Thread: My visit to Elizabeth Dole's office today

I went to Dole's Hendersonville office today on my lunch break. I took a friend along as well, who is a Democrat, but agrees with our positions on border security and illegal immigration. Her representative told us that there had been a groundswell of opposition to amnesty/guest worker and that Senator Dole was against amnesty and favored enforcement before any guest worker program. We'll see if her actions reflect her rhetoric.

He told us that the local offices weren't used to people making personal visits and that it was sending a strong message to Congress.

Please make every effort to visit your Representatives.

Originally Posted by JuniusJnr

the state legislatures can change the law to implement prison worker programs where the prisoners and the states are paid by the employer

They can. But will they? And if they do, will the start doing it or will they wait for the ACLU to jump in and start raising the roof for inmates' rights?

I thought all produce pickers got paid by the bushel/peck or whatevery not by the hour. Being from Alabama, we had chain gangs and I can remember as a kid going by the state prison in Atmore and seeing the prisoners working in the produce fields and on the cattle farm. They broke horses, worked cattle and raised their own crops.
so I went looking for some info:

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A year after reintroducing the chain gang in 1995, Alabama was forced to again abandon the practice pending a lawsuit from, among other organizations, the Southern Poverty Law Center. "They realized that chaining them together was inefficient, that it was unsafe," said attorney Richard Cohen of the organization. However, as late as 2000, Alabama Prison Commissioner, Ron Jones has again proposed reintroducing the chain gang. Like historical chain gangs, their reintroduced cousins have been compared to slavery in academic circles

I don't advocate "chains" but I don't see why non-violent prisoner's -- Americans -- couldn't get paid to "do the jobs the American people won't do" as they like to say

When the territory of Alabama was admitted to the Union in 1819, and for several decades afterward, the young state of Alabama did not have a prison system. Surprisingly, especially when contrasted with today’s way of thinking, the people of the 1820’s and 1830’s did not want a prison system. As a general rule of the early Alabama frontiersmen, the administration of justice was best left in the hands of the local citizens, or when available, with county officials. Even in the county seats, justice was swift and harsh, as the towns vindictively encouraged their sheriffs to stage hangings in the public square. . . .

. . . nder Governor Arthur P. Bagby, the State Legislature enacted a criminal code that authorized a state penitentiary system.

By August 21, 1839, after seeking a location that was central to Alabama, property for a prison was purchased adjacent to the Coosa River near Wetumpka. In October of that year, Governor Bagby laid the cornerstone of the Wetumpka State Penitentiary and by 1841 the 208 cell prison surrounded by walls twenty-five feet high was completed at a cost of $84,889. . . .


Alabama Department of Corrections History

(As detailed in the official DOC Employee Handbook)

When the territory of Alabama was admitted to the Union in 1819, and for several decades afterward, the young state of Alabama did not have a prison system. Surprisingly, especially when contrasted with today’s way of thinking, the people of the 1820’s and 1830’s did not want a prison system. As a general rule of the early Alabama frontiersmen, the administration of justice was best left in the hands of the local citizens, or when available, with county officials. Even in the county seats, justice was swift and harsh, as the towns vindictively encouraged their sheriffs to stage hangings in the public square. These festive spectacles attracted large crowds from miles around, eager for the entertainment atmosphere created by the settlement’s merchants. Floggings, branding, and other mutilation and humiliation punitive events were also made public. Hanging offenses included murder, rape, robbery, burglary, stealing slaves, rustling livestock, counterfeiting, and treason.

Credited by some historians as being the Father of Alabama Corrections, Governor John Gayle repeatedly tried during 1831 through 1834 to introduce legislation that would create a more civilized criminal code that included a state penitentiary system. Fearful of state government encroachment, the "home rule counties preferred their brand of justice," and resisted the state’s efforts to develop a penitentiary system until January 26, 1839. Then, under Governor Arthur P. Bagby, the State Legislature enacted a criminal code that authorized a state penitentiary system.

By August 21, 1839, after seeking a location that was central to Alabama, property for a prison was purchased adjacent to the Coosa River near Wetumpka. In October of that year, Governor Bagby laid the cornerstone of the Wetumpka State Penitentiary and by 1841 the 208 cell prison surrounded by walls twenty-five feet high was completed at a cost of $84,889.

The organizational structure of the penitentiary system had a warden over the prison’s operation, three Inspectors of the Penitentiary (IP) who had general control over state and county convicts, and who operated directly under the Governor. During November of 1841, Governor Benjamin Fitspatrick appointed John Watson, J. M. Armstrong, and S. S. Simmons to be Inspectors of the Penitentiary. William Hogan was selected to be Alabama’s first prison warden.

The first inmate entered the Wetumpka State Penitentiary (WSP) in 1842 with a twenty year sentence for harboring a runaway slave. WSP was called "The Walls of Alabama" or more diminutively as the "Walls." . . .

The prison was supposed to have operated self-sufficiently from the tax-payer’s support but failed decisively. The prison industry of hand manufacturing of wagons and buggies, saddles and harnesses, shoes, and rope did not produce the capital necessary for self-sufficiency. This disappointing drain on the tax coffers did not go unnoticed by the "home rule" public.

On February 4, 1846, an act was passed which permitted private individuals to lease WSP’s facilities and convicts. J. G. Graham became the first private sector contract warden. In 1850 the first female convict was admitted after receiving a ten year sentence for murder, and she was kept in virtual solitary confinement in a single room of the prison’s hospital. . . .

Except for a few hardened criminals, most convicts were pardoned for the war. In the spring of 1865, the Federal Troops released all convicts, except one who remained voluntarily at the Walls.

In 1866, under the Reconstructionist Republican Governor Robert M. Patton, laws were enacted which permitted the convicts to be leased outside the prison facilities. The convict contracting system proved to be especially profitable in rebuilding the war-ravaged railroad system. On July 5, 1866, Baker Kyle was appointed as an Inspector of the Penitentiary and became Alabama’s first high ranking black prison official. . . .


. . . During the period 1900 through 1920, a few bright spots in the convict’s work day surfaced. For example, convicts were permitted to earn extra money for their families by mining extra coal beyond their set quotas. . . .

. . . Kilby worked inmates in a modern cotton mill and shirt factory, and in a large farming operation containing dairy and beef cattle, swine production, and vegetable and cash crops. . . .


. . . . since there were not sufficient beds in the prison system to house the leased convicts, even with the addition of Kilby, the BOA-CD leased the mines and private prison camps instead and were thus able to house and continue working the convicts in the "state operated" mines.. . .

. . . Atmore Prison Farm conducted statewide agriculture experiments raising silkworms in mulberry trees for silk production in addition to distributing several million kudzu plants to farmers for erosion control. . . .

. . . the State Cattle Ranch was completed in 1941. The 4,680 acre ranch had barracks for 50 convicts that maintained a herd of 1,200 cattle.

http:// www.doc.state.al.us/history.htm

I thought all produce pickers got paid by the bushel/peck or whatevery not by the hour.

I believe I mentioned this in the same post you are quoting.