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by rhizome 3569 days ago
Are we finally admitting that that's no longer (never really was) a thing?

"Never" would imply that it hadn't ever worked, which...I take your point if that's what you mean, but as for even attempting to implement rehabilitation as a part of incarceration, that drive ended via both the Left and Right in the mid-70s after Robert Martinson[0], a Freedom Rider, published an essay[1] based on his thesis critique of the state of rehabilitation in prison at the time[2]. This was reinterpreted into the "Nothing Works" doctrine by the media and politicians, which resulted in the concepts and uses of prison being turned completely punitive within 10 years.

Oh, if they're paid $0.20/hr they're not slaves?

Nope! It's if you're in prison it's not slavery[3].

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Martinson

1. http://www.nationalaffairs.com/public_interest/detail/what-w...

2. https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/Abstract.aspx?id=1959...

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_Un...