Question

Should prisoners be paid minimum wage for their work for state agencies? How about from the private enterprises using their labor? Why or why not? From an ethical perspective, would it be right for a state to replace public sector workers with prison labor as a cost-cutting measure? Why or why not? Should prisoners be allowed to form a union? If so, what barriers may exist to unionizing prisoners? Explain.

Answer 1

Answer:

The real issue with prisoners being paid is not the fairness of paying someone for performing a job, but the extremely high costs of keeping someone in jail. When you read all the articles of people that oppose paying prisoners a minimum wage (or around $3 per hour), they all argue that the cost of keeping them in jail is already too high and they working for cents (on average a prisoner gets paid between 14¢ - 61¢ per hour) is away of returning something to society. The logic is that the government already pays for their food, shelter and security.

Personally, I understand the argument that keeping someone in jail is really expensive. That argument is really solid when you are talking about jobs related to government needs, but do they apply to jobs performed for businesses? No. A prisoner whose work makes someone wealthier, should be paid a reasonable amount. It is true that prisoners that work for businesses earn around twice as much, between 33¢ to $1.41, but that amount is still ridiculous. Again, someone is actually benefiting from prisoners' work while the general public pays for the costs of keeping them in jail.

The general public is actually subsidizing those businesses that are lucky enough to get basically free labor. Remember that not all prisoners are constantly hitting or attacking someone, the vast majority live relatively boring lives behind bars (OK, they are in jail and that is the point). They are able to perform many work related tasks. Businesses are taking advantage of both prisoners and the general public that pays the incarceration costs.

It is ridiculous to believe that using prisoners will reduce public expenses, it doesn't. It makes no sense to replace public sector workers with prisoners. Even though prisoners are able and capable of working, it costs a lot of money to guard them while at work. Who pays for it? The government pays for it. The logistics of using inmates as workers is very complex and expensive, and I bet it is much cheaper to pay a free person the minimum wage than it is to use inmates as workers.

Prisoners forming a union is also something that makes no sense. I believe and defend many social issues, but some topics shouldn't even be considered.