Arizona communities would 'collapse' without cheap prison labor, Corrections director says

[sl8]

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2022/07/14/arizona-cities-would-collapse-without-prison-labor/10062910002/

Arizona communities would 'collapse' without cheap prison labor, Corrections director says

Jimmy Jenkins
Arizona Republic

Arizona Department of Corrections Director David Shinn said Arizona communities would “collapse” without cheap prison labor, during testimony before the Joint Legislative Budget Committee Thursday.

Shinn made the statement while answering questions about a Request For Proposal for a contract to run the Florence West prison.

Sen. David Gowan asked Shinn about the nature of the work the prisoners do at the Florence West prison. In Arizona, all people in state prisons are forced to work 40 hours a week with exceptions for prisoners with health care conditions and other conflicting programming schedules. Some prisoners earn just 10 cents an hour for their work.

“These are low-level worker inmates that work in the communities around the county itself, I would imagine?" Gowan asked.

[...]

[Voltaire2]

1. Slave labor.

[cbabe]

2. Also, prisoners in census count affects representation

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=16927601

5. Prisoners in census count affects representation

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/2020-census-prison-population_n_5a7cb966e4b044b3821b0507

Prisoners Where They Are Incarcerated
The decision could affect how future legislative districts are drawn.

By
Sam Levine
Feb 8, 2018, 05:12 PM EST | Updated Feb 8, 2018

The 2020 census will continue to count incarcerated people as residents of the place they are imprisoned instead of their homes, a decision critics say can target prisoners and give unfair political power to the rural areas where prisons are located.

State officials use the population from the census when they redraw legislative districts, something required by the U.S. Constitution every 10 years. Each district must have roughly the same amount of people in it, and counting prisoners as part of an area’s population can inflate its population and the political influence of the people who vote there.

Just two states in the country ― Maine and Vermont ― allow people convicted of felonies to vote while they are incarcerated.

//

Need to keep districts red.

[LogicFirst]

3. Arizona's legislature has been under republican control for the past 25 years.

No money for schools.
No money for prisons.
No money for anything.
However, when the voters tried to tax the wealthy, the legislature reversed our vote.