Here's An Idea For You

Their fearmongering is no longer working... only 1% of illegals working in agriculture...

The Colorado Penitentiary System used to have an honor farm, where well behaved inmates were allowed to work during their sentence. It provided all the food for the Penitentiary, inmates worked hard to get the privilege, and they had work skills when they were released. 30 years ago Dems called it cruel, so now the prisons buy all their food and the inmates watch TV or work out in a gym so they can intimidate better when they are released.

While the Constitutional amendments forbid slavery there is actually an exception in them for those who have been found guilty of crimes. They can be sent to harvest crops and build roads.

In the US many slaves were paid a nominal amount, that over time they could use to buy their freedom. It wasn't uncommon for a slave to buy his freedom and start a business in the trade he had been a slave.
These prison inmates earned a wage for their work so they had money in their pockets when they completed their sentence. I think this was common in a lot of states, in Colorado Inmates also manufactured all the vehicle license plates for the state for wages.

We've tried this before and there was a reason we moved away from it.

Granted, we have not moved in a better or practical direction, but the whole point of those sweeping Prison Reforms was to move in a direction that ended less petty crimes, end larger than necessary prison sentences, and to lock up dangerous criminals only. That TRUMP supported.

I thought Republicans were warming up to the idea of rehabilitation, but this is suggesting moving backwards to "merit slavery". Only instead of giving it to people willing to work up the ladder, while they apply for citizenship for themselves or their families, we want to give it to violent criminals?

Rehabilitation means giving them more than just work but also an education that they can use outside of hard labor. When we had labor camps, it only increased petty arrests so that we can fill up hard labor as violent criminals were not eligible.

While this was a solution to the Civil War's compromise on slavery, it took us decades to realize that locking petty criminals and violent criminals wasn't such a hot idea. And the whole reason our prison system doesn't work is that it fuels this need for free labor rather than remove actual determents to society. Why more and more places refuse to hire ex-criminals because of their prior record and feeds back into the prison industrial complex.

Which roughly goes as follows:

They do a petty crime > They do the time > They get out > They can't get a living wage job > They are forced back into crime (possibly worse than before) > They do more time.

Look, I get it. I'm a lefty liberal scumbag. Despite being raised in a highly Christian/Capitalist, born in America, the Deep South, with many many Conservative family members.... but sure, I'm a lefty liberal scumbag.

Why NOT more education? Why NOT reduce times for petty arrests? Why NOT reduce petty arrests? Why NOT restore rights to people who were rehabilitated? Why NOT give people the tools for a second chance without exchange of free labor?

Why was the system before wrong? (and believe me, it was, but in your own words, how...?) And how is this better?

What you're looking for is some kind of exploitation. And I get it, someone needs to be exploited, but WHO? WHY? And for HOW LONG?

I get it, this isn't a place for answers. There is a reason why I left. But this whole "Slavery is good, mmkay," attitude reeks of Confederate bullshit.

Part of rehabilitation is giving them a skill they can use when they are released but part of education is also teaching them honesty and the ability to live within the laws. Offenders, especially non-violent offenders, should be given an opportunity to prove they have been rehabilitated through a prison work program on the outside that benefits society. Those convicted of heinous crimes should be put down (admit it that you would want someone like Adolf Hitler executed). Those who may have committed violent offenses that did not merit execution should have opportunity to prove they learned their lesson and can be integrated into society. It’s easy to seem rehabilitated when you’re not allowed to do work outside the prison, but another matter when they get on the outside. A highly supervised work program would help with that.