Sumter County officials use a nice phrase to disguise the ugly reality. They say they have "inmate firefighters." Here's Brent Williams, the Chairman of the Sumter County Board of Commissioners:
The combination of buying good used equipment and using inmate fire fighters saved a tremendous amount of money...the savings in insurance alone, will more than outweigh any costs that they've been paying for fire protection fees to the county.It's SLAVE LABOR, people. It takes jobs from law-abiding citizens and it encourages the massive incarceration of our population. Oh, and it's disgusting.
We only found out about this today because News4Jax reported politicians in nearby Camden County are considering doing the same thing. Here's their upbeat little story:
A select group of inmates may get the chance to get out of jail to fight fires and respond to medical emergencies in Camden County. At least that's an idea being tossed around to help solve the county's budget woes.Go back a couple hundred years and imagine News4Jax was covering the slave trade. It might go like this:
A select group of Africans may get the chance to leave the continent to work on farms and do housework in Camden County. At least that's an idea being tossed around to help solve the plantation's budget woes.Does anyone have any trouble understanding what's wrong with this?
Apparently some do. Reports Tech News,
...companies that use prison labor are Chevron, IBM, Motorola, Compaq, Texas Instruments, Honeywell, Microsoft, Victoria's Secret and Boeing. Federal prisons operate under the trade name Unicor and use their prisoners to make everything from lawn furniture to congressional desks. Their Web site proudly displays "where the government shops first."And we can't forget Wisconsin, where Racine County immediately began using prisoners to replace union workers after
What the hell is happening to this country?
