Governor Walker Supports Jail Inmates Doing Work Instead Of Law-Abiding Citizens

I trust many across Wisconsin noted a very peculiar line given by Governor Scott Walker to the legislature during the State of the State speech.   Walker noted his pleasure with jail inmates doing work  in Racine County.

Our reforms also gave schools and local governments flexibility to make  management choices to improve their communities, while saving money. In Racine  County, they are saving money with a program that allows non-violent jail  inmates to do maintenance work, like mowing grass and shoveling snow.

Thinking I had just heard only minutes before that job creation, and bettering the lives of the state citizens was to be a top priority caused confusion when I noticed Walker’s glee over providing law breakers jobs that otherwise would be done by law-abiding taxpayers.

I know that in Walkers’ mind, and among his Republican brethren a feeling exists that union thugs stole from the state through collective bargaining, and as a result they need to be dealt with harshly.  Let the inmates who actually broke the law, and created a paperwork trail through the court system have the privileges of working at places where otherwise the average citizen might be employed.

We all know these past many months Walker has touted his jobs creation program, but it was still rather irksome to see him promote a program that puts law breakers to work at the expense of union workers.  How soon before Walker will start counting the inmates as part of his successful slaying of the unemployment rate? While I am writing tongue in cheek we all know how things have operated in the Walker Administration, and no one should count out any scenario from actually happening.

Perhaps Walker needs to huddle with his GOP majorities, and increase the ways people can get arrested in this state, and then serve time in jail.  If we only had enough prison labor we might be able to loan it out at slave wages, and reduce even further all those pesky public workers who play by the rules and keep their noses clean from getting a full paycheck.

I am troubled about where Wisconsin is headed, and find too few with actual power in the legislature having any inkling of wanting to make changes that are in the best interests of the average citizen.  Looking among the faces of the GOP on television Tuesday night (and they are the ones with the power), and knowing the desire of many of them to act out on a whole series of initiatives made one thing very clear.

It is going to be a very long legislative session, with even longer-lasting negative consequences for Wisconsin.