There's a fine line between prisoner and slave.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNICOR" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNICOR</a> -><p><i>Under current law, all physically able inmates who are not a security risk or have a health exception are required to work, either for UNICOR or at some other prison job. Inmates earn from US$0.23 per hour up to a maximum of US$1.15 per hour, and all inmates with court-ordered financial obligations must use at least 50% of this UNICOR income to satisfy those debts.</i><p>I think work and education/skills are key to being a healthy human. I just worry that prison labor could easily cross over from being rehabilitative to being exploitative.
I'm interested in the 2 different prices.<p>> <i>The software showed that Sysco, which supplies food to the state prison system, was charging the state different prices for the same food item sent to two different facilities,</i><p>From the linked Oklahomian article:<p>> <i>“In some cases an exact same item might arrive at Lexington (Assessment and Reception Center) and Harp at the same warehouse, and one has a different price than the other,” Murphey said.</i><p>Was that a deliberate underhand move by Sysco, or is it normal expected part of contracting the job out? Or is it even more mundane, and just a price break for ordering more?<p>It's nice to think that there's a prison where inmates are not just allowed to rot. Here's another story where inmates get to do challenging, rewarding work looking after inmates with dementia. Warning: It contains graphic accounts of horrible violence.<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/health/dealing-with-dementia-among-aging-criminals.html?_r=2&hp=&pagewanted=all&" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/health/dealing-with-dement...</a>
just because they go to prison doesn't mean they have to stop contributing to society. There are probably a good number of such individuals that need the chance and encouragement. Idle minds serve no one
Interesting story. I say give these people resources to be productive and a certain number of hours a day. Let them own their own IP. The point of prison shouldn't be to punish, but to rehabilitate people, if possible, and if not, to keep other people safe from them. Either way, if people have the capability to contribute to society while behind bars, why not let them? (As other posters have noted, it's important to make sure the prison/industrial complex isn't being incentivized to increase prisoner count in all this, as they are today.)
An actual sex offender or just someone caught up in some politician's moral panic?<p>At least "murderer" hasn't been hi-jacked. Yet.
Was this software vetted by security experts to make sure it wasn't being used behind the scenes for anything nefarious? Like say, exploitation of prison computer systems etc.?
It all sounds good, until you get to the barcodes:<p>> "Prisoners each have a bar code they can scan, ..."<p>> "When an inmate’s bar code is scanned, prison officials would be alerted that they should receive a diabetic meal, or a Halal or Kosher meal."
Where is the source? The taxpayers are paying their room and board, this software should be freely available on github.<p>Might even help with the auditing process.