Thread: Prisoners to Harvest Crops in Colorado.

Prisoners to Harvest Crops in Colorado.
by Jeff Brady
“It’s not a fix to the problem. The federal government needs to, you know, get off their heinies and get something done[b]—get this guest-work program flying.â€

Rodriguez predicts Colorado's experiment with prison labor won't succeed because inmates aren't used to this kind of hard work. On top of that, he says, assuming that prisoners can replace farm workers is offensive."You wouldn't have inmates go work on Wall Street or work on the computers," he said. "Those people have skills they've developed, and they know how to do their work — same thing with farm workers."But there've been only a few vocal critics of the plan. The Colorado Department of Corrections expects to have its first crew out in fields at the beginning of May.

Sorry buddy the illegal aliens are criminals- they broke the law as did these prisoners, so your point is nonsense.

Many people on this board have called for prisoners and people on welfare to do the"jobs Americans don't do", which we know is b.s.

What really gets me, with these prisoners, you know what crime they have commited and they don't allow murderers, sex offenders, etc. to do this. However, with illegals already breaking the law coming here, they use false identities and you have no idea what other crimes they have comitted. I'll take minimum security prisoners.

At least we know who the prisoners are.

Those people have skills they've developed, and they know how to do their work

Are their special classes for pulling onions out of the ground??

On top of that, he says, assuming that prisoners can replace farm workers is offensive."You wouldn't have inmates go work on Wall Street or work on the computers," he said. "Those people have skills they've developed, and they know how to do their work — same thing with farm workers.

Wahhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And for the part that inmates "don't work on computers" - bull noogies!! My ex-husband worked thru a computer system when he was in prison.

On top of that - I was watching something on MSNBC the other night that showed women working thru computers.

Why shouldn't inmates "give back" to the society?

You're absolutely right dyhard -- we know who the prisoners are.

According to an earlier thread on this subject, the prisoners were doing well! The farmers using them were very pleased in fact.

Originally Posted by JohnB2012

Those people have skills they've developed, and they know how to do their work

Are their special classes for pulling onions out of the ground??

Funny how all of a sudden crop pickers are skilled laborers when its covenient. Yet all along our gubermint has been calling illegals unskilled/low skilled laborers doing the jobs Americans won't do. I see absolutely nothing wrong with prisoners earning their keep which is more than illegals do for this country.

You're right, they are talking out of both sides of their mouths concerning the nature of the workers.

Typically, there are more applicants than jobs available.

So start deporting more illegals and there will be more jobs open. Easy fix!

I love how they say that pumpkins and chilis just rotted away in the fields due to lack of labor.
Has anyone asked the farmers to raise their wages? I'll bet they would have received more applications than they had work for.

WhatMattersMost wrote:

Funny how all of a sudden crop pickers are skilled laborers when its covenient. Yet all along our gubermint has been calling illegals unskilled/low skilled laborers doing the jobs Americans won't do.

Bingo, my thoughts exactly!

I worked on my grandfathers farm during the summers. A majority of the jobs required no specific skills, just minimal training (things easily taught someone with an elementary school education). Geez, how hard is it to identify a bean plant from a weed or throw, load, and stack bails of hay?

Between the ages of 13 and 16 I drove a tractor, hand weeded between plants, shucked peas, corn, etc., worked hay, hooked-up farming impliments to tractor, operated milking machines, and done a host of other things to help my grandparents around the farm. I'll admit it was a lot of hard work, but it certainly wasn't difficult to learn. Hey, I found a lot of nice arrowheads working the the crop fields.

Regardless of the hard work, I have a lot of fond memories of my grandparents and helping them around the farm.