Large companies should be allowed to hire prisoners for labor work.

America imprisons more people than any other country in the world. The Prison Industrial Complex is a major institution in the US and quite a controversial one if I might add. There are many debatable elements of this industry, but I would like to focus on one in particular: Should large companies be allowed to hire prisoners for labor work? As of now, large businesses (such as Walmart, BP, Macy's, etc) are hiring prisoners to do labor jobs. Jobs include basic needs like construction and packaging. This comes with poor working conditions, little pay (as low as 23 cents per hour), and hard work. Companies are just taking advantage of these prisoners to only boost their own profits, and they fail to of long term consequences it might have on others.I personally believe that this hiring of prisoners is wrongful action and should be banned for three major reasons: (1) Working conditions such as these are inhumane, no matter the person working in them. Workplaces are giving off harmful fumes and can be at set at unhealthy temperatures. Some of the work is considered "slavery" of today. Even if these workers are prisoners, they don't deserve to be put in this treacherous conditions that could lead them to life long health issues. Some of these prisoners are even there for minor crimes. They may have robbed one store, or committed one small crime, yet their lives and health could be in danger. We abolished slavery years ago, so let's not move backwards. We don't want our country to be known for this inhumane treatment. (2) Prison time is a time to reflect, not a time to work. Part of the idea of prison is putting criminals in isolation, so they can reflect on their crimes and (hopefully) become better, moral people. Many people commit crimes because they are already in low paying but hard working jobs, and they need a way to feed themselves or get their hands on a winter coat. If they are forced into labor, they are basically doing exactly what they did before committing the crime. They would not be reflecting at all, and they wouldn't have as much off an opportunity to become morally better people. (3) As much as this may be helping businesses, it is hurting our economy. These prisoners are prisoners, so why are they getting paid in prison? As terrible as the conditions might be, there are innocent, jobless people out in the country that would probably kill for even a job like that. Did you know that prisoners even have some medical insurance? So there are people, innocent people, in the US that are living on the streets, jobless, while the people that have committed crimes are earning money and being taken care of medically. In a sense, this is promoting crime to those homeless people. They could actually have a place to sleep inside in the prison, have a job to earn some money (as little as it may be), and have medical insurance. I don't know about you, but that makes me feel unsafe in our country to know that we could be promoting crime in this way. To conclude, the conditions that these prisoners must work in are unsafe, overshadowing the true purpose of prison, and taking away jobs that could be done by the large population of the US that is unemployed. The Prison Industrial Complex is treating prisoners unfairly and hurting our economy more than we might think. Sources: http://ellabakercenter.org... http://www.huffingtonpost.com...