[Wada]

I have nothing against inmates filling sand bags but I've got to wonder with as many floods as occur you'd think someone would have devised a machine that would fill sandbags.

[Freakinoldguy]

Wada Wada:

I have nothing against inmates filling sand bags but I've got to wonder with as many floods as occur you'd think someone would have devised a machine that would fill sandbags.

They have, but machines cost money, so why not use the resources you've got at hand and if that includes using criminals as slave labour then hey, so be it.

[PJB]

I fail to understand why there is even a discussion about this. These inmates are basically wards of the province. Our taxpayers are covering the costs of feeding and housing these folks. If sandbags need to be filled let them do it. Volunteers are the ones that are usually doing it. No proposal or study or mandate should be required..Make them do it plain and simple. Insofar as making them clean ditches I say fine to that. I remember when they used to do it. I am assuming somebody may have bitched about security or something or maybe these inmates thought they were better than that. Now at least where I am volunteer organizations clean the ditches for a small donation.

[ShepherdsDog]

Shouldn't part of their supposed rehabilitation be to make reparations to society and their victims?

[herbie]

It's a direct violation of their civil rights to make them fill sandbags.
Just tell them to climb right in and sew the bag up behind them.......

[Freakinoldguy]

I looked all over the net at all the literature I could find and nowhere could I discover anything that said prisoners "had" to work. But the odd thing I found was that Canada Corrections works under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

Who knew?

Apparently our prison system also works under:

$1:

Two additional international instruments which Canada has endorsed and which reinforce the protection of the human rights of prisoners are the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment (December, 1988) and the Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners (December, 1990). Both outline provisions that are crucial to maintaining prisoners' inherent dignity as human beings, and to ensuring that they retain all rights and freedoms except those that are necessarily restricted by incarceration.

The last line is the kicker. Does it mean they have the right to refuse work since they appear to have all the same rights you and I have with the exception of walking out the front door of the correctional facility?

And last but not least we have the Charter.

$1:

It is also clear that the human rights of CSC employees are protected in law both by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, by general human rights legislation and by the various statues that deal specifically with federal employees.

So, given that they've got more protecting agencies working for them than any free Canadian citizen, May I be so bold as to surmise that you can't just up and make a prisoner go out and work if he doesn't want to?


http://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/text/pblct/rig ... -eng.shtml

[ShepherdsDog]

Then a law abiding citizen who doesn't/can't work has a constitutional right to a house and three squares? Going hungry and being homeless are violations of the Charter? And since when is a prisoner an employee of the CSC?

[Freakinoldguy]

Fucked if I know?

Although I especially like the last paragraph.

$1:

It is particularly important to recognize the fundamental nature of Canada's commitments in light of the fact that some members of Canadian society, including some CSC employees, do not necessarily share the values underlying the Service's human rights framework.

And the 64 million dollar questiion has to be why?

I still haven't found anything that says they've got to work though.