Forced labour, Chancellor Ken Clarke's prisons for profit

[TonyGosling]

Arbeit Macht Frei - eh Ken?
Inmates in UK jails are working for some of Britain's best-known brands
for as little as £4 a week.
One of the main companies that gets cheap labour from the UK prison system is Nazified company BMW.
http://www.antifascistencyclopedia.com/tag/bmw
http://www.prisonlabour.org.uk/

'Work," said the Victorian social commentator Thomas Carlyle, "is the grand cure of all the maladies and miseries that ever beset mankind." I think he had a point, especially in relation to crime and recidivism.
I was reminded of Carlyle's words when I read justice minister Ken Clarke's speech yesterday to the Centre of Crime and Justice Studies in London. In direct contrast to his colleague Michael Howard's "Prison Works" philosophy, which Howard vigorously promoted when he was home secretary from 1993 until 1997, Clarke is now championing what his party calls a "rehabilitation revolution". He said that, under his leadership, prisons are going to be places of "education, hard work and change".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jun/30/ken-clark-right-on-priso ns


Remember this?
A gang of offenders - some of whom have convictions for violence - are being ferried by bus from their cells to work night shifts on the West Coast mainline linking London with northern England and Scotland.
It was from this 125mph line that a Virgin express train derailed near Grayrigg, Cumbria, three months ago, killing 84-year-old grandmother Margaret 'Peggy' Masson and seriously injuring the driver.
Government investigators found nuts and bolts were missing from connecting rails near the scene, leaving track operators Network Rail facing the prospect of huge fines....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-454462/Network-Rail-using-conv ict-labour-carry-vital-track-maintenance.html