Although the title may sound like I am about to start a political diatribe, I am not. The situation I am about to describe occurs in Quebec, and may or may not occur in other jurisdictions.
Imagine your average convicted criminal behind bars in jail. Now there are several things he can do to amuse himself. Since this is Canada, we know very well that there is a good chance he has cable television and may even have a satellite feed. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had better internet access than I do either. Or, prison love aside, he can pass the time by working at one of several jobs which pays a tiny wage. Now imagine that John Q. Convict is sweeping the floor, and slips on a puddle of (insert any liquid/bodily fluid desired) water.
What do you think happens? Exactly! He falls! Now what happens if the fall is serious enough to injure himself or prevent him from working? What’s that kids, did I hear, “He goes back into his cell”? Well if that was your answer then you are wrong! He collects worker compensation (or CSST as we call it in Quebec).
Now is it that I am really frickin’ stupid, or does there seem to be something inherently wrong with this. And here is the kicker – they get TRIPLE THE FUCKING MONEY on workers comp. Look, if you don’t believe me, and can read French, here is the reference. Prison wage is $2.90/hour and when they go on CSST they get 90% of minimum wage which is $8.50. This means that while an inmate is sitting in his cell scratching his ass his is getting paid $290/week until they get healed. This equates to $15,000 a year. OMFG. This is wrong. They should be working and they shouldn’t be getting paid as they are getting free room and board.
And before some lily livered liberal starts telling me that their (the convicts’) human rights are being violated by the mere fact that they are being incarcerated – stop. Just shut up. Stick your head back into reality for a few minutes, take a deep breath, hold it, keep on holding it, yep – keep on holding it… Ok now that the freaks have all passed out I can continue for those of you intelligent enough not to be lily livered liberals and/or not doing everything I say.
Back to the idea at hand. They have committed a crime and been found guilty thereof by a jury of their peers. (I would like to make a side note at this point that 12 people too stupid to get off of jury duty are definitely not my peers.)
Let us say, for the sake of argument, that the system is not totally screwed up and that most, if not all, of the people in jail deserve to be there – then why the fuck are we PAYING THEM? It is very rare that I am so dumbfounde that I can’t even make a stupid comment. This is one of those times, so…
Timmy Out