Cheap labor. And not just unskilled labor.
Brennan Leathers wrote
in The Post-Searchlight on 18 February 2011,
Inmate housing a hot topic
about how overcrowded nearby prisons are and
about haggling over what the local jail wants to charge to house prisoners,
and ended with this:
“Working our inmates the way we do has greatly benefited the county,”
[Warden Elijah] McCoy [of the Decatur County Jail] said. “We can
construct buildings from the ground up and wire them. We perform all
of the county’s maintenance and operate some of the equipment at the
county’s landfill.”
One of the comments from Decatur County
way back in July 2010 was:
Not only prison jobs, but it would also be a boost for many small
businesses in the area. The construction part would also be a good shot
in the arm.
Local construction people who think it will be a good deal to
build a private prison maybe should think they may be putting
themselves out of a lot of jobs after it’s built.
-jsq
“The shipping of fathers and mothers to private prisons in far-flung states is guaranteeing a new generation of frightened, angry, disenfranchised children, who are future inmates,” she said, adding that “families who try to visit loved ones are treated as suspects in many prisons. The children cannot understand the lack of warmth and hospitality in the visiting rooms.”
