Initial Thoughts
Here is something I thought a lot of women might find interesting. Japan's latest fashion trend is that of women wearing clothing made by juvenile inmates. Child Labor in the Prisons? I don't know if this would be good or bad.
I would think they would be trying teach and reform them. I wouldn't think that they would be trying to use them for slave labor for the country's latest fashion trend. The Japanese culture is very interesting, yet odd at times.
Here is the link to the article about this weird fashion sense:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/25701826/?GT1=43001
My Other Thoughts on This Matter
I didn't quite read all of the article before writing the above comments. Now after reading it, it sounds like the mentality I have for prisons in America. They should all be put to work. After all our tax dollars are keeping a roof over their head.
The least they could do is clean the streets, fix the roads, etc. A contractor makes a lot of money per hour. Just think the money we would save our local, state, and federal governments by putting petty criminals to work.
The money saved could be poured back into our education budget to help pay teachers more, which might help us get better qualified teachers in the classroom. This would possibly help keep future generations with lower incomes off the street, in the end lowering the crime rate in America.
There are so many ways this could help our communities. Think of all the people in this country that struggle to make ends meet and would like to own their own home. They could put these criminals to work building houses. Cheaper labor equals a lower price for a home.
What about revitalization projects? These inmates could renovate older rundown buildings that noone wants to invest in, and the money generated from the sale of these properties could lessen the tax burden of the prison system on the citizens of this country.
Anything you can think of that our tax dollars are paying for, we could probably get inmates involved in to reduce our overall costs. Now this is not for all inmates. Any inmates involved in violent crimes like rape, murder, etc. wouldn't be eligible for this type of work.
What about these wildfires that rage across states like California? Inmates could be used to put those fires out. I am certain they could use the extra help. We are also in a time of war. For all those inmates serving long sentences, they could go fight for our country for free to get a reduced sentence or pardon. I just feel our prison system is not being used as well as it could be.
