Anybody ever work.. prisoners?

[Bradley_Bee]

I'm a Correctional Officer at a state prison, maybe I'm biased , but the last thing I would do is use Inmates for anything . For one , you will always get the lower level Inmates and that's fine but that doesn't always mean that they are coming off a long term. Most of them are short timers and youngsters who don't give a ****. Violent crime or not, your more likely to be dealing with thieves and sociopaths. Also, just because they weren't convicted of a violent crime doesn't mean they haven't done one. A lot of Inmates will tell you how much they didn't get caught doing. We just paroled a guy off of our Minimum yard who went out and killed two people last week. The worst thing you can do is get a group of Inmates together working at low wages . You may have one guy who's generally interested and wanting to work, the rest , are just there to kill time and won't care about your equipment, bees , or business. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about giving people another chance , and seeing people turn their lives around , but out here in Ca I'm being realistic. I see them head out and come back way to often. They don't want the work, they want to drain the state of money, do drugs , and hang out with their homies. But hey, maybe inmates aren't the same in other states

[BeeCurious]

There are few mindless idiots down here.

http://www2.tbo.com/list/breaking-news/

[Skinner Apiaries]

Wow, no wonder they are in prison up North. They can run tractors and equipment in Florida with little direction. There are few mindless idiots down here.
We live in the center of several state and federal prisons so we see them every day. FDACS has beekeeping training programs starting in several of the Florida prisons starting with youth. We moved 6 state hives to Lancaster last week. We used to just manage hives on the prison farms for pollination. Now we teach a skill set.

Id like to see or hear details of that!

[Rader Sidetrack]

Id like to see or hear details of that!

From the Gainesville Sun, in Florida:


Inmates at the Department of Corrections' Reception and Medical Center participate in a beekeeping demonstration to illustrate a new program Tuesday. The beekeeping program is an inmate re-entry program in conjunction with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. After an inmate completes the program and is released, an immediate job prospect with a commercial beekeeper is available.

On Tuesday morning, the inmates all got nearly perfect scores on a beekeeping test that officials said was essentially identical to the final exam given in a for-credit beekeeping course at the University of Florida.Following their test, the inmates demonstrated their skills to a crowd that included an international consultant, one of the largest beekeepers in the nation and some of the top insect specialists in Florida.
In return for their willingness to learn and apply their knowledge, each of the inmates has been promised an opportunity to try out for a job with David Mendes, the largest beekeeper in Florida, who owns more than 15,000 hives. Mendes, of Fort Myers, is also president of the American Beekeeping Federation.

The complete article is here:
http://www.gainesville.com/article/2...CLES/110819551


And a press release from the State of Florida about the program:
http://www.dc.state.fl.us/secretary/...eekeeping.html

[gmcharlie]

Interesting thought, given that around 90% of crimes are commited by someone that knows you, I personaly would avoid it. You have no control over which ones visit, and which ones are actually eyeing you when they get out. Yes I know the majority of them are great, and trying to get better..... But are you willing to risk everything for that cheap labor??? your odds of haveing an issue rises every time one is around eyeing what you own.

[mrspock]

Aside from the safety concerns, what about ethics and sustainability?

Ethics - Is this a fair wage? Is it slave labor, or some variation thereof?

Sustainability - Can your apiary be reliably grown using this unreliable labor source? What happens if it disappears?

[Skinner Apiaries]

I was mostly looking to have them harvest produce. An important part of my business model is using my bees in my own pollination. But the idea of getting robbed is basically the what if. And if the minimum wage thing is true, whats to keep me from getting legit labor? And as to ethics, there are none. Americans are lazy. very very lazy. The work ethic of the last generation is three times my own. I work harder than paid help, and I always make that a point. My point being, if Im going to get feet dragging labor prisoners getting paid canteen money is OK with me. As far as illegals, legals, etc; I find that to have labor on scale with these people require housing. And outsourcing as it were, may need to be a real leap, like those boer south africans I read about. I'm not against any ideas left right or sideways, but labor is labor. What I need next is really a queen catching crew. I've got a great apprentice that would make a scary crew leader lol.

[WillT]

Paul,

I think they give you a nice tax break to hire ex felons or work release. That said they do the same thing if you hire veterans.
http://www.ncesc1.com/business/savemoney/wotc.asp

[Tina 2Bees]

Last summer we had inmates work in the honey house. They were from a women's correctional facility about 80 miles away, and it is a low security facility. They had a guard on duty at all times. Our experience was very positive. They were all happy to be "out" and actually working "out" is only granted to those inmates who were at the end of their sentence and didn't want to screw up to ruin their chances of parole. They worked hard, and for the most part took pride in doing a good job. They showed up on time in the morning, and were never hung over.
There were some rules that we had to hold up on our end too, but they were minimal and mostly based on common sense, ie no phone calls.

After what I have seen and worked with, it seems like a good thing, and worth checking into at least. But, that said, we were dealing with minimum security and no violent criminals.