The Ethics of Prison Labour
Comments(1) Prison labour is a topic that many people choose to avoid, possibly due to the fact that many find it uncomfortable to discuss. Is it right and fair to pay prison workers a miniscule amount to cut costs? Is it right and fair to deprive law-abiding, honest, hard-working members of society of jobs that they could do just as well? How is prison labour different from controversial outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries such as India or China?
The answer? It’s not.
Sure, prison labour is a cheap and efficient way of saving money, but that doesn’t make it right. It’s not fair to either the prisoner, or the regular worker. The prisoner is being paid next to nothing for work that would pay higher, if it was anyone else doing the work. The regular working sees jobs that they could do vanish because companies want to save money by cheating the prisoners. Prison labour, and outsourcing, is in my opinion, unethical, immoral, and should not be tolerated. More information can be found at the Canadian Business website.
It’s easy to pick a side on the debate of prison labour and outsourcing. I believe most people will agree that both are unethical labour practices. Personally, I don’t think that prison labour is unethical, I think that the way companies do it is unethical. I doubt the companies are employing dangerous people or those convicted of violent crimes. But prisoners, whether they are convicted of serious or less serious crimes. are still people and should be treated as such. Yet, companies who pay these incarcerated people $0.60/hr are just showing them that they aren’t valued as people. They are just a way to get cheap labour. That isn’t the message we should be giving them. When they are released from prison, society doesn’t want them to cause further trouble & use more of our tax money. We want them to gain skills and be able to be beneficial, productive citizens. What the types of companies mentioned in the article are doing is further degrading society and perpetuating discrimination against prisoners. Being in jail or having been in jail doesn’t necessarily mean that person is “bad” & so should deserve less.