Welcome back to serfdom
Apr. 20th, 2007 10:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdColorado is going to replace illegal-immigrant workers with labour that's paid even less, which is to say, prisoners paid a token wage pulled out of our world-class prison population (per capita), which is to say, indentured servants, driving what's left of the farmer-labourer class completely out of existence. I cannot overstate the depths of my disgust at this quasifascist bullshit the Democratic-led legislature of Colorado has served up.
The first reference below is to the New York Times version of the story, which I saw first, but has moved behind a firewall. The second is the Los Angeles Times version of the same story, which is at least similar, and is publicly accessible. The third is an update from April 12th. The first 60c/day - sixty cents per day, or seven and a half cents per hour - prisoner workers are expected to be on farms in May. Yes, the farmers are paying more than that - for the moment - with proceeds going to, of course, the prison system. But it's difficult to imagine how free workers - and by free workers, I mean not prisoners - will compete.
I was going to post about this a month ago but couldn't get past "This is serfdom," so I let it sit for a while to see if I could. I still can't, which, really, makes it worse, not better. This is the kind of shit that validates Marx.
I imagine the communists reading about this will be thrilled.
----- 1 -----
Inmates Will Replace Migrants in Colorado Fields
By DAN FROSCH
Published: March 4, 2007
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/us/04prisoners.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
DENVER, March 3 — As migrant laborers flee Colorado because of tough new immigration restrictions, worried farmers are looking to prisoners to fill their places in the fields.
[...]
Under the program, which has drawn criticism from groups concerned about immigrants’ rights and from others seeking changes in the criminal justice system, farmers will pay a fee to the state, and the inmates, who volunteer for the work, will be paid about 60 cents a day, corrections officials said.
[More behind TimesSelect wall]
----- 2 -----
Colorado to use inmates to fill migrant shortage
Tough laws passed last year against illegal immigration have created a need for farmworkers.
By Nicholas Riccardi, Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times
March 1, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-inmates1mar01,0,7469220.story?coll=la-home-headlines
DENVER — Ever since passing what its Legislature promoted as the nation's toughest laws against illegal immigration last summer, Colorado has struggled with a labor shortage as migrants fled the state. This week, officials announced a novel solution: Use convicts as farmworkers.
[...]
Advocates on both sides of the immigration debate said they were stunned by the proposal.
"If they can't get slaves from Mexico, they want them from the jails," said Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, which favors restrictions on immigration.
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
Fielding convicts
Is Pueblo County's new prisoner labor program a solution to farmers' staffing woes or a shortsighted mistake?
by Naomi Zeveloff
iNews
April 12, 2007
http://www.csindy.com/csindy/2007-04-12/news3.html
U.S. Highway 50 narrows a dozen miles east of Pueblo, yielding to pea-green and brown farmland, family-owned tracts that bear southern Colorado's peppers, tomatoes, melons and sweet corn.
[...]
The prisoners will earn 60 cents a day, with the possibility of making an extra $30 to $60 a month. The farmers will pay the Department of Corrections $9.65 per prisoner, per hour — at least a dollar more than they typically have paid migrant workers.
DOC says the revenue will go toward transportation, food and staffing costs. But some find the discrepancy troubling, and claim the program is a moneymaker for the department.
[...]
For now, the prisoner plan — however patchwork it may be — is moving ahead. And [early programme participant and farm owner Phil] Prutch looks forward to replenishing his labor pool.
[Ed. note: braketed inline data added by me for clarity]
[More at URL]
The first reference below is to the New York Times version of the story, which I saw first, but has moved behind a firewall. The second is the Los Angeles Times version of the same story, which is at least similar, and is publicly accessible. The third is an update from April 12th. The first 60c/day - sixty cents per day, or seven and a half cents per hour - prisoner workers are expected to be on farms in May. Yes, the farmers are paying more than that - for the moment - with proceeds going to, of course, the prison system. But it's difficult to imagine how free workers - and by free workers, I mean not prisoners - will compete.
I was going to post about this a month ago but couldn't get past "This is serfdom," so I let it sit for a while to see if I could. I still can't, which, really, makes it worse, not better. This is the kind of shit that validates Marx.
I imagine the communists reading about this will be thrilled.
----- 1 -----
Inmates Will Replace Migrants in Colorado Fields
By DAN FROSCH
Published: March 4, 2007
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/us/04prisoners.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
DENVER, March 3 — As migrant laborers flee Colorado because of tough new immigration restrictions, worried farmers are looking to prisoners to fill their places in the fields.
[...]
Under the program, which has drawn criticism from groups concerned about immigrants’ rights and from others seeking changes in the criminal justice system, farmers will pay a fee to the state, and the inmates, who volunteer for the work, will be paid about 60 cents a day, corrections officials said.
[More behind TimesSelect wall]
----- 2 -----
Colorado to use inmates to fill migrant shortage
Tough laws passed last year against illegal immigration have created a need for farmworkers.
By Nicholas Riccardi, Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times
March 1, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-inmates1mar01,0,7469220.story?coll=la-home-headlines
DENVER — Ever since passing what its Legislature promoted as the nation's toughest laws against illegal immigration last summer, Colorado has struggled with a labor shortage as migrants fled the state. This week, officials announced a novel solution: Use convicts as farmworkers.
[...]
Advocates on both sides of the immigration debate said they were stunned by the proposal.
"If they can't get slaves from Mexico, they want them from the jails," said Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, which favors restrictions on immigration.
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
Fielding convicts
Is Pueblo County's new prisoner labor program a solution to farmers' staffing woes or a shortsighted mistake?
by Naomi Zeveloff
iNews
April 12, 2007
http://www.csindy.com/csindy/2007-04-12/news3.html
U.S. Highway 50 narrows a dozen miles east of Pueblo, yielding to pea-green and brown farmland, family-owned tracts that bear southern Colorado's peppers, tomatoes, melons and sweet corn.
[...]
The prisoners will earn 60 cents a day, with the possibility of making an extra $30 to $60 a month. The farmers will pay the Department of Corrections $9.65 per prisoner, per hour — at least a dollar more than they typically have paid migrant workers.
DOC says the revenue will go toward transportation, food and staffing costs. But some find the discrepancy troubling, and claim the program is a moneymaker for the department.
[...]
For now, the prisoner plan — however patchwork it may be — is moving ahead. And [early programme participant and farm owner Phil] Prutch looks forward to replenishing his labor pool.
[Ed. note: braketed inline data added by me for clarity]
[More at URL]
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no subject
Date: 2007-04-24 08:10 pm (UTC)My take on what to do w/prison populations is fairly complicated. In a nutshell, people should not be in there in the first place for drugs/prostitution/etc, but regardless of whether anything is done to change this, all the non-violent criminals should be kept segregated from the violent ones, and amongst the violent, those w/less time to go should be kept separate from those w/lots of time remaining, and those never to get out again further segregated. Likewise, for those in each of these blocs who behave themselves reasonably well, yes to helping them learn useful skills, if they are gonna get out again (tho I'm a firm believer in retribution as being an important part of the justice system, and I have nothing at all against letting some of them sit there and rot). In somewhat more detail, those prison gaurds I have spoken to agree w/me about this(tho has been since the 90's).
And lots of illegals get very good wages; some day laborers in better parts of LA won't work for less than $10 or even $15 an hour; many construction firms actually prefer to hire illegals because they've found them to be better workers, but still pay them the same (very good) wages as legal workers get, etc. I'm sure some are working for as little as $5 an hour, maybe less in cheaper parts of the country, but those I have known and occasionally worked with out here aren't doing that badly.
I think the gang membership issue may (I'm taking a wild guess here, correct me if I'm way off) be in large part due to lack of other opportunities for children who weren't born here, since even those who qualify for college scholarships and have been here since elementary school technically are illegal themselves, and generally face all sorts of (frequently insurmountable) hurdles to having a really good career, and I don't doubt they are aware of this, which will keep a lot from even trying the more conventional/safer route.