Always a little disturbing to see these comments. Cause every single time they are made I see phrases like “most prisoners” just straight up acknowledging that it’s not all. Hand waving that away. Creepy.
Not to mention other things like, is it actually true that most prisoners would want to get put in a life threatening situation?
And why are we not acknowledging that the US regime gives prisoners these “choices”: go outside and die for the state, work on our prison farms, get contracted out to private companies, or stare at a wall in a cell. Truly an evil empire that should not be apologized for.
Well how would you suggest we deal with people who harm other people? If you can’t put them in a cell, and you can’t make them work, and you can’t teach them to be wilderness firefighters and have them perform those duties, then what do you propose?
There aren’t many countries that employ slave labor like the US. You think they’re the rule but they’re the exception. Just because the US enslaves their prisoners doesn’t mean most other countries do too.
go outside and die for the state
At least three incarcerated fireghters died between 2017 and 2020. That same article says there were 1,760 incarcerated firefighters working in July 2023. Non-incarcerated firefighters also risk death; here’s two firefighters and a pilot who died in a helicopter crash, also from 2023. Quadrupling the known death rate among incarcerated workers gets us to 170 deaths per 100,000 workers. That’s well below everything on this table besides “office and administrative support.”
We rightly clown on cops for exaggerating how dangerous their jobs are. We are doing the same thing when we characterize this program as “go out and die for the state” or (as another commenter said) compare it to gladiators.
We don’t need exaggerations to make the case for socialism, and exaggerating only hurts us. We’re seeing that in this thread, where we’re dogpiling people for agreeing that prison slavery exists in the U.S. but arguing that we are stretching that definition to the breaking point. Why are we fighting people who largely agree with us already?
I don’t presume to know the minds of every person. I do know that my friend was glad to get into the program, as was everyone else he told me about who was in it.
If you’re not presuming that then why did you say most prisoners instead of just the one single one you claim to know?
Do you lack reading comprehension?
“as was everyone else he told me about who was in it”
