Topic: A Broader View / Prison & Slavery - A Surprising Comparison

Prisoners would work if it was to their benefit, and private workhouses could make it safer, more enjoyable, and more profitable for them than sitting around. Work and crime are opposites. Yes, many reflect a lack of work ethic, but the whole point is to teach them to work. Now . . . under the 13th Amendment prisoners can be made to work and are not entitled to compensation . . . so forced labor would be appropriate for capital offenses and the like.

Judicial corporal punishment has worked everywhere they’ve ever tried it! I am not for using it in prison, but as a community punishment to avoid incarceration, with the due process guarantee of having the sentencing judge watch it. A good flogging is very memorable, inexpensive, and can be inflicted multiple times in the time it takes to execute one prison sentence. George Washington won our freedom with this technique. I quote over a dozen ex-slaves who vouched for its effectiveness – and they are the experts on this punishment.

The collars would shame and identify offenders, parolees and probationers; the weight would depend upon the seriousness of the offense; yellow for sex crimes; green for property crimes; red for crimes of violence. This is on the outside, too, not in prison. Collars make it tougher for offenders to fight, commit more crimes, evade police, or surprise the public; but they allow a type of indeterminate sentence, because the offender could get a lighter or heavier collar depending upon their behavior, and school officials and probation officers could step the collars up or down, pursuant to a final sentencing order from the court.

No, I am not trolling, I am expressing views I have researched and thought about for 3 years.

Topic: Letter of The Law / # chances before drug offenders go to prison instead of rehab

One option we have not tried in a long time is corporal punishment. For serious drug offenses involving coke, meth and heroin, a good flogging would discourage both sales and use of illegal drugs without the harmful effects of incarceration. We are very slowing winning the War on Drugs, but victory is by no means certain with the tools we now use.

Topic: Economy & Stimulus / Inmates NOT feeling the RECESSION

Why don’t we figure out a way to make prisoners work 60 hours per week?

Topic: Economy & Stimulus / A Stimulus Method to Get Out of Recession..

The stimulus we need is more prison labor, more prison industries, and “factories behind fences.” What else are the prisoners doing?

John Dewar Gleissner

Topic: A Broader View / Prison & Slavery - A Surprising Comparison

The Bible I use for authority, just as I invoke empirical evidence: what George Washington did with corporal punishment from 1776 to 1782 and what the former slaves said about its effectiveness in controlling offenders. Religious groups could run workhouses or work communities in the prison environment, for profit, but so could profit-oriented businesses without religious affiliation. And any religion could participate, not just those from the Judeo-Christian perspective. The ultimate goal is to get the government to loosen its grip and let market forces operate. Religious influence would not take away the need to make a profit. For some reason, religion has been a part of every successful nation . . . . and the athiest nations failed miserably.

Mr. Shakey, I am in the year 2011, and the situation right now is dire when you look at budgets, the econonmy, recidivism, offenses in prison, and the allocation of increasing correctional expenses versus decreasing educational expenses. With budgets being cut, the idea of a self-sustaining prison will grow in popularity. In the 1800’s, prisons made a profit before special interest groups put a stop to private prison industries. Now, prison industries could make goods made exclusively overseas, and domestic labor and businesses would benefit rather than suffer. Prisoners could work 60 hours per week without much problem, and they want to work! Work and crime are opposites. Only a minority of prisoners have jobs in prison, and those jobs are government jobs, not jobs in private industry. Please do not confuse the three main recommendations I make:

1. Prisoners should work on any basis they and their employer agree to.
2. To reduce the prison population, corporal punishment should be used to discourage and punish crime.
3. Probationes and parolees can be made to wear color-coded metal collars in lieu of incarceration.

I welcome your further comments.

John Dewar Gleissner, author of Prison & Slavery – A Surprising Comparison, a new non-fiction book for sale at Amazon.com, including a Kindle Edition

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Topic: A Broader View / Prison & Slavery - A Surprising Comparison

Slaves and prisoners were enslaved for different reasons, but once in slavery, the comparison is valid to show what works and what does not with those who are deprived of their liberty. I compare and contrast prison and slavery from a conservative, faith-friendly, market-oriented perspective. Prisoners do not now perform much productive labor because of the Ashurst-Sumners, Walsh-Healey and Hawes-Cooper Acts that prevent interstate movement of prison-made goods. My objectives are to get prisoners working without government interference, decrease correctional costs, decrease the prison population, and use corporal punishment and collars to keep young people out of prison. Rehabilitation efforts without work will not succeed, according to Zebulon Brockway.

Topic: A Broader View / Prison & Slavery - A Surprising Comparison

I hope folks will read my new 438-page book, “Prison & Slavery – A Surprising Comparison,” published by Outskirts Press (Nov. 2010). The book looks at the current crisis of mass incarceration and how we as a society lock up so many people; suggests that the current incarceration model, without thriving prison industries, is a failed social experiment; compares and contrasts our correctional methods with antebellum slavery’s method of NEVER incarcerating slaves; recommends repeal of the federal & state statutes impairing prison industries, together with most labor laws as they apply to prison labor, allowing negotiation between prisoners and employers; and finally supports corporal punishment, metallic collars (with or wihout electronic enhancement) and work communities in lieu of incarceration for less dangerous offenders. Prisons will always be here, but they can change and some can become “factories behind fences,” run by private organizations or religious groups rather than the state. Almost 400 ex-slaves are quoted from the Federal Writer’s Project Slave Narratives, and many support the effectiveness of corporal punishment, as did Geo. Washington, Thos. Jefferson and of course the Bible. Thank you.

John Dewar Gleissner, Esq., Author of “Prison & Slavery – A Surprising Comparison”