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cultofkimber:

cayacayadeenyall:

cultofkimber:

quantumfemme:

seekingwillow:

priceofliberty:

salon:

Is this a human rights violation?

They’re being forced to risk their lives, so yeah I would say this is a violation of their right to life.

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Everytime I look around, the US Govt, or some part there-of on  State or National level; is finding a way to reintroduce slavery.

Fucking hell. The prison industrial complex finds new ways to shock, revile and disgust every day.

This isn’t “a way to reintroduce slavery,” though. The 13th Amendment, which ended slavery, was very precisely written:

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

This is why black people make up 14% of the US population and 40% of the prison population and why Native Americans make up less than 1% of the US population but 2% of the prison population.

This isnt slavery. These are people who commit crimes like murder and child molestation that are being punished for there actions through physical labor. God forbid they do something other than sit on their asses all day in jail.

Literally nothing you just said is based in fact. 

The men fighting these fires are all low-level offenders, primarily with charges for drugs, robbery, and other non-violent offenses (and, fyi, non-violent offenses are what 50% of state prisoners and about 90% of federal prisoners are incarcerated for). US prison has largely been a privatized, for-profit industry since the 1980s. Law changes like mandatory minimums for low-level crime have ensured that the incarceration rate has done nothing but skyrocket because private prisons need a steady flow of inmates to turn profit and our government is contractually obligated to provide that steady flow. Hell, drug-related charges account for over half of that rise of rate. Marginalized groups are targeted disproportionately for incarceration through systemic poverty, inaccessible education, social instability, etc (all which increase risk of drug abuse and other criminal behavior), racial profiling by LEOs, and by being given much harsher sentences than more privileged counterparts. And that’s without even touching on wrongful conviction rates, which are about 6% for violent crimes and estimated to be much higher with lesser offenses. 

And criminals are sent to prison as punishment, not for punishment. The confinement and denial of personal agency is the punishment. And prison is meant to serve two purposes: punishment and rehabilitation. Prison work programs are about neither—they exist primarily to defray costs of housing inmates (and, thus, increase profits for private prisons). And bondage, subjugation, and forced labor for other’s financial gain is practically the textbook definition of slavery, so idk what to tell you. There are lots of ways to keep prisoners from “sitting on their asses all day” that don’t involve treating these men and women as unworthy of humane treatment, empathy, and compassion. Hell, work programs are even a really viable option for that when approached with the right intentions.   

Seriously, I really urge you to do some reading about mass incarceration, racial disparities in incarceration, the privatization of the prison industry, etc. if you’re going to have an opinion on this stuff because ignorance isn’t a good look on anyone.