I’m sure there are more provocative titles than this one: “Louisiana Votes to Keep Slavery.” The trouble is, I can’t think of any, even after cogitating on this matter for quite a while!
What’s going on? Did Louisianans really vote to bring back slavery? Of course not. Don’t be silly. Rather, the issue was prison labor. Should inmates be forced to work while incarcerated?
Well, the rest of us, pretty much all of us work. (Ok, ok, children and the very elderly don’t). Why shouldn’t convicted criminals join the remainder of the human race in this regard? What is the alternative if they do not engage in labor? Working out, pardon the expression, in the gym? Watching television? Hanging out with one another and plotting future crimes? If prisons were put on a market place basis, they most certainly would work, and the proceeds of their labor would go to at least partially compensate their victims.
No, no, no. There are two good reasons why convicts should engage in labor, whether they want to do so or not. First, deontology. They violated rights, or they wouldn’t be in jail in the first place (apart from those wrongfully found guilty). Ideally, they should work so that the amount they produce, over and above the costs of incarcerating them, should be sent to their victims. The latter can never be made “whole” again, but, at least, if there were monies forthcoming to them from their abusers, that would be a vast improvement vis-à-vis the present system. Right now, these victims suffer twofold. Once, from having the crime perpetrated upon them. Second, from being forced—via taxes—to keep these criminals in jails with comfortable air-conditioning, gyms, basketball courts, televisions, etc.
Second, pragmatism. One of the functions of imprisonment should be to reduce recidivism. If the inmates have a skill that will enable them to earn a living when on the outside, they will be less likely to commit crimes, and end up back in the hoosegow. Well, how to do obtain such skills? By sitting on your backside all the live long day? You do not. You learn via on-the-job training. And, how can you avail yourself of those benefits while still being locked up? If you said “prison labor,” go to the head of the class.
At this level, except for a very few white-collar criminals, we are not talking about being a doctor, or a lawyer, or an accountant, or a computer expert, or a professor of physics. We are discussing jobs that require far less training. What is needed at this lower level of the job pyramid is the ability to show up for work on time, and not leave until the shift is over; the ability to follow all reasonable orders from the foreman; and the ability to refrain from getting into hassles with customers—this doesn’t mean that that the customer is always right, they can be abusive at times. But it does mean taking the problem to the foreman and not “getting into it” with the customer.
All of these things can be learned while still in prison. Those opposed to prison labor are consigning inmates to lives of boredom. According to folk wisdom, “idleness is the devil’s workshop.” If they do not lead working lives while incarcerated, well, habits are habitual. The only way to finance joblessness on the outside is with more criminal behavior. Neither they, nor the rest of us, need any more of that, thank you very much.
Yet, opponents of prison labor “virtue signal” all over the place. They pose as the friends of inmates. They besmirch those of us who advocate allowing them to work as favoring “slavery” of all things. No, no, no, the very opposite is true. Not compelling prisoners to work actually enslaves them: to a continued life of crime.
Traditionally, it was labor unions who most opposed prison labor. They claimed such arrangements were taking jobs away from honest men. But there is no limit to how much work needs to be done. There is no fixed pie. Allowing inmates to work deprives no honest man of a job.
Walter E. Block is Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics at Loyola University New Orleans and is co-author of An Austro-Libertarian Critique of Public Choice (with Thomas DiLorenzo).
READER COMMENTS
Jon Murphy
Dec 18 2022 at 12:51pm
I see where you are coming from, but I think there are two mistakes in your reasoning.
First, you misrepresent the “prison labor as slavery” argument. The issue isn’t about work, per se. It’s about prisoners not getting paid for their work (or paid well below legal limits). Now, if you want to argue that they shouldn’t get paid, that’s fine, but then it does endorse slavery as a form of penitence. One can defend the undefendable (slavery) on those grounds.
Second, you misrepresent the kind of work prisoners tend do to. A lot of it is not productive work in service of making their victims (or even society) whole; the victims do not see any sort of recompense. A lot of it is Keynesian-style makework, or in service of government bureaucracy, rather than productive work.
Now, I think the idea of using prison as a form of apprenticeship is a great idea. I know many on the Left love that idea too. It seems like good common ground for various political groups to converge.
Warren Platts
Dec 18 2022 at 3:32pm
Agree. I watched a show last night on prisoner wildfire fighters in California. They really loved the work. Indeed one woman tried to stay in prison rather than get released because she loved firefighting so much. But she was actually smart because the ironic thing was that these trained firefighters couldn’t get jobs fighting wildfires in the real world because of their prison records!
So one former prisoner started his own firefighting company where he specifically recruited from experienced ex cons. Thus many former prisoners were able to achieve a happy landing doing work that they loved that they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to do.
Also agree that forcing prisoners to work unpaid is a form of slavery. The old chain gangs in places like Louisiana were an explicit attempt to revive at least partially the slave economy.
Moreover, there are several side effects resulting from forced, unpaid prison labor. To the extent that they’re doing something that’s actually productive, then they are unfairly competing with private and governmental sectors where workers must get paid market rates. Thus prison labor should also get paid market rates, or at least the prevailing legal minimum wage.
Also, when a prisoner gets out of jail now, they are typically flat broke. It’s hard enough trying to find a job with a prison record. When you’ve got a week to find work before you start starving to death, that’s a recipe to return to a life of crime & hence more recidivism. Paying prison workers would allow them to save up a nest egg that would cushion their return to society.
As for the “deontology” of forcing prisoners to contribute to their victims (and who is the victim for someone imprisoned for selling marijuana?), the fines and prison sentence determined by the judge is the punishment: to add extra monetary punishment over and above the original sentencing is likely legally & ethically problematic.
Pierre Lemieux
Dec 19 2022 at 11:40am
Warren: Good arguments (as are Jon’s)!
john hare
Dec 18 2022 at 3:06pm
I employed a man on work release in construction for several months once. I apparently didn’t go by the guidelines the officials preferred as those guidelines became rules at a later date. They wanted work release to be at one specified workplace with well specified hours. He worked with me about six months before his sentence ended. Took a week off before working with me another six months before starting his own business. Last we talked a couple of moths ago, he is doing fairly well 18 years later.
Though I paid him, I was effectively working a slave. He was afraid to disagree with me as any simple complaint from me would send him back to regular prison. That complaint would apparently not be verified. I wasn’t supposed to be taking him to restaurants at lunch, especially if alcohol was served there, which I never thought to check. 10-14 hour days needs decent calories and some time to rest, both more difficult with bag lunches in the Florida summer. 55% of his wages were held for prison costs, of which many arguments can be made both ways.
I think many prisoners can be converted into productive citizens. I also think it is a waste of time trying with others. Glad it’s not my decision which is which.
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