Can prisoners be used to pick up litter?

johnny chaos

In the county that I work for we have community service workers who are serving a sentence in jail and they go out in the winter and shovel snow and the summer clean up parks, cemeteries, and county streets.

i_love_my_mp

Yes they can and in some states they are... the old chain gangs are coming back in some southern states and I think it's great!

Chuck-the-Duck

Where have you been?. All across the country everyday there are thousands of prisoners cleaning up the hiways and biways. This has been going on for 10 years now.
GOD BLESS/GOOD LUCK!!

gandamack1

they ARE used every day on our highways and county roads...

Mrs G

That would be against their human rights.... the poor sods - we cant have them getting their hands dirty.. especially in Scotland . the cons have won compensation - so they can vote..and so they can have nice en-suite's with loo's that wash & dry their bums for them.. It is about time these people were used to do jobs like litter picking. they only problem would be the escape risks involved.

Afi

They should be used...To earn their keep.

fangtaiyang

In some areas this is done. There are often prisoners clearing up trash along the highways where I live. It might be a more effective deterant to littering, if litterers were sentenced to a week or so of trash collection.

kittyluvr0223

I know that in America people who have to serve community service for committing crimes clean up the highways as their service.

Final Frontier

In Virginia, they do.

mr conservative

More than likely there are union members who object to the use of prisoners to clean things up. Personally I think everyone that is collecting from entitlement programs should be assigned jobs. Far too many people lay around and collect food stamps, housing credits and other aid instead of working. Having children is easier for them than working. Why should we pay for their vacation??

emrit4

I agree with the sentiment, however, In this country (and I believe Europe as a whole) it's contrary to human rights to make prisoners work to "keep" themselves incarcerated. Additionally we are not allowed to make prisoners undertake tasks of a demeaning nature (although perfectly respectable citizens are employed as road sweepers). As I said in my opening gambit fully support the use of non-dangerous prisoners in cleaning up; but the human rights authorities don't agree.

Bill Chandler

Call your local politician and advise them of where the area is and ask them to have a gang sento out to get it cleaned up. If that doesnt work commit a crime and you can pick it you your self

Lottalady

Quite common in California

kitsvan

I don't about everyplace else but in Maricopa county the sheriff has the prisoners doing it. One thing about Sheriff Joe is that he has common sense about how to treat prisoners.

it's because im bored

Abolsutely. Part of doing the crime is doing your time and that includes civil service.

lisa g

in fact that they are they try diffrent programs in diffrent jails until one person may run or violate its actualy a privledge to go along and clean up the streets of the state due to the fact inmates get out for the day

Moofie's Mom

You are SO right!!

nendlin

nice idea in theory but i feel it would be taken as a form of humiliation and stir an anger or a feelings of a martyr in them,therefore learning nothing

za z

That could escape easily, but you do bring up a good point. If only they had better security than that will work. Why not suggest this to a politician?

chicken pops

Abso bloody lutely!!! They should earn their keep!!

Mama Pastafarian

Our community corrections program uses offenders who have been sentenced to community service to pick up trash along the road side. They do other things, also. For example, the adult road crew just painted the county offices as part of their daily work.

We have adult and juvenile road crews in my county. Adults serve during the week, and juveniles serve on the weekends.

These people have committed an offense against the community, and road crew is a way for them to pay the community back.

Professor

People would throw even more down if that were the case. It is up to each of us to stop anyone seen throwing down litter

jardon

thousands of serving prisoners are let out of jail every day from open prisons to work as community service volunteers.
i should add that these prisoners are risk assessed as non-dangerous before being allowed out and are near the end of their sentence.
csv placements cover a wide range of applications , inc , charity shop workers, graveyard tending, public service applications such as nhs hospitals, local authority maintenance etc.
they get nothing in payment for this work and they have to complete this csv placement as part of their release plan.
during your day to day life you will have seen / met and interacted with lots of these people and you would never know.
contact your local authority and suggest prisoner involvment in litter picking, quite often the authority will not be aware that they can use prisoners in this way.
i hope this will help you.

frankturk50

I know they do this in the USA but it would be inpracticable in the UK because the prison service are already short staffed and this would obviously call for them to be guarded and supervised.

xavier

Yes, I agree, they should clean and do hard labour, but the modern day goverments are to scared they might infringe on their human rights, the prisons are cleaner than some parts of our country

When we lived in Louisiana, they did this all the time. They had lots of guards out and signs telling drivers to "not stop". I haven't seen it in Texas, but they should be allowed to do something other than sit in prison and watch subscriber tv programs and get college degrees with our tax money. From the tv reports, the prisoners have it easier in there than we do on the outside! I understand that most are not even rehabilitated or taught a skill before they are released again. So yes, let them pick up trash, learn to landscape and do other helpful supervised community services.

Fire Lt.

yes they can and should

Bexs

Yes they absolutely should. Can you imagine the human rights brigade though - it would be seen as an abuse of their rights to drag them away from the comfort of their room, tvs, playstations,gyms etc. God forbid they should actually contribute to society. However, I do also believe that people who live cradle to grave on benefits should be made to do voluntary work - maybe something a bit better than picking up rubbish but, put something back into society. That would stop the scroungers wouldn't it - having to actually do something for their free money. Whenever you have a society that gives money away for nothing you will have abusers - rant over!!

Josh A

no. because you can be one tommorow

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