Letters to the editor: Prisoners should work and earn their keep
18 May, 2021 09:00 PM
3 minutes to read
Rotorua Daily Post
I have just received a communication from Amnesty International asking for help - which I am happy to give.
The organisation discusses the appalling conditions faced by many in the NZ prison system. I agree
and have for a long time thought that just locking up miscreants and keeping them in cells for 23 hours a day is a silly waste of resources.
I preferred the American system of making them work.
Since there appears to be a marked reluctance among Kiwis to earn an honest crust - preferring, as they do, to help themselves to others' crusts, and with the amount of work that needs doing - roads, railroad tracks that need widening, crops that need harvesting, why not have the prisoners work and earn their keep?