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

I will first proceed to rebut against my opponent's wise arguments before stating my final words. "My opponent, to be kind, is over-exaggerating the extent of private, industrial employment within the prison system. According to available sources, such employment accounts for approximately 6,000 prisoners nationwide, representing less than 1% of the total prison population (https://econ.duke.edu......). The overwhelming portion of the "Prison Industrial Complex" belongs to large corporations and government agencies that build, supply, feed, or house the nation's 2.3 million prison population. Going after a minuscule portion of that market seems to be, in my opinion, small potatoes." I do not appreciate when people talk about minorities as if they are unimportant. Every life on this planet (no matter how criminal the life may be) deserves humane working conditions. Six-thousand people is six-thousand too many working in these unsanitary conditions. Cases have been shown where chemicals such as arson, mercury, and lead intoxicated the air of the workplaces, and the prisoners had no gear to protect themselves (http://www.globalresearch.ca...). I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want anyone in those places without protection. "The vast majority of prisoners are required to work for little or no pay within their prison-- laundry, cooks, maintenance, etc. State run prisons make use of prison labor to recoup the cost of incarceration, to pay retribution to the victims of the prisoner, or to pay child support for the prisoner's children." Does it not bug you that there are homeless people out on the streets that have no job and can't support their children? I fully respect the fact that we need to take care of our prisoners, but if we plan to pay them for needs such as child support, we need to first take priority in taking care of our innocent citizens. ""UNICOR, " also known as Federal Prison Industries, is an organization that runs prison work programs for the Federal Prison System and is often cited by prisoner-rights advocates as a major violator of prisoners rights, as it also pays below minimum wage. But it too is a GOVERNMENT entity--- not the private corporation to which Debatergorl holds angst." While UNICOR is the main culprit of these poor working conditions, there are other private corporations that do make use of prison labor with poor conditions (such as Walmart, BP, Macy's, etc). In the case of the BP oil spill, prison labor was used (exposing these prisoners to toxic conditions with little pay) until nearby residents complained of the unfair treatment. (http://www.thenation.com...#) In any case, when I stated "large companies" in the prompt, that meant all companies (including those that are government run, such as UNICOR). As you stated, their treatment is illegal, but we as a nation are not stopping them. Part of the reason we are "allowing these actions" is because we are doing nothing to tighten our grip on these corporations. "The large private companies that have recently made use of prison labor do so under the heavy regulation of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, an office of the US Dept. of Justice. Under the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program, private corporations may use prison labor but must pay "prevailing wages" or the Federal Minimum Wage, which ever is higher, to their prison employees." These regulations were implemented in 2001, yet all of my previous sources have been filed from 2011-2013. We are apparently not tightening the grip enough. "Given these facts, I would argue that it improves the economy by helping otherwise unemployed convicts find jobs, while reducing the overall tax burden for incarceration." But who is it helping? The companies. The companies are only getting richer and richer by paying these prisoners next to nothing when they could be providing jobs like these (with a higher pay) to people in need of them. "Also known as "PIE," the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program was developed in 1979 as a means to give prisoners marketable skills that will help them find employment after their incarceration." "They need skills that will enable them to find gainful employment and to break the cycle of criminal activity." I think it is good that they are helping prepare these people to go back to normal lives with normal jobs, but again- we are not helping the innocent civilians under the poverty line prepare for finding jobs because they cannot afford college education. We need to set priorities. If we are going to help the prisoners, we must first help the innocent people. Remember, we want our country to be known for greatness, and not for putting people inhumane conditions or setting the priority of prisoners over our innocent citizens. By tightening the grip, we only earn the wrong image. Thank you.