FDC, YOU PAY ME.

Well, charged statements charge forward. I would like to take a couple minutes of time here to talk about the continued existence of slavery, and its negative impact on prisoners.

First things first: This is just my perspective of Florida prisons. Some of my information may be either anecdotal, or otherwise unconfirmable due to a lack of access to resources that can empirically confirm.

Jobs

When you've been in prison for two months, you are assigned a job. You don't get to have much say beyond any noted medical disabilities that would prevent you from doing a possible assignment. Even then, your disability may be disregarded for whatever reason.

Case in point: when I first arrived in prison, I, a diabetic, would present with blood glucose numbers at or below 70 mg/dL while fasting. I am also frighteningly hypo-unaware: I won't feel or present with side effects of a dangerous low until I'm DEEP in the danger zone.
My job after two months on a calorie-restricted diet at the Reception Center in Central Florida? "Houseman." This is being responsible for cleaning part of my dorm wing. It didn't come with an increase of calories, but it was light work for no remuneration beyond "Gain Time."

I get transferred to a different camp; I keep the same diet, but at least my numbers look less unhealthy (80s, 90s), because we got full meals there, unlike CFRC.

I'm an office enby; I tell Classification this when I interview with them -- I'm wholly unsuited for most kinds of physical labor with my physical disabilities, and my career path for over a decade was in offices.
My job assignment? "Inside Grounds." This would be cutting grass, pulling weeds, keeping the compound looking pretty for whatever visitors might come along.
Now, as karma would pay out, I never got called to work, and got ADA'd out of that camp. However, others told me that no job on that compound pays beyond being a canteen operator.

(ADA'd Out: If you are recognized as an ADA protected individual, and diabetes DOES NOT count, then you must be assigned to a prison camp that is rated to house ADA individuals. The facility I was housed in was a NON-ADA facility; they were forced to quickly transfer me, because I became able to file ADA Grievances, and they lack an ADA coordinator. Fighting for your protections is a real struggle here.)

So hey, new camp! I arrive at Blessington a little over a year ago. I find out that like the pseudo-militaristic camp I just left, few jobs pay. Canteen operators get a little on the books, and that's it.

The one thing I could verify took over a year to learn: There is a specific program or camp in the Florida system of prisons, called PRIDE/PIE, where you CAN earn a little pay for the work you do.

A problem, however you slice it

No matter how you chop it up, the fact that most prisoners work days long as, or longer than free worlders for the promise of Gain Time only emphasizes the concept of slavery. Gain Time has a maximum cap for us, reducing our sentence to 85% in... and 15% out. So, it ultimately reduces the sentence by 0% -- you report to someone until that last 15% burns off.

A person out on that conditional release can be routed back to prison for stopping to buy a cup of coffee on their way to work!

So, if we're serving our full sentence in some way, how about maybe, just maybe, paying something monetarily since it takes prisoners to run a prison?

It what?

Yes. We are the bulk of our labor force here. Yes, there are roles we cannot do, like prescribe medicines or diagnose illnesses, and should not do (like what correctional officers should be doing, BUT), but beyond the obvious things, it's inmate labor.
Food preparation and service? Inmates, with a non-inmate supervisor.
Facility repairs? Ditto.
Groundskeeping? See above.
Cleaning blood off the walk? Inmates...
Writing lesson plans for classrooms? Again, INMATES, with a non-inmate supervisor.

Screw slavery. Pay me.

So as we do the bulk of the work, we ask to be paid for our labor.
To get a snack, or to buy a meal item that isn't provided to us (e.g.: rice, oatmeal, or sunflower seeds, which are all NEVER provided to RDP Diet meals) requires cash doled into our accounts. To buy music or a music subscription for listening to something the radio can't provide requires cash. To order books from a catalog so that we can learn or have some kind of peaceful activity as we go through many 2-hour long counts requires money on the books.

I appreciate the heck out of the support I receive from my sphere of friends, but, and they can attest to this, I want to earn my own money, too. I know the help I get takes from their personal budgets, and sometimes I dwell on it.

Now, imagine my buddy across the way, who has in the year I have known him received next to naught -- he relies on the kindness of those here in this program to get anything extra. He eats all of his tray meals, and he's wasting away. If he loses much more weight (20-ish pounds), he will be in the double digits for a grown adult male.

He's that small and light.

Now imagine if he were paid anything for his work; even $10/week.
$40/month would be a miracle for him. He could buy rice, refried beans, peanuts, etc.
Food that would help to get him back up to a proper weight for someone his size!
Money that would let him buy pencils and paper, so he can continue learning how to draw!
A few dollars a month so he can afford to call his family on a longer call, who he dearly misses; a 5-minute weekly call is short.

He's a person, and So am I.

Ultimately, if this system were to change, to treat us as people, as citizens who deserve a chance to rehabilitate, maybe the Build-A-Monster factories in Florida wouldn't need the National Guard to come in and help.

Part of that right treatment includes paying us for the work we do. I'm not a gambling enby, but I bet it'd have a positive impact regarding prisoner on prisoner violence.

But what do I know? I just wear slave blue here. :')