In the drug corridor of Iowa, even federal judge has his hands tied

originally posted by: onequestion
Well if your really interested the best thing you could do for yourself is buy some stock of the stock exchange if you can actually get your hands on it and then commit a federal crime and ensure that your money is safe.

Think of it like a long term investment. Ten years at least.

Invest go to prison for ten years and you will have all your dividends and money waiting for you when you get out!

On a large scale this might actually cause some waves in the financial sectors and within local/state/federal political circles.

Here is a revision of your idea...

Imagine forming a Private Mutual Fund or some type of Annuity that ONLY serves inmates and folks on parole, paying in whatever that can spare until retirement age. Here is the twist, the ONLY stocks that are purchased and held by this investment group are stocks and bonds that are tied to the For-Profit Prison Industry.

If you have enough inmates investing the daily wages that they earn, while working in prison and later on parole, even pennies a day, this hypothetical investment firm could generate a payment schedule for these people, based on how much they invested and how long they were in jail, to be collected at retirement age. There is also the possibility of setting it all up as a pension plan with a medical competent and some kind of Union component, ala SAG/AFTRA (meaning their union membership, pension, medical, etc, although not influential with their employers, is portable from job to job).

Imagine an pension plan for unionized prisoners, paid for, by the profits of the Prison Industry, that they served time in. With all the financial protections and pooled benefits of a traditional union, pension plan, non-profit and private equity fund ALL rolled into one.

Here is a story about an inmate that saved $11,000 at the rate of $2.00 a day over 20 years.

Kensley Hawkins Gets To Keep His Money: The Illinois Supreme Court Rules that IDOC Cannot Steal Wages Earned by Prisoners

BUT, the State of Illinois wanted to keep the $11,000. From their perspective, he was EXPECTED to spend it all in the commissary,so unlike his peers they Prison owned him a check at release. In the end the Supreme Court said he gets to keep his money.

However, imagine if that $11,000 had been invested in one of the scenarios that I outlined above? How much would his $11,000 be worth in an annuity, being constantly funded by the very system that profited off his imprisonment and labor, after 20 years?

Also, just to be clear on how these people think, here is a statement from one of the Judges that voted to give him the money:

Justice Lloyd Karmeier wrote: “Work may be its own reward for some, but probably not for most inmates in the Department of Corrections. Once inmates realized that the extra work necessary to generate savings would benefit only the Department of Corrections, not them, they would quickly reevaluate the utility of prison employment. The result would likely be a precipitous drop in the amount of labor available to prison industries. If the number of work hours plummeted, the various enterprises operated by prison industries would no longer be able to provide the services and produce the goods necessary to keep them economically viable. The income they generate would evaporate, and they would no longer be able to provide any meaningful contribution toward offsetting the substantial costs of maintaining this state’s prisons. In addition, any real hope of providing inmates with marketable skills, instilling a work ethic, or improving their ability to support themselves and their families following their release would be lost. In the end, virtually the entire economic burden necessary to support this state’s large and growing prison population, while they are incarcerated and after their release, would revert to Illinois’ taxpayers.”