Room in landfills is running out and prisons are packed full of idle criminals. Landfills contain many valuable materials that are mixed with tons of trash. Taxpayers and business pay huge amounts of money to have it hauled to landfills. Taxpayers also pay to house and feed prisoners. Why not combine these issues and get more for the money.

Prisoners could mine and sort existing landfills and the stream of new waste. Trash would be handled and hauled by commercial companies as normal until it gets to the sort facility. Since anything might be in the trash special procedures will be needed to insure the safety of the prisoners and prevent them from taking any dangerous items with them. Special protective suits will be worn, when the prisoners arrive for work they will strip shower and be scanned using a T-ray scanner or low dose X-ray system they will then don pocket less protective suits. They will also wear helmets with air filters or external air input as needed. They will be split into work teams that will be measured on production, work ethic, team work, social interaction; these and other factors will be used to determine time off for good behavior. There will be many jobs other than sorting that prisoners can be promoted to. Hopefully by putting them into normal work conditions they can be prepared to renter society. At the end of the shift they will shower and be scanned again. Occasionally corrections officers will put contraband items into the trash to test the prisoners. Recyclable materials will be sold to help offset the cost of the sort facility rehab program. The non-recyclable waste can be incinerated using the heat to provide power.
-- duroncrush, Jan 07 2004

T-Ray http://www.space.co..._camera_020613.html
First Image from Revolutionary T-ray Camera; Sees through Fog, Clothing and into Deep Space [duroncrush, Oct 04 2004]

QI facts about American prisons http://www.youtube....watch?v=8E7wgFcCefE
Forced labour on a massive scale [marklar, Mar 13 2010]

<//Landfills contain many valuable materials//>
Sharp & pointed things that they can use against guards or each other? Old syringes? Nope.
-- Klaatu, Jan 07 2004


//they will then don pocket less protective suits.//

You think they use POCKETS in clothing to sneak things past guards?
-- Letsbuildafort, Jan 07 2004


They are naked when they enter and leave the facility. They are scanned with low dose x-ray which was developed to check diamond miners every day. It can find a diamond in a stomach as well as jammed up inside. Plus they are on work teams one guy screws up and they all pay. peer pressure would keep them in line unless they like having the shit beat out of them. Stabbing, rape, drugs,ect goes on inside of prisons now. High risk and lifers wouldn't get the oppitunity to be in the program.
-- duroncrush, Jan 07 2004


How about using inmates to help beautify public grounds ... its already baked here, but it seems a little more worthwhile to me ... landfills really aren't human-friendly places anyway. If prisons have to try to keep prisoner abuse/violence down, why subject them to that inhumane environment?
-- Letsbuildafort, Jan 07 2004


Make it optional. They would still be able to earn money doing it aswell. About a third of what its worth.
-- northstar, Jan 07 2004


"Breaking old socks in the
Hot sun
I fought [duronchrush]
And [duroncrush] won"
-- normzone, Dec 30 2004


My life is like this, except I avoid stripes 'cause they make me look fat.
-- reensure, Dec 30 2004


I thought of this as well, I think it's an excellent idea. Akin to slavery UnaBubba?? LOL. They are in prison, being punished for a crime. Ever thought it might work as a disincentive to crime?

It's no more inhumane than a plumber specialising in raw sewage, someone's gotta do it - why do prisoners get special treatment?
-- potato991, Dec 14 2008


anybody else read the post as "I consider myself above recycling." ?
-- FlyingToaster, Mar 13 2010


[FT] Yes, there's a lot of that going around. Someone also considers himself above plumbing. Why is this idea not "reforming criminals by having them work in call centers?" Because that's insufficiently demeaning, that's why.
-- mouseposture, Mar 13 2010


considering the laws that marketing companies skirt if not actually break, I don't think call centres are a very good idea either, at least for reform's sake.
-- FlyingToaster, Mar 13 2010


[FT] I thought someone might say that, which is why I changed "telemarketing" to "call center" Tier-I tech support, for example, while not exactly the highest life form on the planet, is at least legal.

*Yes, even my halfbakery annos go through multiple drafts.
-- mouseposture, Mar 13 2010


//Tier-1 tech... legal//
I'm pretty sure that "yes we agreed to supply you with something called 'Tech Support' that you've paid for, but we didn't say that the people would actually be available, speak your language, know anything at all about the product, or be able to convince you that they're more than drooling morons who obviously wouldn't even have enough brains to fill in the job application form" at least skirts some contract laws.
-- FlyingToaster, Mar 13 2010


[FT] Bah, humbug. The "contracts" in these cases aren't negotiated between two parties; they're written by one party, and offered to the other on a "take it or leave it" basis. I think you'll find they're drafted in such a way that the party of the first part can do what they damn well please.
-- mouseposture, Mar 13 2010


a fitting end for thieves who were caught stealing copper out of houses.
-- AutoMcDonough, Mar 14 2010


I'm all for reforming criminals, but loading them into giant vacuum furnace distillation units tends to attract unwanted attention from the namby-pamby do-gooder crowd.
-- BunsenHoneydew, Mar 19 2010


yes, but if you dip them in concrete after they're dry they can make the most wonderful faux-Grecan gazebo support columns.
-- FlyingToaster, Mar 19 2010



random, halfbakery