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Preston was free to negotiate his pay with us, and we pay him a full salary. Just no health care benefits.
by glommer 1y ago
Preston was free to negotiate his pay with us, and we pay him a full salary. Just no health care benefits.
- dgacmu 1y agoDoes he actually get the salary, or does the prison take huge overhead?
- glommer 1y agothey take an (actually very reasonable) cut, but he is free to take his salary.
- kgwxd 1y agoNo cut is reasonable.
- jjmarr 1y agoThey need money to pay for oversight. Any time prisoners talk to someone on the outside, it's a potential conduit for contraband or organized crime.
- Balinares 1y agoThe exact same is true of people working outside of prison.
- gbalduzzi 1y agoI think it's reasonable to assume an additional risk for people in prison. Even though the enrolled people are completely trustworthy, doing this prevents untrustworthy people to simulate interest in the program just to be able to contact the external world for illegal activities.
- Retric 1y agoNot really, contraband includes many things that are completely legal for non prisoners to have like currency, phones, knives, or alcohol. Sending that stuff to prisoners is illegal https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1791 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1791 List of prohibited items: https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840&height=800&iframe=true&def_id=18-USC-1897124577-1512016688&term_occur=999&term_src=title:18:part:I:chapter:87:section:1791 https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840...
- snickerdoodle12 1y agoYou can send phones, knives or alcohol via email or slack?
- Retric 1y agoYou can agree to pay for them at a given prices via email or slack. It’s more or less guaranteed that contraband will get into prisons if someone is willing to pay for it. Thus the rules around no cash or phones for prisoners. Inmates are treated very differently by the legal system than regular people. Thirteenth Amendment: “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”
- snickerdoodle12 1y agoYou can also do that via a butt phone, which are everywhere.
- Retric 1y agoThat heavily depends on the facility. Phones aren’t that difficult to track down as a radio device, but such efforts are rare.
- scott_w 1y agoGood point, in that case, let’s open it up and let it be a free for all. May as well let them take the drugs in through the front door, while we’re at it.
- newswasboring 1y agoPeople working outside pay rent. From a third to upto half their salary.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- hashstring 1y agoWhy would it not be reasonable?
- hildolfr 1y agoGoogle feeds staff members and provides rest areas , why are they paid?
- Ray20 1y agoFor not going to work for competitors.
- borski 1y agoThe government takes a cut then too, both from the employer and employer, in the form of taxes.
- kgwxd 1y agoWhich should be paying for the prisons and the operations society approves of to reform inmates. Prisons should not be a businesses of any kind.
- hashstring 1y agoI agree that a prison should not be a business (aka a different model than the US-model). I also think that many prisoners are currently treated unfairly. However, ideally, I don’t think that it makes sense for someone to go to prison, which costs tax money, and meanwhile earn the same amount of money by remote working from prison as someone in the outside world, who actually has living expenses to pay for (which get taxed also). So, I think, when it comes to fairness, it wouldn’t be unreasonable if a partial cut goes to the TCOO of holding that prisoner. Now again, American prisons have their whole incentive model messed up, so I don’t even want to get in an argument about America’s implementation of this system and how it would lead to more problems— because it’s well-known and more than expected.
- Reasoning 1y ago
- esteth 1y agoPresumably the prison is providing the "office" where the person works from, the Internet connection, etc.
- lukan 1y agoAlso food and accomodation ..
- snickerdoodle12 1y ago1) How is this different from any other prisoner 2) They wouldn't have to if they didn't insist on locking him up
- lazyasciiart 1y agoIt isn't different from any other prisoner. In many states you leave prison owing them back rent. Maine at least charges as a percentage of the prisoners income, rather than having them build debt. https://www.npr.org/2022/03/04/1084452251/the-vast-majority-of-states-allow-people-to-be-charged-for-time-behind-bars https://www.npr.org/2022/03/04/1084452251/the-vast-majority-... Maine: https://www.corrections1.com/finance-and-budgets/maine-lawmakers-weigh-prison-fee-hikes-as-remote-work-grows-behind-bars https://www.corrections1.com/finance-and-budgets/maine-lawma... "the state can deduct up to 20% of their income — 10% for room and board, which is sent to the state’s general fund, not the Department of Corrections , and up to 10% to cover transportation provided by the department. Since 2020, the state fund has collected a total of $2.4 million.
- bryanrasmussen 1y ago"No cut" is reasonable, but also "Some cut" is reasonable. However while arguing that "no cut" should be mandatory is reasonable, given that "no cut" would itself be reasonable, it is probably not pragmatic. Therefore in order to best support this kind of thing one should determine exactly how much "some cut" should be.
- osigurdson 1y agoIsn't this largely just a one off situation that happened to work out? I doubt there will be legions of prisoners working remotely. If that future did come to be, it would be rather dystopian imo.
- bryanrasmussen 1y agoif, right now, it is not dystopian, then there is no reason to say it would inevitably be dystopian if there were multiple occurrences, although sure, I expect it probably would be considering what the world is like. Of course I am the last person who one would expect to say it but - there is always hope.
- psunavy03 1y agoMore dystopian than people in prison not being able to prepare themselves for a life outside?
- osigurdson 1y agoThe moral hazard is rather high. At the limit, the entire white-collar work force is wrongfully imprisoned, working for slave wages.
- psunavy03 1y ago. . . ok. Perhaps it'd be an interesting SFF novel.
- mp05 1y agoDon't you suppose that it's "fair" to request compensation for the room and board if the person is making a "fair" wage?
- bokoharambe 1y agoForced room and board?
- Ray20 1y agoAnd also medical care. Literally socialism.
- oh_fiddlesticks 1y agoTo be honest, if he didn't pay a cut of his earnings while living off government allocated funds, wouldn't that put him in a better position than those who haven't been found guilty and sentenced for breaking the laws of the land in which they reside? I can't see a much resistance to the argument that they one really ought to pay the full cost back to the state, as with community service... no?
- bokoharambe 1y agoNo, for the simple fact that he'd still be stuck in an American prison where people are brutalized, sexually assaulted, denied access to medical care, abused by guards, etc. regularly. He deserves everything he is able to earn under those conditions, and truthfully it's a miracle he can work at all. Americans have become too comfortable with their everyday sadism.
- BlarfMcFlarf 1y agoNo. Prisons should cost society money. If you are taking away someone’s freedoms, there should be a high cost so you don’t do it flippantly when another solution will work.
- mp05 1y ago
- conductr 1y agoI disagree. The cut should support the program itself and then further offset taxpayer expenses related to housing, feeding, and caring for the prisoner. I could even see a case for taking it as a way of ensuring it was saved and returned at release.
- franga2000 1y agoFuck no! Lowering the cost of keeping people in prison would make it even easier for the government to lock people up for smaller crimes and with bigger sentences. It's even worse with the privatised prison system that the US has. They already know the "market price" (what the government is willing to spend) so adding "free money" into the equation just makes it easier for them to raise prices and end up pocketing even more money than they already do. Framing it as offsetting the cost would also make it very easy to increase the cut, bit by bit, until it gets to a truly unreasonable level. And since the person is already in prison and we have to pay for them no matter what, why would they choose to work if the deal is so bad?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- dfxm12 1y agoIt's even worse with the privatised prison system that the US has. This is a state by state thing. FWIW in this case, ME doesn't have private prisons. I don't bring this up to imply everything related to their cut is on the up and up, however, I believe Maine is very much incentivized to make this a useful program in terms of keeping people from returning to jail (as opposed to squeezing every dollar from the prisoners).
- conductr 1y agoFix the problem then, don't perpetuate it. If you think the problem is corrupt and profiteering prisons that will turn to this type of shenanigans, there's a bigger problem to fix.
- Spooky23 1y agoHuh? Universities take a 60% overhead in some scenarios. The dude is is prison, slave like conditions are ridiculous, but there should be a healthy overhead.
- tartoran 1y agoEven in the case he doesn't, it's still an amazing opportunity to learn that would lead to a better future for sure.
- cooperaustinj 1y agoWhy not just pay them in exposure? I hope you can think about why the proposal in your reply is problematic.
- gadders 1y agoSounds fair, and it sounds like an excellent programme. I hope the developer's life continues on this new trajectory.