Antone's Nightclub
Cleaning Up BP Facts
RECEIVED Wed., Aug. 25, 2010
Dear Editor,
In “The Hightower Report” published last week [News, Aug. 20], Jim Hightower writes about the horror of inmates working to clean up the oil spill. How terrible that imprisoned members of our society might do something productive. I guess they should be down on the state farm breaking rocks.
Hightower also expresses outrage that they aren’t being paid; of course they aren’t! They are paying a debt to society, and it costs thousands of dollars annually to imprison each one.
Personally, I would just like the Gulf to get cleaned up. I don’t care who is doing it. But the quicker that ecosystem gets returned to a semblance of normal (pesticides and junk from the Mississippi notwithstanding), the better.
But if Hightower’s misplaced anger wasn’t enough, he makes a huge error in his last paragraph of the print version, writing: “However, BP is getting paid for this labor – by you and me. Under a little-known tax provision passed during the Bush regime, corporations can get a 'work opportunity tax credit' of $2,400 for every work release inmate they hire.” Work release is not inmate labor. BP would not be getting tax breaks for using inmate labor.
Work release provides an opportunity for inmates to leave prison and be productive, and most importantly, earn a wage. Inmates doing road cleanup, or in this case, beach cleanup, are unpaid. And what’s so wrong with providing incentives for employers to facilitate the rehabilitation of prisoners anyway? When people get out of prison, they need jobs and proof that they can hold one.
So whose side is Hightower on? In one instance he berates BP for using inmates, defending their “rights,” in the other, he bashes the Bush regime for trying to help inmates and newly released prisoners. The Bush comment is a blatant red herring in the discussion for a knee-jerk reaction from readers who hate Bush.
What a hack.
In “The Hightower Report” published last week [News, Aug. 20], Jim Hightower writes about the horror of inmates working to clean up the oil spill. How terrible that imprisoned members of our society might do something productive. I guess they should be down on the state farm breaking rocks.
Hightower also expresses outrage that they aren’t being paid; of course they aren’t! They are paying a debt to society, and it costs thousands of dollars annually to imprison each one.
Personally, I would just like the Gulf to get cleaned up. I don’t care who is doing it. But the quicker that ecosystem gets returned to a semblance of normal (pesticides and junk from the Mississippi notwithstanding), the better.
But if Hightower’s misplaced anger wasn’t enough, he makes a huge error in his last paragraph of the print version, writing: “However, BP is getting paid for this labor – by you and me. Under a little-known tax provision passed during the Bush regime, corporations can get a 'work opportunity tax credit' of $2,400 for every work release inmate they hire.” Work release is not inmate labor. BP would not be getting tax breaks for using inmate labor.
Work release provides an opportunity for inmates to leave prison and be productive, and most importantly, earn a wage. Inmates doing road cleanup, or in this case, beach cleanup, are unpaid. And what’s so wrong with providing incentives for employers to facilitate the rehabilitation of prisoners anyway? When people get out of prison, they need jobs and proof that they can hold one.
So whose side is Hightower on? In one instance he berates BP for using inmates, defending their “rights,” in the other, he bashes the Bush regime for trying to help inmates and newly released prisoners. The Bush comment is a blatant red herring in the discussion for a knee-jerk reaction from readers who hate Bush.
What a hack.
Sincerely,
John S. Young
John S. Young
[Jim Hightower responds: Mr. Young's assertion that "work release is not inmate labor" is false, since these tax-subsidized workers are still in jail – which I think is the very definition of "inmate." In addition, BP enjoys the free-labor subsidy of those inmates who are not in the work-release program.]