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Turning Prisoners Into Slaves Doesn't Deter Crime
Turning Prisoners Into Slaves Doesn't Deter Crime
In recent years, people have started to notice that the economics discipline is turning away from pure theory and toward a more empirical approach. But this isn't just an academic curiosity. It has real, positive consequences for people's lives. Economic theory, if unchecked by data, can easily lead to very bad policy decisions.
bloomberg.com




I would love to see more sensible restitution for crimes- if you rob someone's house, work to earn enough to repay their loss- but yeah, slave labor that doesn't benefit anyone won't stop a kid from smoking a joint and doesn't even make sense. Rehabilitative work programs training skills so they don't have to return to crime, sure, but not digging ditches solely to make them miserable.
We have more of a penal system rather than a rehabilitative system. As far as prevention, we really don't put much effort into that either. Mostly we just point our fingers at the big bad penal system while ignoring the underlying social problems of our society.
Well, it certainly benefits the people who profit off the labor. Prison labor isn't just making convicts dig ditches or break rocks for no reason other than punishment. A lot of prison labor is low grade manufacturing or agricultural work. And yes, this is a terribly perverse incentive to incarcerate more people.