From: "Madeleine Yeh" <myeh at wap.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Giant step backwards in time
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2006 10:37:10 -0400
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

    Yes; but people might be arrested for loitering or
public drunkness or littering when before these actions
would be ignored.  Also what happens if the Sheriff can
add them to the labor pool while they are waiting for
trial?  Or if the cases are delayed.
    There was a recent article about St. Elizabeth mental
hospital.  It used to have its own farm which was tended
by the inmates.  After the farm was sold several inmates
were released, implying that the hospital kept them
because they were useful labor, not neccesarily ill.
    The south has a nasty history of peonage lasting till
World War II or so.  I keep thinking perhaps even till the
1950s.
    This case is scary because the government is openly
involved.

On Thu, 06 Jul 2006 08:53:57 -0400
  Candy Madigan <candymadigan at mindspring.com> wrote:
> Ah, the rosy glasses that so many of us look at the
>world through.  I wish
> I could remember where I put mine.
>
> At 11:08 PM 7/5/2006, you wrote:
>
>>On Wed, 05 Jul 2006 18:22:34 -0400 "Madeleine Yeh"
>><myeh at wap.org> writes:
>> > I think that slavery seems to be reappearing in the
>>U.S.
>> > Look at this article about prison labor in Louisiana.
>> > I thought this practice was abolished decades ago.
>> >    It starts making economic sense for sheriffs to
>>arrest
>> > as many able bodied people as possible and various fat
>> > cats get rich from not paying wages.
>> >
>>
>>Slavery and involuntary servitude were abolished
>>(outlawed) by the 13
>>amendment of the U.S. constitution.  But there is an
>>exception in the
>>amendment for convicts.
>>
>>Sheriffs would probably not go out and arrest people just
>>to get cheap
>>labor, because only those who are convicted may be
>>required to work.
>>It's not enough to merely be arrested; a person would
>>have to be
>>convicted.
>>
>>Ron Kean
>
> Candy
> (301)345-6635
>