Isn't it about time we got our prisoners to work and earn their keep?

shamblertine

No such thing as a free lunch and all that. Was watching a show the other night about a US prison where the inmates had to work and earn their keep. Can't we do the same or is there some EU legislation preventing us from doing so?

phasers

They could run the country... oh wait that job's already full of crooks

old boy

no, just an organization called do gooders me thinks.

Aidric

Stick 'em on the M50.

Carlotta

shamblertine wrote: »

No such thing as a free lunch and all that. Was watching a show the other night about a US prison where the inmates had to work and earn their keep. Can't we do the same or is there some EU legislation preventing us from doing so?

Great, now we have to compete with prisoners for jobs.

Keeping prisoners is expensive. I say we execute the murderers and bill their families for the bullet. If its good enough for the Chinese.

shamblertine

Aidric wrote: »

Stick 'em on the M50.

Yeah they're an untapped sourse of free labour, we can get them building roads, schools etc. Things are just going to get worse for this country and we can't continue to pump money into prisons and see no return on our money.

Sam Kade

In one American prison they feed the prisoners @ a cost of $0.46 for each prisoner. I think they use out of date food. Imagine if they tried that here?

TripleAce

I heard at the radio that it cost 95k € /year to maintain a prisoner here in Ireland :mad:

randylonghorn

Yeah, coz with the current full employment what the economy really needs is a source of free labour ... oh, wait!! :rolleyes:

SoWatchaWant

TripleAce wrote: »

I heard at the radio that it cost 95k € /year to maintain a prisoner here in Ireland :mad:

Oh my ****ing God . That's outrageous:eek:

Seriously, they might as well put them to use. They're no good to anyone rotting in their cells.

But what could we get them to do that's outside the prison? Working on the M50, I heard someone say. Would that not be dangerous, prisoners in contact with the public, possibility to escape etc...

Has anyone any ideas?

Leprachaun

SoWatchaWant wrote: »

Oh my ****ing God . That's outrageous:eek:

Seriously, they might as well put them to use. They're no good to anyone rotting in their cells.

But what could we get them to do that's outside the prison? Working on the M50, I heard someone say. Would that not be dangerous, prisoners in contact with the public, possibility to escape etc...

Has anyone any ideas?

That's not what he meant when he said stick them on the M50.

Sam Kade

TripleAce wrote: »

I heard at the radio that it cost 95k € /year to maintain a prisoner here in Ireland :mad:

Correct, thats the average cost of running the prison which is the total running costs of prisons/ number of prisoners. Portlaoise is the highest cost at €270,000 per prisoner per year.

shamblertine

TripleAce wrote: »

I heard at the radio that it cost 95k € /year to maintain a prisoner here in Ireland :mad:

The state should allow law abiding citizens like myself to take prisoners under their care and look after them for a fee, I would charge 55k per prisoner a year, theres a saving of 40k right there.

shamblertine

randylonghorn wrote: »

Yeah, coz with the current full employment what the economy really needs is a source of free labour ... oh, wait!! :rolleyes:

Its nothing gained and nothing lost for the unemployed, the government wouldn't be taking these projects on in the first place if they had to pay top dollar for labourers like they usually have to, so the unemployed labourers out there wouldn't of got the work anyway, and so are no better or no worse off than before.

JohnCleary

I agree with this thread, but you could only have them do menial jobs like picking stones out of fields etc.

Imagine Anto & Deco being chief engineers of a new motorway bridge :eek:

TBH if I was a prisoner myself i'd prefer to be working rather than sitting on my hole in a cell all day - guess i'm prob part of a minority thinking though??

ejmaztec

Give em all jobs with Ryanair, Aer Lingus, Irish Ferries and Stena. They could be stewards (for a few hours anyway).

After they've cleared off, we'll fill the prisons with politicians, bankers and property developers.

Utopia!

Nehaxak

Send them all to Australia...

Kernel

randylonghorn wrote: »

Yeah, coz with the current full employment what the economy really needs is a source of free labour ... oh, wait!! :rolleyes:

Randy, the bigger picture is that if you tap into this labour you can get infrastructure built and hopefully improve the economy, or at the very least cut costs for the state. Dole scroungers could be put to good work too.

The_Minister

Damn prisoners, taking our jobs....:mad:

Mhmm...weetabix

TripleAce wrote: »

I heard at the radio that it cost 95k € /year to maintain a prisoner here in Ireland :mad:

:eek: I'm actually in shock at this. It's an absolute disgrace, almost 3 times the average (or what use to be!!!)working wage.

Dig a pit, take all murderer's, rapist's and pedophile's throw them in and let them fight to death battle royal style and the winner gets their freedom and can be the next Taoiseach, wouldn't make much difference! Setup some cameras and put it on PPV type business. That's how you make those ****ers useful. We said no to Lisbon, lets say no to rights for prisoners !

Diggabot

Chain-gangs..... put them in shackles and get the digging & breaking rocks... in the rain... with no lunch

CamperMan

Aidric wrote: »

Stick 'em on the M50.

then what... run them over

ejmaztec

They could be sold to McDonalds for burgers - so that McDs don't have to kidnap winos from the streets anymore.

RATM

Get 'em dancin'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMnk7lh9M3o

Diggabot

RATM wrote: »

Get 'em dancin'

I don't think Anto, Damo or Joxer could be that co-ordinated strung out on da geeeer

Sean Templar

shamblertine wrote: »

No such thing as a free lunch and all that. Was watching a show the other night about a US prison where the inmates had to work and earn their keep. Can't we do the same or is there some EU legislation preventing us from doing so?

No i prefer to keep them behind bars were they belong.Do'nt want them running around the place.Better to get those on social welfare to do a bit of work,like in other european countries.

Riddle101

Carlotta wrote: »

Great, now we have to compete with prisoners for jobs.

Keeping prisoners is expensive. I say we execute the murderers and bill their families for the bullet. If its good enough for the Chinese.

Why should we have to care what the Chinese think they're our prisoners;)

Anyway I think making them work is a great idea. Then their money could be used to funds the prisons and then they could by an electric chair and killer those motherfu*kers

Seriously though it is a good idea, those prisoner get to sit in their cells and have the world handed to them on a silver platter. It's plain wrong how they manage prisoner service

Capt'n Midnight

Sam Kade wrote: »

In one American prison they feed the prisoners @ a cost of $0.46 for each prisoner. I think they use out of date food. Imagine if they tried that here?

we could out source
send them to the US

or would it be cheaper to have them in eastern european prisons ?



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13judge.html?em

the judge, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., and a colleague, Michael T. Conahan, appeared in federal court in Scranton, Pa., to plead guilty to wire fraud and income tax fraud for taking more than $2.6 million in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers run by PA Child Care and a sister company, Western PA Child Care.
...
“In my entire career, I’ve never heard of anything remotely approaching this,” said Senior Judge Arthur E. Grim, who was appointed by the State Supreme Court this week to determine what should be done with the estimated 5,000 juveniles who have been sentenced by Judge Ciavarella since the scheme started in 2003. Many of them were first-time offenders and some remain in detention.

RonMexico

Chain them together and work the bollix off them. Pay them with food that is being thrown out by supermarkets.

**** the do-gooders

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

TripleAce wrote: »

I heard at the radio that it cost 95k € /year to maintain a prisoner here in Ireland :mad:

How, how is that even possible? How does it cost us sooo much money?

You have to take into account security. How can criminals work without causing others harm? Thinking of the tools they use etc etc. They can still work behind bars. I remember seeing a program where some of the criminals in mountjoy made toys for children, the kids were sick, or homeless or something, I cannot remember.

carrieb

It would have to be something they could do in their cell alright......
My dad watched some docu about a prisoner, killed his wife, in for life and was going off his head. Started making this dolls house for his brothers grandchild or some1, was the most perfect detailed thing in the world. Was working on it all day every day for over 3 years, the little wardrobes even had little hangers! Anyway, something like that might work. Toys then donated to charity.
Cant believe its costs that much!! :mad:

dSTAR

Nehaxak wrote: »

Send them all to Australia...

Bugger off we are full

unnameduser

i watched a documentary where some people purposely get arrested so that they can get properly fed and get some decent sleep in prisons so that they can build up their strength and health and then get out again after a few weeks / months. (to do "it" all over again)

surely it would be a good idea where these crooks have to pay their way by assembling goods or building something. surely a balanced day of work, education and play would be good for a prisoner. i'm aware its not as simple as it sounds but if inmates could work for rewards whether it be money / extra recreational time etc - it would be worth it.

dSTAR

One of my favorite journalists and all round nice chap Con Houlihan when he worked for the Irish Press once remarked ...

There is a lot of work that needs to be done.

Only thing is most people don't want to do this type of work. Why not set low risk / young offenders to these jobs that no-one seems to want to do such as sweeping the streets, picking up rubbish in parklands and other areas etc? These people might learn that Ireland is not just there for them to sh!t all over and take at will from without giving back.

delta_bravo

shamblertine wrote: »

No such thing as a free lunch and all that. Was watching a show the other night about a US prison where the inmates had to work and earn their keep. Can't we do the same or is there some EU legislation preventing us from doing so?

I dont think prison can be defined as a free lunch. And it probably does break some legislation. Sure it was only a few years ago that the prisoners were considering taking a case against the Department of Justice as they were forced to slop out and not provided with a toilet.

SoWatchaWant wrote: »

Oh my ****ing God . That's outrageous:eek:

Seriously, they might as well put them to use. They're no good to anyone rotting in their cells.

But what could we get them to do that's outside the prison? Working on the M50, I heard someone say. Would that not be dangerous, prisoners in contact with the public, possibility to escape etc...

Has anyone any ideas?

Ireland is such a small nation that there is no huge area of land that prisoners could work on, what would they even do? And it is a huge risk of escape and would probably double costs

Sam Kade wrote: »

Correct, thats the average cost of running the prison which is the total running costs of prisons/ number of prisoners. Portlaoise is the highest cost at €270,000 per prisoner per year.

There are so many costs involved in prisoners: wages for prison officers (remember theres going to be a group of staff working at all times), medical care, rehabilitation, training etc. And Portlaoise is so expensive as it is the highest security prison in Ireland and mainly populated by gangsters and terrorists

delta_bravo

dSTAR wrote: »

Only thing is most people don't want to do this type of work. Why not set low risk / young offenders to these jobs that no-one seems to want to do such as sweeping the streets, picking up rubbish in parklands and other areas etc? These people might learn that Ireland is not just there for them to sh!t all over and take at will from without giving back.

But the flipside of that would be the extra supervision costs of the prisoners and transport costs. Prison officers got a lot of flak a few years ago as their overtime bill ran into to something like €30m so I can only imagine it would jump far higher

kowloon

What he said ^
Prisoners aren't exactly going to work very hard either.
Maybe we could set them to work inside the prisons, manufacturing shivs or something.

dSTAR

delta_bravo wrote: »

But the flipside of that would be the extra supervision costs of the prisoners and transport costs. Prison officers got a lot of flak a few years ago as their overtime bill ran into to something like €30m so I can only imagine it would jump far higher

Maybe some kind of tagging system might work and if they do a runner they go into the 'big house' with a longer sentence.

Prisoners aren't exactly going to work very hard either.

Again some kind of punishment and reward system could be put into place. They perform so many hours and they have their sentence reduced. A bit like community service only they go back behind bars when they are done.

Just tossing out ideas...

wilson10

A big problem at the moment seems to be that there are not enough prison places.
What about the new prison that Michael McDowell was supposed to get off the ground a few years back.
In the current economic climate thare's not much chance of it going ahead, unless we had a plentiful supply of cheap labour.
Well, the build quality might be crap but would anyone care.

mollypop

Have them make stuff – toys etc. as someone mentioned. I was at a prison shop in Asia where they had lovely handcrafts that were really cheap, profits going towards the prison. All kinds of things, lamps, coasters and some quite nice art work. I’m sure you could motivate them, never been to prison but I’m sure you could et up a points system - make 10 lamps get 10 points = desert with you meal, an extra hour TV or whatever it is they want(that’s legal!)
Anything to make back some of the money they’re costing us!

Saying that they also had prisoner massage in womens prisons in Thailand. People say they’re great & really cheap. Not a chance! :eek:

Red Sleeping Beauty

shamblertine wrote: »

No such thing as a free lunch and all that. Was watching a show the other night about a US prison where the inmates had to work and earn their keep. Can't we do the same or is there some EU legislation preventing us from doing so?

Work ? What work ? There is no work!

Lirange

Turn them into Gladiators for Croke. It would create a whole new niche in the sports/entertainment industry.

passive

ha...read this as "pensioners" for a second. Amusing.

Leprachaun

Since gwantanamo bay is getting closed down,we could just send 'em there.

TripleAce

Here we go the article:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/1219/breaking73.htm

Jaysus Christ.....so after 10 years in jail a prisoner would cost us 1M € :eek:

How much does 1 bullet cost? :mad:

Kernel

carrieb wrote: »

It would have to be something they could do in their cell alright......
My dad watched some docu about a prisoner, killed his wife, in for life and was going off his head. Started making this dolls house for his brothers grandchild or some1, was the most perfect detailed thing in the world. Was working on it all day every day for over 3 years, the little wardrobes even had little hangers! Anyway, something like that might work. Toys then donated to charity.

Only problem there Carrie is that the dollhouse would have to sell for €270,000 in order to break even.

dvpower

In the states they still make license plates in some prisons. Prisonors get paid a nominal wage for this.

Problem is that they would need extra supervision (more Prison Officers), so the cost of keeping them would go up probably by more than the contribution their work would bring in.

Red Sleeping Beauty

TripleAce wrote: »

Here we go the article:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/1219/breaking73.htm

Jaysus Christ.....so after 10 years in jail a prisoner would cost us 1M € :eek:

How much does 1 bullet cost? :mad:

How much would it cost to address and attempt to solve the problems that lead to people breaking the law and ending up in jail ?

dvpower

alan dunne 27 wrote: »

How much would it cost to address and attempt to solve the problems that lead to people breaking the law and ending up in jail ?

Much more than 1 bullet.

Max Factor

yep

Red Sleeping Beauty

Very well. We shall execute anyone who breaks a window.