Re: "This is an IDEA that is making the rounds again (having prisoners work in some sort of farm setting. Make sure that it is not done with evil intentions and Amnesty International may give out awards to USA Prisons rather than dis them as being the American Gulag."
I think the issue is not "evil" as much as putting profit before rehabilitation. It's the raising of food for the hungry, not for money to fill the warden's or some politician's pockets. The issue is will and oversight. As always, I prefer family farming to anything else. The family farm was the basis of our democracy when our republic was founded. I wish there had been a family farm amendment in our consitution (alongside the right to bear arms.) The gleaning process and use of excess production from family farms to fight hunger That being said, we need to rehabiltate our prisoners and we have a level of hunger in our country that shames us all. Citizens need to hold our elected officials and the prison administrators to strict accountability standards - there is no reason why state land can't be used to raise good low-cost food for our nation's hungry and that convicts be given the opportunity to give something back to society. Convicts are deployed to train "helper and seeing eye dogs" and other positive products. It's time to change the "stamping out license plates" stereotype. -----Original Message----- From: a.h.steely [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2002 8:20 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [cg] concerning farms run by prisoners In the state of Pennsylvania, the prisons were set up to sew uniforms, farm food, make furniture, etc. for all the state facilities. Those included the prisons, the state hospitals for the insane and state run orphanages. That all ceased in the 1970's through 1982. The last prison farm was White Hall in Camp Hill which had the infamous riots in 1989 after being renamed as Camp Hill Correctional Institution. I met a man who received his training in running construction equipment at White Hall. He told me that the last of the huge tractors and trucks that had been used to farm and transport the food stuff were buried in 1984. He lived in Fulton County where I did at the time. The AFCSME union took over the unionizing of the state workers about 1984. The federal laws were making it very difficult for any work to be done by the prisons that would interfere with the sale of goods by union labor to state facilities. In 1988 the election of Gov. Casey sealed the end of truly rehabilitative activities in our prisons. I realize that states like Georgia used prison labor in chain gangs and it was horrid but the state was provided with the needs of the state offices through the prison industry which did rehab people to some extent. White Hall is supposed to have had a cannery also. Now the taxes go up and Jesse Jackson says that it costs more to send a guy to Attica than to Harvard according to one quote I read in a Criminal Justice text. This is an IDEA that is making the rounds again (having prisoners work in some sort of farm setting. Make sure that it is not done with evil intentions and Amnesty International may give out awards to USA Prisons rather than dis them as being the American Gulag. Sincerely, Helen Steely Hbg., Pa. (graduate of the Shippensburg Univ. Criminal Justice undergrad program) ______________________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden ______________________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden
