During a Senate judiciary subcommittee hearing on prison labor, Sen. Cory Booker said prisoners should be learning professional skills that help prepare them…
Sen. Cory Booker says prisoners should be learning professional skills that help prepare them for their release instead of being forced to work.
While most incarcerated workers today help maintain correctional facilities, others are leased out to private companies or take part in work-release programs. Companies such as McDonald’s, KFC, Walmart, Cargill and Tyson Foods have benefited from the multibillion-dollar industry, The Associated Press found as part of an ongoing two-year investigation.
“Our prisons should reflect the best of who we are, they should reflect our values,” the New Jersey Democrat said. “And they should, in my strong opinion, be places that are not just for punishment, but for rehabilitation and for creating roads of redemption.”While most incarcerated workers today help maintain correctional facilities, others are leased out to private companies or take part in work-release programs.
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas pushed back, saying prisoners are dangerous people housed in dangerous facilities where “idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” He added that prison labor is a way for inmates to give something back to the society they wronged.American prisoners were being put to work in the early 1800s, but the practice ramped up after the Civil War with the passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which contained a loophole.
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