A Boring Dystopia

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Humanity loophole: you can pay people less if they're from prison. (slrpnk.net)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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So all we need to do is find a way to put people in prison!

Win-win!

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (7 children)

Under most circumstances this seems like one of the less dystopian options*... because at least on the surface, this is a genuine everybody-problem and not something that drives profit.

Particularly if this actually gives them a career post-release, which seems to be the case in California for at least 4 years now. The alternative is dystopic again.

If this response is more pressured just because of where/who it effects, I could see that being an issue too. The context already dystopic though... like aside from the long-term heat and drought that will continue to be ignored, there was also the profit-over-safety of the PG&E hooks (from another article: PG&E knew old power line parts had ‘severe wear’ months before deadly Camp Fire).

*= Which is probably saying a lot, given that it involves an inferno. And yeah that pay is not great, but what they're being charged daily is likely even worse.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (5 children)

Particularly if this actually gives them a career post-release, which seems to be the case in California

Federal Judge: Californians Who Fought Fires In Prison Can’t Become Career Firefighters

A California licensing law that bans many ex-offenders from working as full-time firefighters, even if they were trained to fight fires while imprisoned, was upheld last week by a federal judge.

Nearly all local fire departments require certification as an emergency medical technician (EMT). Yet under California law, EMT certification is off-limits to anyone who has ever been convicted of two or more felonies, has been released from prison for any felony in the past decade, or has been convicted of any two or more drug misdemeanors in the past five years.

Adding to the absurdity, people with multiple felonies can still serve as volunteer or seasonal firefighters, though the latter is only part-time and provides far less job security and fewer benefits than working year-round at a municipal fire department.

...

To counter the labor shortage, Gov. Gavin Newsom is looking to replace the dwindling penal fire camps with professional firefighters. Law enforcement has sharply criticized the proposal, with one sheriff aghast at losing a supply of “nearly free labor:” “The truth is if [the state] kept more people in prison and weren’t so concerned about releasing all of their inmates...they would have plenty of people for fire crews.”