How much $$$ is generated from the labor? My impression is that the (very bad) slave labor aspect is a small grift on top of the system. I have seen people start to talk as if it actually drives the system in a fundamental way, but I have not seen evidence for that position.
It would cost "$1.5 billion to pay [CA] prisoners minimum wage."[1] California came close to ending slave labor last year, but the cost of doing so was prohibitive.
Well if prisoners are digging holes, you can calculate how much it would cost to pay them minimum wage but it doesn’t mean that the owners of the system benefit from the holes.
The relevant question is how much money is made from the output of the prisoner labor. And then, is that amount enough to plausibly provide an incentive to, say, apply political pressure to get more prison labor, as opposed to just being a grift on top of the prison population that would exist anyway without the presence of the grift.
> I think they mean people who benefit from prison labor
Oh, you mean the guy at the head of the parent organization of the California Prison Industry Authority, which makes and sells products with prison labor, i.e., again, the Governor of California?
Said they're gonna slap his wrists, gonna retire him with 850 thousand dollars
And America was “shocked”
America leads the world in shocks
Unfortunately, America does not lead the world in deciphering the cause of shock
“850 thousand dollars,” they said, and the people protested, so they said,
“Alright, we'll give him 200 thousand dollars”
Everybody said, “OK, that's better”
I'd like to retire with 200 thousand dollars someday
San Quentin, not San Clemente
Do not pass go, go directly to jail, do not collect 200 thousand dollars
https://genius.com/Gil-scott-heron-and-brian-jackson-we-beg-...