Inmate Choppers...

is a new adventure being touted at a local state prison up by Carson City, NV. It was in the morning Review-Journal here in Las Vegas this morning, but I couldn't find a link to the article on their website.

Seems the inmates have the go ahead to start a chopper building business within the prison walls. Somebody paid the $15k license fee to the state of NV to start the business. They've completed their first chopper, valued at around $40k with a prison tower painted on the side of the tank. They only have 2 inmates working on the project now, but expect up to 20 inmates to be involved in the future.

Hmmm..interesting way for inmates to learn something constructive and lay away some money for when they get out, but would you lay down $40k? What kind of warranty, and who runs their complaint department?

I’ll have to pass on the inmate-chopper. Nothing wrong with the inmates finding something constructive to do.
If they want to make money building choppers, then, as far as I am concerned they can do it when they get out, if doing-time turns into a profit-time, then where is the justice or consequence for their behavior/actions.

I by no means is an angle. I come from an long line of dysfunction and poverty. I think that if people are hold accountable for their actions; especially kids now days don’t seem to have any consequences for their behavior, the world might be a little better off.

Besides, like what SK says, how you going to warranty it?

Off my soap box.

My.02

Nothing new inmates making money. But, they're limited to how much they can make, in Texas. My mom worked for TDC for some years as the warden's secretary. She worked at Ramsey unit, south of Houston, maximum security. There was an inmate there that made holsters for handguns, beautiful tooled leather. You just traced out your firearm on a piece of paper and he made you a leather holster. The cost was ten bucks profit being maybe three bucks after the cost of the leather and hardware. Took hours to make one. I had one made for a Benjamin pellet pistol, don't know what ever happened to it. Still have the pistol.

The Maine state prison has similar programs where they have a wood shop and upholstery shop. The profits from selling the items goes to support the entire program to train them. The prisoners do not make all the profits. I would venture to guess that it is the same in other states.

As far as the warranty goes, I would imagine that as long as the program is ongoing, you would have some recourse to solve problems. It just may not be the same individual fixing the problem. I believe they have licensed, experienced people that are paid to run these programs and train the prisoners. That is part of what the profits support.

I think these programs are a great way to help prisoners learn a trade and find a way to make a living upon release other than reverting back to criminal activities.

Here is the link that explains the system in Maine if anyone is interested.

http://www.maine.gov/corrections/Facilities/msp.htm

Please don’t get me wrong, I am all for the inmates learning and developing skills and some kind of trade, but, I am also skeptical of how much of these profits are actually getting back into the ‘system’ or the builders, I know and hear of how corrupt some of our systems can be at times and I doubt much of the profit earned will get back to the inmates.

It seems to me that we, the free citizens, are already bearing a huge cost for their life styles in and out of prison, it seems wrong to me that some of these people doing 20 to life are allowed to go to school, become a lawyer, and then tie up the court system with frivolous law suits on our buck. I cant remember the exact amount, it costs us something like 200-300 bucks a per day per prisoner.

Ah-heck, I think if and when I get truly old, or get some disease like cancer or something like that, I’ll just go rob a bank or something, so, if I still have any family left I wont be a burden on them, and then, It’ll be a retirement home, I’ll have my own little condo, cable t.v., library, schools/education, an exercise program, three meals a day, I’ll even have my medical taken care of. Waaaaaawhooooow. I think I figured it out….

Pretty good plan. I'd probably be happy so long as they supplied me with a computer.

I'm not sure how much the prisoners will make on this venture. I'm sure it's limited as most states I know of won't allow prisoners to make more than about $1 an hour or so. A good trade may keep these guys from returning to prison after they get out.

You're pretty limited on your freedoms. A childhood friend is doing something like 16 years in Susanville, CA for a DUI where he hit another car and killed two people. He's limited on how many phone calls he can make a week. Can only have 10 CDs for music at a time, so getting him an iPod w/400 CDs of music is out of the question. Every letter going in and out is read before it's mailed or delivered. Practically everything he does or has is limited. He's a model prisoner, so hopefully he's out in 8 years, but I don't disagree with his sentence..he screwed up bigtime.

Prison vs Work...

Just in case you ever got the two mixed up. This should make things a bit clearer.

IN PRISON... you spend the majority of your time in an 8X10 cell.
AT WORK... you spend the majority of your time in a 6X8 cubicle.

IN PRISON... you get three meals a day
AT WORK... you only get a break for one meal and you pay for it.

IN PRISON.. you get time off for good behavior.
AT WORK... you get more work for good behavior.

IN PRISON... the guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you.
AT WORK... you must carry around a security card and open all the doors for yourself.

IN PRISON... you can watch TV and play games.
AT WORK... you get fired for watching TV and playing games.

IN PRISON... you get your own toilet.
AT WORK... you have to share with some idiot who pees on the seat.

IN PRISON... they allow your family and friends to visit.
AT WORK... you can't even speak to your family.

IN PRISON... the taxpayers pay all expenses with no work required.
AT WORK... you get to pay all the expenses to go to work and then they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for prisoners.

IN PRISON... you spend most of your life inside bars wanting to get out.
AT WORK... you spend most of your time wanting to get out and go inside bars

IN PRISON... you must deal with sadistic wardens.
AT WORK... they are called managers.

Have a Great Day at WORK!!

FLHTbiker,

Now i am depressed. You just described the story of my life.

Well i'am a dry land wheat farmer from eastern washington. Hours are not quite as bad right now,but you never seem to get ahead.

farming's a lifestyle...tried it..too tough for me....

Farming in the 60s and 70s was great.

No more though, way to many State and County Agency's trying to till you what's best for you.Paper work takes more time now then the farming does.

Thank God i can crawl on my Wide Glide and escape it all.