Humanity loophole: you can pay people less if they're from prison.

That's why homelessness is being criminalized.

The explicit goal is to recreate Victorian workhouses for the benefit of the new generation of robber barons.

Hey, they're lucky not to be used as slaves!

The 13th Amendment states: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

Let's call for-profit prisons what they are - Plantations.

I think one of the absolute stupidest things about this when it comes up is that when these same people get let out of prison they can’t even get the job of fire fighter because of their criminal record.

Slavery is alive and well in the United States Of America.

(As a side note it's funny how, with a century of delay, the US pretty much followed the UK in making slavery "illegal" by just making chattel slavery illegal and, not long after, replacing it with indentured servitude. The non "funny" side is that Britain has already dropped indentured servitude but the US is busy actually expanding their variant of it with things like 3-strikes legislation)

My wife was a journalist in SoCal a while back. She did a story on some women prisoners that were used to assist in firefighting.

They worked alongside Cal Fire. It was rough work, they were right there in the shit.

She can't recall if they were paid anything extra but she does remember that they ALL volunteered for it. They actually loved it.

Public work is one thing if we had a fair justice system (we don't)

Private work is absolutely indefensible.

Important to add, once freed they will be ineligible to take a job as a firefighter in California.

Also keep in mind that they are getting charged by the day to be in prison and if ever released will owe a large bill. Usually this results in immediate bankruptcy which further increases chances of future incarceration. By design

Ah yes, California's penal legion of slaves "indentured servants" that we uh... voted to keep around in the last election.

Man, CA politics are fucking bizarre. Sometimes the slam dunk no-brainer propositions fail and there never seems to be a really good reason why.

They're slaves, not incarcerated firefighters.

Grandmaster: Revolution? How did this happen?

Topaz: Don't know. But the Arena's mainframe for the Obedience Disks have been deactivated and the slaves have armed themselves.

Grandmaster: Ohhh! I don't like that word!

Topaz: Mainframe?

Grandmaster: No. Why would I not like "mainframe?" No, the "S" word!

Topaz: Sorry, the "prisoners with jobs" have armed themselves.

Grandmaster: Okay, that's better.

Yo, its the private fire fighters the guy was asking on Twitter about.

A large force of inexperienced indentured servants fighting the blaze, yet so much coverage about the horror of a handful of female hires.

They mention how much money they're making but not that everything they have to spend it on comes from the institution imprisoning them and unconscionably price-gouged even by outside standards.

Slavery live and alive

It could be worse: they could be insured by UHC :)

Yup and Trump will do this to illegals.. Welcome to the concentration camps

Same with immigrants

Thats disturbing. I have no words..

What is this...some kind of Suicide Squad?

I already thought this was bad when they were asked made to work fast food jobs. Asking Making them to risk bodily harm is an entirely different idea. I think I want my first responders to feel fairly compensated when I call for help.

Any billionaire is free to step in and properly compensate these heroes, but they won’t

Also, many of them are ineligible to become actual firefighters after their release from prison due to their criminal record. I would be slightly more okay with this system if it translated into a guaranteed position as a firefighter following release if they agree to go to an area in need like in smaller communities that have trouble recruiting firefighters.

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.

I don't think we have chain gang type prison programs in Canada. It's so archaic. Making license plates to have an occupation might be reasonable, but this chain gang shit is inhumane.

Isn't there an amendment about this? We had that whole interval railway war over capitalism under the guise of fighting for that amendment?

If someone lands on your property, you don't get paid if you are in prison. Though if the board is loaded up with hotels on orange and the other players aren't near your properties, you can stay in for a bit rolling doubles to avoid going broke.

To play devil's advocate, and out of blind ignorancr, what's the alternative? Do nothing? Conscript the public?

Why didnt the leftists stop this measure?

Fire Country

Yes, that is a TV show.

The suicide squad 2025: No, you're not going to stop a criminal mastermind. You'll be risking your lives putting out the fires that we caused.

If I was one of them, you bet I'd be doing everything in my power to get as many people to team up to run into the fire to avoid the indignity of modern slavery like that. Would rather burn to death.

I wonder if the Alethi pay their slaves better. What's the normal hourly rate for a firefighter?

How 'well' a society is, is a function of whether going to prison is a choice or not (of the prisoner)?