Before I begin on with this, I just want to reiterate that the following is solely my opinion and is in no way, shape or form the consensus of my colleagues within Student Government. I promised them that I would not write to the editor again (as my New Year’s Resolution was to be less outspoken), however, if you go throughout college without having your viewpoints challenged at least once or twice, you really have not learned anything. I mean no disrespect toward those who oppose the use of prison labor but when the only ones who are speaking up are the ones who oppose it, I feel that it is appropriate for me to speak up because this is a conversation that we need to have.

I have an uncle who was sentenced to 30 days in jail for a DUI. When I had an internship last summer with the Department of Education, I parked in the employee lot and had to walk through the Department of Corrections (DoC) part of the building to get to my place of work. Some of those ladies still remember me. I watched prison documentaries and some of the “13th.” I know from that some of the struggles that certain people face. After my conversations during spring break with my uncle, the lady at the DoC, and seeing the “13th,” I fully support the use of prison labor and think that it is nothing like being force-fed pig fat as a colleague argued. I think if anything, we need to be heading in another direction.

I agree that we need to give inmates opportunities to better themselves, which is part of the reason why the DoC offers a chance to work. Prisons do in fact offer all sorts of programs (including getting a GED and in some cases their college equivalence) designed to help by building a solid work ethic that has proven to carry over into the outside world.

Inmates are given a chance to work in the kitchen, laundry or whatever when they are not studying and choose to do so because it is proven time and time again that an inmate not working is an inmate who is more likely to be in a gang, cause trouble and is more likely to return. If you take my uncle’s experience for instance, he was given a choice to do nothing and serve the full 30 days or to work and have 10 days reduced from his sentence, plus another three days for good behavior.

If given the chance to do it over again, he said that he would do the same thing because it got him out earlier and kept him away from the gangs living within his cell block of the Southern California jail where he was staying. He picked watermelons in the jail garden, picked up litter and washed cop cars without taking a dime and says that absolutely opposes anything that prevents inmates from working.

In fact, he credits the work he did for causing him to not drive drunk afterward. And as far as the pig fat argument is considered, inmates do not do anything that puts their health at risk (such as eating pig fat every day) and are very well hydrated and fed while working (unlike actual slaves).

So in conclusion, I believe that if you do the crime, you owe a debt to society that has to be paid off in some way or another. I also believe that if you do not like nonviolent drug offenders and young individuals who violated unfair curfew laws filling our jails, go after the laws that put them there, not the system that corrects the behavior.

My uncle is living proof that jail labor really does work. He said that it sucked and he hasn’t been back since because he thinks of the experiences every time he is tempted to drive drunk. So I encourage everybody to ask yourself, do you really want to get rid of this system?