With all the rhetoric flying in Wisconsin about how limiting public union power would destroy services in the state, a new twist has surfaced. Now that government union contracts are, for the most part, a thing of the past, prisoners will be freed up to perform tasks previously contractually reserved for public workers.
For instance, in Racine County, inmates will save taxpayers money by performing more common maintenance projects:
In the near future Racine County Jail inmates could be used for more than just mowing medians because of changes to collective bargaining.
For the past two years jail inmates have mowed medians on state highways in the county. But union officials said it violated collective bargaining agreements and the county has been limited on what work inmates perform.
Now with Gov. Scott Walker’s collective bargaining changes going into effect today, County Executive Jim Ladwig said inmates will be able to perform more tasks such as landscaping, painting, and shoveling sidewalks in the winter.
“We have a win-win when we use the inmates,” Ladwig said. “It gives them a sense of value they are helping the community.” At the same time, he said it will help the county maintain property that has been neglected.
No inmates would be required to help with county work, but those who do could receive reduced sentences, he said. Because of past union grievances the county was not able to offer reduced sentences. It was considered “compensation,” Ladwig said. But he plans to reinstate it.
No word on whether Walker’s changes will provide more leniency for prisoners who can eat 50 eggs.
— Christian Schneider is a senior fellow at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.
What we are dealing with here is failure of the unions to communicate anything reasonable.
But now that collective bargaining has had its head cut off, can we do the same to the parking meters in Madison?
And can we make a deal with senators in that state: you run away once, you get one set of chains; you run away twice, you get two sets of chains.
Frankly, the whole lot of them should have to spend the night in the box.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"You eyeballin' me, boy?"
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse3 Weeks before SEIU organizes the prisoners into Inmates Local 123.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis won't work. The warden will just take a kickback from the unions to NOT have the prisoners do the public work. Then he will have a smart prisoner set up shell accounts to hide the cash. Then that prisoner will double cross him and steal the money. Then...... wait, someone should write a movie about this.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere won't be any leniency unless the prisoner get his mind right.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI got my mind right, Boss!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGotta love those aviator sunglasses, Boss.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI hope they follow the best tradition of chain gangs, and good songs come out of this.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt is interesting to me that here we have citizens losing jobs to prisoners -- lauded -- and above, we have complaints about job growth. Odd. Whose money is being "saved" by this change? The people being put out of work?
Additionally, the move towards virtual slave labor is just a small piece of our overall prison complex in America -- one of the most troubling problems in our society. We have the highest prison population in the world -- many of whom are in jail for minor drug offenses that, let's be honest, are quite common, if not as commonly prosecuted. Will the growth of "cheap labor" simply encourage the criminalization of private practices? How many people want the police to be America's labor recruiter?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhose money is being saved? The taxpayers who are no longer required to pay unionized workers to do something that a prisoner can do.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLast I checked, those union workers are, themselves, taxpayers. I am confused by the separation of union workers on the one hand and what is implicitly "honest," over-taxed workers on the other.
As for the notion of slave labor -- chain gangs tend not to be voluntary. Giving them a pittance doesn't make up for that. I am not arguing on behalf of the prisoners, but I am arguing that a society that replaces free workers with conscripts (whatever they may have done to put themselves in that position) is not healthy.
Additionally, this is related to the boom in private prisons -- are they going to be able to start "renting out" as labor their inmates? Where does this end?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePaying a pittance to prisoners who voluntarily perform menial tasks is not slave labor in any rational dictionary.
If this move allows taxes to be lowered, or at least not raised, then the person who's money is being saved is the taxpayer. Who will then turn around and take the money that was saved and spend it, resulting in the creation of jobs.
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