yes they should. you would be surprised who keeps it from happening. local businesses. they dont want the competition. in my state they wanted to do it. they devised a plan where prisioners would build cheap little homes for poor people. the local homebuilders kicked up a fuss about it. it eventually did go through in a small way. http://doc.sd.gov/adult/work/housing.aspx
Lucrum you're a liberal compared to peil " I say make them work 16-17 hour days, no talking to each other and just keeping their head down." But then peil does not a have clue about life. And as far as working out goes, it keeps them occupied and their mind off of where they are at and off of doing bad things. The problem with the criminal justice system starts at the top, just like in any other organization. But the system is much better today than it was a half century ago. Still a long damn ways to go. A man who is in jail for defrauding the IRS shouldn't be under the same rules as a child molester, and they aren't which is the way it should be. As far as work goes, the smart thing to do is smart work not punishment work. These people and they are people will be getting out and will live in our communities. As much as possible the incaration should be geared toward the people getting out and becoming productive citizens who stay out of trouble. The deck is stacked against these individuals who don't have family with some money. Most companies will not hire a felon, even some dishwashing jobs wont hire felons. I will give credit to the church organizations and the christian business men who support it, they do have programs set up to help the men get jobs. I don't know what prison system the guy above was talking about being a joke but it isn't in Texas, it isn't a nice place to be. They guards are not cruel but the conditions are not good, not good enough to want to go back any way. The prison days of "Cool hand Luke" are behind us as they should be, it was wrong then and still is wrong to treat humans like that. I think in Texas the prisons are doing a good job.