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[Quarque]

Most hoarding is done out of of sheer irrational panic.

I think you are right. In addition, once a few people start hoarding, more people will start to worry that the supermarket could run empty and start hoarding as well, leading to a chain effect.

[martinuzz]

Dutch prisoners will start producing face masks starting tomorrow to help solve the shortages.

[Ziusudra]

I don't think I'd be very confident in how clean masks made by criminals would be.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Yes, that's the issue here, not the slave labor.

[martinuzz]

It's not slave labour. It's on voluontary basis, and they get paid (dunno how much, think about 30 cents per hour)

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It's definitely slave labor. Why do you think the US made a specific exemption to our slavery ban for prisoners? You're playing the same fucked up game we are.

I mean, fucking listen to yourself! .30 an hour? For making lifesaving equipment? You don't smell anything wrong there? Smell hard.

[Naturegirl1999]

It's definitely slave labor. Why do you think the US made a specific exemption to our slavery ban for prisoners? You're playing the same fucked up game we are.

I mean, fucking listen to yourself! .30 an hour? For making lifesaving equipment? You don't smell anything wrong there? Smell hard.

I want our countries to stop playing the slave game

[martinuzz]

A slave who is forced to work without having committed any crime, and a convicted criminal who is given the option to earn a little extra pocket money on top of his allowance to spend at the prison shops if he so chooses are not the same.

EDIT: and it is quite possible that they get more than 30 cents for this job, no clue.
I believe the standard pay for prison labour here is 30 cents and hour though. Those standard prison labour programs aren't really for the money, they are meant to teach a trade (prisoners can get degrees and certificates through these programs that would cost a lot of money to get outside of prison) , kill boredom and get them used to a working schedule for when they are released. All voluontary.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

How quickly the standards turn! First you rave that the US has no law protecting people who steal to survive, now prisoners have no rights because muh conviction and you're not a slave if I toss you a coin now and again?

Barbaric.

[McTraveller]

Current state of this thread: WTF?

[martinuzz]

Looked it up, latest change to prison labour hourly wage I could find is from 2016, it was raised from 0,76 euro to 0,82 euro per hour.
Since prisoners pay no rent, no gas / electricity, no water, and already get an allowance, this is pretty fair, and leaves a prisoner that chooses to work 8h a day for 5 days a week with more than half the amount to freely spend (on top of their monthly allowance) than someone living off social minimum.
Plus they get free education as an added bonus.

[TamerVirus]

Meanwhile convicts in Brazil decided to just leave prison after new Coronavirus restrictions.
There was also a prison break in Italy

[TD1]

martinuzz has highlighted the following:

It is voluntary.
They get paid.

Slave labour is not voluntary, frequently unpaid, and requires the use of slaves - those who are legally the possessions of another person.

I'll add that I don't see much wrong with using prisoners as cheap labour, though it being voluntary is perhaps an essential criteria. They are, after all, being punished. If they choose to relieve their boredom by doing community service work, why not?

[WealthyRadish]

I can't see anything wrong with it either, it seems really harmless.

Opponents say things like "the same government offices that set state prosecution guidelines for conviction rates and severity are also building their budgets around the dividends from prison labor programs they also administer" and "elections to head these offices are intensely lobbied and campaigned for by the companies profiting from these programs", but I think what they're missing is that criminals need to be punished.

[Frumple]

It's really not harmless, undercutting jobs that might actually meaningfully support a family just as a start. We should really not fucking incentivize corps to figure out how to wrangle paying their workers fuckall by reason of them being currently incarcerated, and that's just the tip of the iceberg so far as issues with penal labor goes. Either pay the work what it's due or fuck off, and 80 cents per hour isn't the due for goddamn anything anymore.

Also not the thread for it, though. I'm sure some prison or another will get their population infected and then probably disproportionately killed, then it'll have a good place in the crow plague thread.