Prisoners to clean up forclosed homes in Houston - They probably used to live in them

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.themovechannel.com/news/a542ddb2-f96c/

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Catherine Deshayes

Prison inmates could become the clean-up crew for abandoned properties in Houston County neighborhoods...

County leaders say they need an inexpensive way to maintain yards, especially on foreclosed properties.

They say prison labor may be the most cost-effective solution, but it's just one option to help solve the problem.

Captain Alan Everidge with the Houston Sheriff's Office says he fields constant calls from neighbors about neglected properties, mostly foreclosures.

[Lars39]

1. The banks that "own" the houses should be paying for upkeep.

[Angry Dragon]

2. +1000 ............. Damn right

[petronius]

5. Don't homeowners get fined when they allow their property to deteriorate?

Bank owners should be treated no differently - the city needs to send a bill and the prisoners should be paid...

[NNN0LHI]

7. Why should we be paying 30 cents an hour to prisoners when we have a 10% unemployment rate?

Wouldn't it be better to pay someone not in prison to do that work so they can support their families legally and not end up in jail themselves?

Then maybe we wouldn't have so many foreclosed on homes to begin with and we wouldn't even need to be worrying about who is keeping them up. Wouldn't that make a lot more sense?

Don

[petronius]

13. That would be preferable, sure, if the owners were compelled to get the work

done by private firms. Apparently, though, the law there doesn't allow that, and it sounds like their not sure they'll be able to recover any costs at all from the owners...

[Donnachaidh]

3. Same thing is being done in Atlanta

They announced it as a good thing on local news :eyes:

[Newest Reality]

4. A creative way to create JOBS!

This is an excellent solution because it is so stealthy and people will once again have their consent manufactured against their best interests. "Damned prisoners should have to work!" Thing is, your taxes pay the room and board, etc. to the toon of tens of thousands per prison work position while the corporations pay relatively little. This is the next boom.

Well, prison labor is only insourcing and private prisons are only a growing profit sector. Profit is good! That's a great incentive to increase the number of laws and aggressively arrest and entrap people so that the enforcement web can catch new recruits/employees faster and easier.

Unemployment? Solved! Your record will be your resume.

[Raksha]

6. So they found a new way to legalize slavery. Why am I not surprised?

Re "Well, prison labor is only insourcing and private prisons are only a growing profit sector. Profit is good! That's a great incentive to increase the number of laws and aggressively arrest and entrap people so that the enforcement web can catch new recruits/employees faster and easier."

[Newest Reality]

10. It is not new at all. It is increasing however.

Consider the number of victimless crimes and then, the proportion of minorities in prison.

The current economy simply encourages what has become a growth industry again. It effects us all in some way, unless you have the kind of money it takes for a good defense and more immunity, say if you or your kids are busted for the war on some drugs. Otherwise, it is not a good idea to feel or think you are not vulnerable to this kind of exploitation.

I encourage more investigation into this alarming situation and there is plenty of info about.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8289

[Raksha]

11. For-profit prisons should be illegal just for this reason.

Thanks for the link. I was already aware of the prison labor scandal, but not that it had branched out into maintaining foreclosed properties. There is something really sick and revealing about that.

[kestrel91316]

8. I guess I'm weird. I see this as a good thing. Nothing wrong with mowing lawns

as opposed to sitting on one's ass in prison, watching TV or plotting mayhem with one's fellow prisoners.

[NNN0LHI]

9. That is only because you don't mow lawns for a living do you?

Because if you did I bet you would look at this completely differently. What do you think?

Don

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. Nothing wrong with them working - but not for slave wages.

Slavery undercuts the workforce. If you are going to use prisoner labor, they should get at least the federal minimimum wage, if not the usually higher local minimum wage, 90% of which goes into restitution or, if they are potheads or other such victimless 'criminals' who owe no restitution, into a general victim restitution fund, and the remaining 10% banked for the prisoner so that when he/she gets out he won't be simply put on the curb with nothing more than $25 and a record - the one greatest cause of recidivism.

Put slaves to work in the community and you are taking jobs away from honest workers, to the detriment of the workers, the slaves, and the society as a whole.

[bettyellen]

15. yep yep.

[Xicano]

14. What happens to a prisoner who refuses?

And to the ones who don't are they being compensated?