The lawyers comment gets a short, humorless laugh.
"Well, an example. Stamping out car license plates—um, in case you don't
know, metal plates stuck on the back of a car that show where the car is
registered and identify it as such. Indisputably menial work. Potentially
dangerous, since you're working with sheets of metal and the tools to shape
and cut them. If you call that work 'rehabilitation', then you can say
you're teaching the prisoners a trade, so when they're freed they can get a
job as ..." She shrugs extravagantly. "Well, as what, that's their problem
once they get out. If you call it 'punishment', then you say they're stuck
doing repetitive labor because they did a bad thing, and this is how they
pay their debt to society. Realistically? It's neither. There's no useful
skills learned, and it's hardly an effective deterrent. But it's a grimy
little job that has to be done, so why not do it on the cheap with
incarcerated felons as labor."
Dom exhales as if she's just been hit in the chest.
"Jesus, you're sharp," she says. Reminds her, in ways different to Peter,
of Minister Zhang. "Well, one thing I think is that—okay, you get a guy in
on some stupid petty theft or drug charge. He spends a year doing bullshit
work. Gets out, can't find a job because he's a felon. He's got a buddy
that can find him work knocking over a bodega. He does it, gets caught, and
boom, he's back, doing the bullshit work. You keep these guys beaten down,
never give them a real chance ... and there's your unofficial slave
labor force. And eventually he'll do something stupid and either get
murdered or kill someone and get executed, or he'll just overdose or have
an accident. And none of that works without the pain."
"Is it? It's all pretty grim, I don't deny it." She smiles wryly. "I wasn't
planning on starting off your education with a rundown on the prison
system. What else do you want to know?"
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momijizukamori
no subject
The lawyers comment gets a short, humorless laugh.
"Well, an example. Stamping out car license plates—um, in case you don't know, metal plates stuck on the back of a car that show where the car is registered and identify it as such. Indisputably menial work. Potentially dangerous, since you're working with sheets of metal and the tools to shape and cut them. If you call that work 'rehabilitation', then you can say you're teaching the prisoners a trade, so when they're freed they can get a job as ..." She shrugs extravagantly. "Well, as what, that's their problem once they get out. If you call it 'punishment', then you say they're stuck doing repetitive labor because they did a bad thing, and this is how they pay their debt to society. Realistically? It's neither. There's no useful skills learned, and it's hardly an effective deterrent. But it's a grimy little job that has to be done, so why not do it on the cheap with incarcerated felons as labor."
no subject
"If the excuse is reparations, why call it punishment? Or do you have uses for pain that nobody admits?"
no subject
Dom exhales as if she's just been hit in the chest.
"Jesus, you're sharp," she says. Reminds her, in ways different to Peter, of Minister Zhang. "Well, one thing I think is that—okay, you get a guy in on some stupid petty theft or drug charge. He spends a year doing bullshit work. Gets out, can't find a job because he's a felon. He's got a buddy that can find him work knocking over a bodega. He does it, gets caught, and boom, he's back, doing the bullshit work. You keep these guys beaten down, never give them a real chance ... and there's your unofficial slave labor force. And eventually he'll do something stupid and either get murdered or kill someone and get executed, or he'll just overdose or have an accident. And none of that works without the pain."
no subject
"Thank you. That's very illuminating."
no subject
"Is it? It's all pretty grim, I don't deny it." She smiles wryly. "I wasn't planning on starting off your education with a rundown on the prison system. What else do you want to know?"