Elam Lynds Case Study

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Governor Wilma James’ state is facing severe budget cuts due to economic struggles and drops in tax revenues. The Department of Revenue had informed the governor that she must find ways to reduce the budget by $6 billion. There are several key areas which the governor acknowledged as fixed, and cannot be touched such as health care and pension payments. Several proposals were brought to the governor’s attention and the one that sheds most light were the prison system. After conversing with the correctional commissioner, the governor decided to order an early release of inmates whose been charged with drug related crimes. Governor James believes that her action will reduce the state’s budget immensely; however, what may transpire …show more content…

Lynds was also a pioneer of prison inmate labor and believed in hard work, which in return will help inmates obtain useful skills they could utilize after their release (Kania & Davis, 2012). From a financial standpoint, “Prison labor may be used to generate revenues to support the operations of prison environment” (Doss, Sumrall III, & Jones, 2012, p. 79). Prison labor not only generate revenues and provide cost savings, but it also produces a sense of value and ethics among those inmates who is willing to better himself or herself. Work-release concepts allow inmates to attend schools or participate in regular jobs outside prison …show more content…

79). Prison labor has two benefits and they are as follows: (1) it reduces inmate recidivism and lowers prison costs; (2) if prison labor is conducted properly, it produces profits which can be used to offset the taxpayer-financed costs or incarcerating prisoners (Atkinson, 2012). There are countless research and articles on private companies in the United States using prison laborers to produce various products, and allowing prison labor to occur within privately run prison

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