収束ゾーンでのライフ: Life in the Convergence Zone

From most of what I've read, undocumented immigrants are, while not getting what most in this country would consider an adequate living wage (tho some do even that), at least getting around 8 bucks an hour and up. So, while they are certainly being exploited, it's a far cry from pennies an hour. And the farmers aren't even going to save money from this? Instead they get to employ potentially dangerous people (your rapist example) who probably aren't going to be working that hard, instead of people who almost universally get good reviews for honesty, hard work and competence?

I don't see who this benefits in the short term (unless the prison system will be making a bit, which is a scary thought for reasons I'll get to, and I suppose it makes people who simply hate undocumented immigrants feel better), but in the long term, it could be the start of a trend (along with some previous telemarketing efforts) to use enforced labor to replace unskilled jobs throughout the country. Oh yay!

And not everyone in prison is in there for a good reason (the rapists you mention, while I *wish* they were usually doing ten years or more, are usually out in a couple of months if they get convicted at all); having a new slave labor pool would give great incentive to start arresting more people and giving them longer sentences for, say, marijuana use . . .

As for learning a skill . . . these jobs are called "unskilled"; saying "I picked fields while in jail" is only going to be a good calling card for the very jobs that the inmate labor will be taking away.