“There have always been disposable creatures. They do the dirty work. They do the work that no one else wants to do because it’s too difficult or too hazardous.”
—Guinan, Star Trek The Next Generation, The Measure of a Man, 1989
“As California firefighters work to contain the largest wildfire in [California] state history, they find themselves working their 24-hour shifts alongside a group of unlikely partners: 3,400 inmates from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The groups work in unison, but while salaried California firefighters earn an annual mean wage of $74,000 plus benefits, inmates earn just $2 per day with an additional $1 per hour when fighting an active fire.”
—Newsweek
For clarity’s sake:
I’m absolutely disgusted
with people saying this is okay because these people have all their shit paid for and besides, they’re CRIMINALS.
No awareness of how criminal proceedings are stacked towards the prosecutor so unfairly.
No awareness of how the amendment that outlawed slavery made intentional exceptions for criminals.
No humanity enough to realize that we’re forcing people to do an incredibly dangerous job for no money, a job we usually have sooooooo much respect for.
Shit,
not even the pop culture awareness to see that “we didn’t force you, but all your living is paid for, you just work and sleep and live here” IS LITERALLY THE BUSINESS MODEL OF WORRYFREE INC WHICH IS JUST A PARODY OF HOW FUCKING TERRIBLE AND OVERRELIED UPON PRISONS ARE.
I’ve been up just 15 minutes and I’m fucking tired.
—melony ppenosyne
Flommist Melony Ppenosyne is a writer and weird artist type. In the last year alone, she’s traveled to Virginia as a competing poet, co-written a play on mental illness that is presently being produced, and crafted a published essay checking the privilege and scope of art galleries. Copyright © 2018 Melony Ppenosyne. Photo up top: The Mendocino Fire, snapped 29 July 2018 by flommist Amanda Maurer.
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