The idea is that the loss of liberty alone is atonement, no judge ever sentenced an inmate to 'n days of incarceration + repayment of expenses incurred by the state in a negotiation process in which the defendant played no part'.
I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve with your comments, whatever your goal is you are likely not helping it.
It sounds like you may be coming from a different law system than the person that you're replying to as there are many places in the US where such days of incarceration also mean incurring costs for housing and supervision.
It's hard for someone to control the costs of something that they've already committed, but I don't think there's any way around that. If it turns out that destroying a painting costs more or less depending on who does the restoration, that's not in the vandal's control.
For what it's worth, I think he made a valid point along with a fact that contributed to the discussion.
Want to keep people out of prison? Teach people that they're valued and that their work has value.