Prisoners should be required to work while serving their time

My opponent has chosen to make an unfounded assertion – My idea is inefficient because she asserts it to be so. Current work release and inmate work programs are as efficient and efficacious as they can be, within an optional program. Within the Washington State Corrections Department, they have shown very positive benefits: Efficacy of the Work Release Program Offenders who complete the work release program are more likely to be successful in maintaining employment, stable housing, and in paying legal financial obligations. Additionally, recent research conducted by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy indicates that work release programs have a positive cost/benefit impact; in fact, for every dollar spent, $3.82 is returned to the state. [1] While I disagree with my opponent regarding the need to put forth new ideas here, I will address this issue. One theme throughout the responses thus far is a fear of prisoners taking jobs from free citizens, which is second only to discussing their work conditions and third to their wages. In South Carolina a prison opened up a farm for their inmates. The prisoners grew their own food and cut the cost to the taxpayers by almost $400,000 a year. They feed each prisoner on 1.51 cents a day, for three meals. [2] I would think this is an efficient and efficacious application of the optional form that I have been urging. This is not a new idea, but it is clearly within the bounds of this argument. Building a farm on each and every prison would be one such application of how inmates can effectively and ethically support themselves. This argument is not about making sure they have any income, it is about making prisons self-sufficient. My opponent and a few of the commenters seem to be hung up on prisoners taking jobs from the free citizenry, but that is not at all applicable here. I am not suggesting they get to have jobs at the Quickie Mart or in construction. They should not be released or allowed to work in public, so there is no danger of losing public jobs, save those who have been classically contracted to contribute to the prison system. $22000 a year is well above the 2010 Census poverty line of $11136[3], which ignores the prison population. It is a ratio between the threshold of a family and the income, and when the threshold is above the income that person is considered to be within the poverty stricken group. These people are typically involved in social programs, but by no means are they living at the same level as a prisoner. If a free person can live off of $11000, surely the prisoners can live off of less than $22000. Even if we address $22000 a year, we need to come up with about $425 dollars a week, or about $10.50 an hour. Clearly with minimum wage below this we have a problem of a similar nature. Here in California minimum wage comes is $8 an hour, which amounts to $16640 a year. [5] If we get our prisoners down below this threshold there are a number of more reasonable jobs available, including the previously mentioned farming, where they offset the costs and bring that cost down further. 1)http://www.doc.wa.gov... 2)http://www2.wspa.com... 3)http://www.census.gov... 4)http://www.vosizneias.com... 5)http://www.dir.ca.gov...