The use of inmates to provide labor is empowered in the United States by the thirteenth amendment of the U.S. Constitution which disallows bondage "aside from as a discipline for wrongdoing." Over 2.2 million people are imprisoned in state, government, and private jails in the United States, and almost all physically fit detainees work in some mold. While numerous detainees are utilized in support of the jail, a noteworthy number of detainees work to deliver products or perform administrations for private organizations, philanthropic associations, and state or government offices that band together with jails (NorthStar Asset Management, 2018) . However, there are various advantages and disadvantages associated with prison labor as outlined in the present discussion.
Prisoners provide cheaper labor to private and partnering organizations thereby providing a leverage for the cost of goods and services in comparison to the cost of labor supply from the general public. Private firms act rapidly to look for best practices, enhance task efficiencies, and actualize cost-funds measures (Pelaez, 2014). Additionally, prison labor lessens the extent of government on the grounds that operational obligations move to a private establishment, which further decreases citizen costs. Prisoners are kept engaged through involvement in prison labor (Harris, 2018). They learn skills and significant trading. Such practices reduces boredom among them and reduces instances of stress, violence, and depression.
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Prisoners gain pride in the products they make. Such pride in the final products in the industries they are incorporated in improves the morale of prisoners. In addition to this, money earned by prisoners, no matter how little, helps in meeting the cost of their stay in the prisons. Therefore, prison labor is a source of revenue to the state for funding correctional centers. In addition to this, at the point when prisoner work is utilized to make products for use inside jail, this serves to lessen the expenses of running the jail, which decreases open spending on detainment facilities. This is commonly positively gotten by people in general that frequently examines and challenges state uses on jails.
However, the use of prisoner labor gives them access to materials and tools when they are placed in the construction industry. This could be a channel for eruption of violence and cause risks using the building materials or the tools when applied as a weapon. Application of prisoners in the production industries requires exertion of extra security as well as critical supervision of the materials used and the goods in transit trucks. Installation of such systems could result into a more expensive course considering the amount of wages earned by the inmates.
Prison labor brings competition in the job market where investors opts for the cheaply available inmates labor leaving alone professionals who are expensive to maintain ( Duwe, & McNeeley 2017). Such instances limits the development of professionals in the state whose placement in the job opportunities would be imperative in the growth of the economy significantly as compared to prison labor. Prison labor also open doors for misuse of prisoners by the state officials. The staff can use prison labor regulations for their private benefits where they can be used to produce staff commodities.
There are several instances when prison labor application failed and continued to haunt the success of the associated companies and/or organizations. The use of prison labor by Victoria Secret in the 1990s continued to affect its productivity since it was branded as a supporter of modern American slavery. A recent application of prison labor in the construction of a distribution center by Wall Mart in 2005 received stiff resistance from the society (NorthStar Asset Management, 2018) . A similar situation was experienced by Whole Foods in 2015 when they used tilapia and milk produced by inmates to process goat cheese resulting to protests in their Texas outlets.
References
Duwe, G., & McNeeley, S. (2017). The Effects of Prison Labor on Institutional Misconduct, Postprison Employment, and Recidivism. Corrections , 1-20. Duwe, G., & McNeeley, S. (2017). The Effects of Prison Labor on Institutional Misconduct, Postprison Employment, and Recidivism. Corrections , 1-20.
Harris, A. (2018). Prison Labor through the Lens of International Trade. Jotwell: J. Things We Like , 1.
NorthStar Asset Management. (2018). Prison Labor in the Supply Chain. Retrieved from https://northstarasset.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/revMay2018_Prison-Labor-in-the-Supply-Chain.pdf
Pelaez, V. (2014). The prison industry in the United States: Big business or a new form of slavery. Global Research , 31 .
