Should we utilise chain gangs to help build the Roads?

westtip

With the pressure being applied on the NRA in terms of budgetary costs perhaps we as a society should be looking at ways in which our prison population could be utilised to help the nation build its infrastructure. The use of prison chain gangs could be an effective use of this untapped working resource.

Or use prisoners to work on the roads - in return for remission on sentences, the work would of course be unpaid - in fact the wages they might earn could be used to pay the social welfare to their families.

amacachi

No.

techdiver

Absolutely!

who what when

Agree 100%. It should be purely voluntary though and anyone who does it should be given say 20% off their sentence

BluntGuy

No, no and no.

Plenty of law-abiding builders out there who are looking for work.

They should get priority.

munchkin_utd

with pan european tendering required nowadays, probably the only way of guaranteeing that the roads are built by irish hands is to use irish chain gangs!

Kalashnikov_Kid

Paddy built 8 miles of motorway per day in the UK in the 60s.

Surely we can do the same here then :pac:


i joke i joke

Victor

I can't see how untrained chain gangs can do the job.

Chain gangs are an expensive way to run a prison system as you need even more staff.

Run_to_da_hills

What getting people off the dole and paying them E1.84 per hour to finish off our national infrastructure. This could well happen after October 2nd :eek:

amacachi

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

What getting people off the dole and paying them E1.84 per hour to finish off our national infrastructure. This could well happen after October 2nd :eek:

How? What the **** does that have to do with anything? The case that ridiculous claim is based on has already happened, so how does Lisbon have anything to do with that anyway!? And that's before you look at the fact that it's 100% bull**** anyway. FFS

Irish and Proud

westtip wrote: »

With the pressure being applied on the NRA in terms of budgetary costs perhaps we as a society should be looking at ways in which our prison population could be utilised to help the nation build its infrastructure. The use of prison chain gangs could be an effective use of this untapped working resource.

Or use prisoners to work on the roads - in return for remission on sentences, the work would of course be unpaid - in fact the wages they might earn could be used to pay the social welfare to their families.

...or to offset the whopping €200k cost of holding Category A prisoners. I wouldn't chaingang relatively minor offenders, but offenders who create great social misery for their own gain, like corrupt businessmen, politicians, druglords etc. To make your idea work, I would run such road sites like US military style boot camps with shaved heads, orange suits etc. Of course, the army should run such sites. Gone would be the NUC (National University of Crime).

Regards!

Davidth88

I would question if this is the right Forum , I would have thought this would be politics/humanities possibly.

However given that it's here . NO is the simple answer.

Of course it seems simple , make the people who cause misery pay in a more literal form. However in the real world I can't see how this could work. After all roadbuilding is much more mechanised than it was when the M'ways were built in the UK in the 60s

Now if someone was to suggest using them ( criminals ) to clean up litter, perform social functions then I would start to agree.

Of course security is point that would have to be ironed out.

Irish and Proud

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

What getting people off the dole and paying them E1.84 per hour to finish off our national infrastructure. This could well happen after October 2nd :eek:

Of course, there is a great danger of our Minimum Wage coming under attack post Lisbon, but I do think this €1.84 figure is a bit of an exaggeration. I guess the Minimun Wage is more likely to see a 15-30% reduction. The lowest wages in the EU will rise while the higest wages will fall. However, this would not be so good for people here on excessively high mortgages.

In any case, I'm voting NO, but I wish both the Yes and No camps would stop deceiving us!

Regards!

Kalashnikov_Kid

Irish and Proud wrote: »

Of course, there is a great danger of our Minimum Wage coming under attack post Lisbon, but I do think this €1.84 figure is a bit of an exaggeration. I guess the Minimun Wage is more likely to see a 15-30% reduction. The lowest wages in the EU will rise while the higest wages will fall. However, this would not be so good for people here on excessively high mortgages.

In any case, I'm voting NO, but I wish both the Yes and No camps would stop deceiving us!

Regards!

I wish people like you would stop deceiving us!

€1.84 - 'a bit of an exaggeration' - understatement of the year!

You seem to suggest that Irish minimum wage will fall directly as a result of voting yes to Lisbon.

WRONG.

If (more likely when) the minimum wage falls here, it will be as a direct result of the decision our government makes, not the EU. It needs to fall anyway because we can't sustain that high a minimum wage in recessionary economic conditions forever.

Any minimum wage reduction will reflect the conditions of our economy and the policies of our government, not some imaginary EU overbearing diktat as you seem to suggest.

And no-one forced anyone to sign up to excessively high mortgages, contrary to popular belief.

spank_inferno

My answer is no.

Because surely road building requires some skill?
And I doubt civil engineers and architects would be thrilled at going to work on a morning with Irelands criminal underclass.

..... plus all those chains will suffer wear & tear


However there would be a case for litter cleanup projects on motorways where there is space to do so.

Danno

Would work grand until one of them broke a fingernail and sued the taxpayer for millions. And trust me, our great justice system would award them millions of euro.