So all we need to do is find a way to put people in prison!

Win-win!

  • @[email protected]
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    2017 months ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]
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      497 months ago

      Hey now, they won’t be called Workhouses. They’ll be called AI training data centers and Gig Opportunity Recruitment Points.

      And if you don’t support these amazing engines of economic development and industrial growth, you are clearly just throwing your support behind the concentration camps that the Bad Team wants to build.

      Hell, I how do I even know you’re not a Russian bot or a Chinese Wumao, trying to sow dissent in our glorious country, anyway?

  • @[email protected]
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    67 months ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]
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      7 months ago

      Particularly if this actually gives them a career post-release, which seems to be the case in California

      Federal Judge: Californians Who Fought Fires In Prison Can’t Become Career Firefighters

      A California licensing law that bans many ex-offenders from working as full-time firefighters, even if they were trained to fight fires while imprisoned, was upheld last week by a federal judge.

      Nearly all local fire departments require certification as an emergency medical technician (EMT). Yet under California law, EMT certification is off-limits to anyone who has ever been convicted of two or more felonies, has been released from prison for any felony in the past decade, or has been convicted of any two or more drug misdemeanors in the past five years.

      Adding to the absurdity, people with multiple felonies can still serve as volunteer or seasonal firefighters, though the latter is only part-time and provides far less job security and fewer benefits than working year-round at a municipal fire department.

      To counter the labor shortage, Gov. Gavin Newsom is looking to replace the dwindling penal fire camps with professional firefighters. Law enforcement has sharply criticized the proposal, with one sheriff aghast at losing a supply of “nearly free labor:” “The truth is if [the state] kept more people in prison and weren’t so concerned about releasing all of their inmates…they would have plenty of people for fire crews.”

      • Diplomjodler
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        247 months ago

        The system totally totally isn’t designed to keep the poor down.

      • @[email protected]
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        87 months ago

        I was going off of this:

        RAMEY: We focus on the expungement process. So Gavin Newsom passed a law - I think about four years ago now - and what it pretty much does is help people that come out of, like, California Conservation Camps - being able to get their record expunged, which is amazing because it provides an opportunity where folks can, you know, apply to not only just fire careers, but, like, you know, they can have a brand-new life.

        But you’re right, I guess expungement is not a guarantee but it is something.

        And I did say

        The alternative is dystopic again

        • @[email protected]
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          97 months ago

          expungement is not a guarantee

          It’s only a guarantee if you’ve got lawyer friends or the money to hire a pro. But then how does that benefit unemployed felons?

          • @[email protected]
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            47 months ago

            It’s only a guarantee if you’ve got lawyer friends or the money to hire a pro. But then how does that benefit unemployed felons?

            The guy I quoted is the co-founder of a non-profit.

            1:

            During pre-release, FFRP participants gain important information and resources needed for successful career planning. During post-release, FFRP participants receive critical job coaching, on-the-job training, paid work opportunities, and ongoing professional development. FFRP strives to ensure formerly incarcerated firefighters have the support needed to find long-term career success once released from state correctional Conservation Camps.

            2:

            In addition, the nonprofit works with other partners to help participants navigate the court system. In 2020, California passed a law that allows formerly incarcerated firefighters to petition the courts to expunge their convictions upon release. If they win approval, they don’t have to wait until their parole ends to apply for jobs within municipal and county fire departments or to pursue the EMT credentials required of most full-time, higher-paying firefighting positions.

            With the help of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, the fire recruitment program has successfully filed 38 petitions, 12 of which have been granted so far, and 21 of which are pending.

            (from 2022)

            Although my “not a guarantee” was with the context of a federal judge pushing back.

  • @[email protected]
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    537 months ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]
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      77 months ago

      In my job, I occasionally facilitate training for prisoner firefighters. Not only do they all love the job, they are also the best FD we train with. They read the material, study procedures, get it right when being observed. They get to stay at the firehouse instead of the prison itself, so both getting invited to do it and continuing to do it are huge for the inmates. They also love it. It burns my biscuit right up that they’ll not be able to be a firefighter when they get out.

        • @[email protected]
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          37 months ago

          Depends on the state I imagine. But I just looked mine up and it’s “in the last 10 years” and not “ever” so that’s good.

      • @[email protected]
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        387 months ago

        They are banned (or they used to be, looks like there were some legal changes recently) from being firefighters after they’re released, so…

          • @[email protected]
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            47 months ago

            If only there were more context and nuance available than “convict/not convict” when making such determinations and risk assessments about candidates…

          • @[email protected]
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            127 months ago

            Honestly if anything I think it would be easier than vetting someone with no background, you already have what they’ve been convicted of. Idk how many burglars or murderers like to dabble in arson.

    • @[email protected]
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      147 months ago

      I assume after being locked up long enough, people will agree to anything to go outside for a little while, and vary their routine.

    • chingadera
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      147 months ago

      “I will pay any amount”

      1 dollar per hour and your soul is pretty cheap.

  • @[email protected]
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    7 months ago

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

    Private work is absolutely indefensible.

  • @[email protected]
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    7 months ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]
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      317 months ago

      I always assume it’s a European (or maybe Canadian) that makes posts like this. Last time I asked, I think they we’re European - definitely not American.

      But I really hope that Americans, at least, know that the right to enslave is enshrined in their constitution.

      • @[email protected]
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        67 months ago

        Oh, a bunch of us know, but because of gerrymandering and the ignorance of the larger populace, there’s not a goddamn thing we can do about it.

  • Cyber Yuki
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    27 months ago

    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.

  • deadcatbounce
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    17 months ago

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

  • @[email protected]
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    357 months ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]
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      77 months ago

      Definitely using this during my dnd session. The prison warden wardening prisoners with a job solely for their own benefit.

      • @[email protected]
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        7 months ago

        I actually purchased Thor: Ragnarok so that I could watch it repeatedly. I love it so much. I’m pretty sure about 90% of that movie was ad-libbed by Taika just giving them a vague outline of what the scene is supposed to be about and then just setting the actors loose to improv to their heart’s content.

        Edit: Also, watching Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) absolutely kill it as the most exasperated evil queen is one of my favorite things in a movie ever.

    • @[email protected]
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      47 months ago

      They’ll probably need specialty pulmonology care later in life and a lot of public insurance plans either don’t cover it, or the waiting lists for Medicaid patients are obscene. At least UHC would get you onto the shorter waiting list.

        • @[email protected]
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          27 months ago

          Oh, they’ll absolutely still pull that shit, but there are a ton of medical practices that have a separate waiting list for Medicaid patients because they only accept a certain percentage of their patients being on Medicaid. UHC will still leave you with the bill, but having Medicaid can make it difficult to even see the specialist in the first place regardless of how much it will cost.