In 2006 there were a total of 892 incarcerated juveniles being held in Colorado. The total number of families with children living in Colorado was approximately 580,286. To put that in perspective: If you identified 650 families with children in the White Pages and called them all, at least one of them would have a child who is currently incarcerated. If you just called 1,500 phone numbers in the White Pages and asked if they knew anyone who was incarcerated, you’d find at least one who would respond “yes.”

On the face of it, that might not seem so bad, but when you look at it from a cost-effectiveness standpoint, the numbers are horrific. Every year the state of Colorado spends $28,000 on each inmate. It spends even more on juvenile inmates, but if we use the $28,000 number Colorado spends at least $25 million a year just to hold juvenile offenders. That doesn’t count the cost of trying, sentencing, convicting, paroling and eventually re-incarcerating them.

At the 2008 rate of national re-incarceration,  142 of those juvenile prisoners will be released and eventually return to Colorado’s prisons or jails. That means that over a period of approximately 6 to 7 years, all juvenile offenders in Colorado will most likely return to prison as adults. Here’s the point: An incarcerated prisoner makes no money and, therefore, pays no taxes to help cover the expense of their incarceration. Prisoners aren’t even allowed to access the Internet so they can make money online. That means that, as taxpayers, you and I foot most of the bill.

According to a paper discussed in the September 2008 Edition of The Monthly Labor Review entitled Effect of Employer Access to Criminal History Data on the Labor Market Outcomes of Ex-Offenders and Non-Offenders (Keith Finlay, Tulane University) Males under the age of 24 who have been previously incarcerated “are less likely to be employed, have lower wages, and have lower earnings.”  Former juvenile prisoners get out of jail, can’t get work because of mandatory reporting requirements or lack of education and end up going back to prison. In fact, a lack of employment opportunities is the number one reason ex-offenders return to prison. Nationally, that fact costs us $68 Billion per year.

In a nutshell–we don’t just foot the bill for a juvenile prisoner’s incarceration. We foot the bill for as long as he can’t find a job and keeps going back to prison. That might be his entire life. Employers’ perceptions about former felons are the real reason juvenile offenders can’t get back to work. In theory, incarcerated juveniles have paid their debt to society, but you can’t blame employers for being skeptical.   The only way to nip this problem in the bud and get the kid a job so he’ll stop draining the public coffers is to restore employers’ confidence in each individual offender. To do that, the state needs to institute comprehensive community corrections programs that retrain, reform and certify juvenile offenders re-entering society.

Felony reporting, in many states, is mandatory and it should be. Employers who don’t know if someone has a felony conviction are more likely to discriminate based on racial and demographic biases when making a hiring decision. The only way to restore employer confidence and stop the cycle of recidivism is to balance felony reporting with ex-offender certification.

Labor Day, the one day out of the year that we celebrate all the hard work we do, was intended as a well deserved tribute to the men and women who worked in steel mills, factories, construction, and other such positions that the ruling elite look down on as “manual, menial” careers.  Labor Day has been a federal holiday since 1884, a year and an era when unions were necessary, were actually concerned about the workers who paid dues, and not simply seeking political influence.  The sad fact of modern American reality is that most of the jobs that Labor Day was intended to celebrate are now gone.  Government regulations, environmental regulations, and competition from overseas, have shut down the steel mills, the factories, and made life for “blue collar” workers hell. After all, how can a company, burdened with very costly government mandated OSHA and EPA regulations, compete with the prices of a company free from such regulations?  That is why Chinese steel is everywhere, and America is saddled with a “Rust” belt.

When conservatives talk of a free market based economy, they are not talking about NAFTA type treaties.  In 1993, before Bill Clinton signed NAFTA into law, many conservatives were opposed to the treaty.  The resistance was so strong that  the Heritage Foundation had to address it.  Clearly from that article, job creation was expected, as well as the idea that American companies could “take advantage” of Mexico’s “cheap” labor costs.  What does it mean to have a low labor cost, relative to a high labor cost?  In a nut shell, it means that companies can pay their workers less, because they expect less.  Many Americans on the Left and the Right supported that idea.  Payroll is always a companies largest expense, and finding ways to lower that is always high on a CEO’s priority list.  Oddly enough, the entire company benefits from this, a truth the left is reticent to admit.

NAFTA has never been a cause of illegal immigration.  The idea that Mexican farmers cannot compete with American ones is simply mistaken.  In reality, a great many of the fruits and vegetables we enjoy in America come from Mexico, whereas our own American Farmers are given government subsidies to grown nothing.  The root cause of illegal immigration from Mexico is the corruption and crime that is rampant in that nation.  Living in Las Vegas I have had many opportunities to speak with illegal Mexican immigrants, and they have almost all told me that they miss their nation, but “things are too bad there.”  America and our economy have not caused illegal immigration, rather, those men and women have taken a risk and tried to obtain a better life for themselves in a country relatively free from political corruption (at least so far.)  I do not object to that.  I object to them breaking our laws and draining our social safety nets, when our legal citizens are suffering.

Labor Day was meant to celebrate the American worker.  Today, in our globalized economy, the “American worker” is a term that has lost all its meaning.  Despite what Harry Reid said, most of the manual construction and landscape jobs in Las Vegas (and most cities) are done by illegals.  (Reids claim to the contrary surly ranks high among the most stupid things a human being has ever said.) The current blow-up in Arizona has nothing to do with NAFTA, nothing to do with Free Market economics, but everything to do with a states desire to protect its citizens.

Arizona SB 1070 was not written and passed because of racism, or prejudice against “Brown” people.  It was enacted because of the out of control drug violence in Mexico that is spilling over into Arizona and other border states.  When Governor Jan  Brewer requests 3,000 National Guard troops, and is only given 30 (thats 1%) is it any wonder that there is some angst against the Feds?  As for what Sheriff Joe is doing, I say keep it up.  My friends on the left view prison labor as “slave” labor.  This is their choice, just as it is their choice to remain ignorant of the economic realities surrounding the issue.

Billions of dollars are spent each year on our incarcerated population, and each year the tax payers receive higher crime rates and less safe communities as their ROI. What Sheriff Joe is doing is different, it is unique in America today, and it could be the solution to our woes.  If jails are not places people want to go, then perhaps they will think twice about a life of crime.  If prisoners in jail are given a job to do, perhaps they will acquire some life skills and be able to survive in the real world.  It is not about taking advantage of “slave” labor.  Cynicism and sophistry would like to claim it is, but it is about using scarce tax dollars better than we do now.  The current justice system has double digit recidivism rates.   Clearly something needs to change.  As someone diametrically opposed to Direct File and JLWOP I applaud what Sheriff Joe is trying to do.  Children who have made mistakes deserve a chance at a new life after rehabilitation.  Teaching them to work, stick to a schedule, and a marketable skill are far superior tactics than locking them away for decades.

As we celebrate Labor Day on Monday, most people I know will actually be at work.  The banks will be closed, the government will take a three day weekend, but ordinary hard working Americans like me will be at work.  Trying to survive a bone crunching recession caused by misguided democrat housing policies and made worse by a blind reliance on Keynesian economics.

As the son and grandson of union members, Labor Day has a special meaning for me. When I think of Labor Day, I imagine my grandfather hanging off a bridge upside down by his ankles for refusing to call off a strike at the old CF&I steel mill in Pueblo, Colorado. While I tend to be more moderate than my father and grandfather when it comes to labor issues in this country (i.e., I think unions ultimately shot themselves in the foot by demanding too much), I am also cognizant of the real and sometimes deadly sacrifices that working class Americans have made to win fair wages, decent treatment and reasonable hours.

This year, the United States finds itself in the throes of the longest, most taxing recession since the Great Depression. Millions are unemployed and millions more are having trouble making ends meet with the work they have. We don’t just live in a market economy, we now live at its mercy. Approximately 90% of the capital in this country is controlled by an equally approximate 1% of the population.

Almost 16 years ago, the government under the leadership of George H.W. Bush dramatically expanded “free market” power through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).  This led to the displacement of millions of  Mexican farmers and other types of laborers who could not compete with the highly productive agriculture industry in the United States. These farmers, with very few other prospects, sought better lives North of the Mexican border. As the United States simultaneously shifted from an industrial-based economy to a service-based economy, many service sector industries welcomed the new illegal labor pool as a method of controlling labor costs. Restaurateurs and housing contractors, to name a few, knowingly hired illegal immigrants at lower wages than American counterparts and actively lobbied conservative representatives to keep regulation and oversight to a minimum.

With the economy in the doldrums, the issue of illegal immigration has come to a boiling point. Considering the “free market” conservative roots of the immigration problem in the United States, it is ironic that the Republican Governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, and her “tough on crime, tough on brown people” lackey, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, are the most vocal proponents of a deportation policy. To me, it is outrageous that on the one hand conservatives like Jan Brewer would encourage illegal immigration to keep labor costs low but simultaneously deride the very problem her party helped to create. It is so outrageous, I have to wonder if there is an angle that involves profit motive.

It is no secret that Sheriff Arpaio has made his reputation on the cheap labor his prisoners provide to Maricopa County through his notorious tent city jail. According to his website, Arpaio’s chain gangs contribute thousands of dollars of free labor to the community: “The male chain gang, and the world’s first-ever female and juvenile chain gangs, clean streets, paint over graffiti, and bury the indigent in the county cemetery.” Never mind that those are jobs that good, taxpaying citizens could have.

What’s not clear is what percentage of Arpaio’s prisoners are currently illegal immigrants. Over the past few years, it has become clear that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and local Sheriffs aren’t exactly operating in concert. According to Wikipedia, about 31,000 people who are not American citizens are held in immigration detention on any given day, including children, in over 200 detention centers, jails, and prisons nationwide. According to WikiAnswers, ICE can detain an illegal immigrant for up to 90 days before deporting them. To someone like Sheriff Arpaio, that has to look like a huge free labor pool that he can exploit while at the same time advocating for deportation.

Having a deportation policy as opposed to a border control policy is a win/win/win all the way down the line for someone like Arpaio. The fact is that many deported illegal aliens simply return to the United States the same way they came here. According to USImmigrationSupport.org, “the U.S. Border Patrol is often catching immigrants who were previously deported. For many it is not their first time, but rather their third, fourth, or even fifth deportation.” I’ve read dozens of articles about Arpaio in the last few days. No where, that I can find, does he or Jan Brewer ever advocate for better border control. I suspect that’s because shutting down the free and reduced labor pool isn’t in their long-term interests.

In the end, the debate over illegal immigration is a classic case of talking out both sides of your mouth. On the one hand, Republicans want “free markets,” “free trade” and a whole host of other “freedoms” that come at the expense of rights that took decades to achieve (fair wages, decent working conditions, etc). On the other hand, they don’t win too many friends by giving jobs away so they have to appear to be “tough on immigration.” Never mind that the businesses and industries that Republicans represent are the biggest violators of immigration policy. So they find the happy medium: Deportation.

The fact is that we, as a nation, invited the illegal immigration issues we have.  It is incumbent on us to take responsibility for those issues. If we want people of other nations to respect our laws, we have to respect them ourselves. Businesses that hire illegal immigrants are just as culpable as immigrants themselves and yet there has been no outcry from people like Jan Brewer and no offer from Joe Arpaio to tie those business executives onto his chain gang. Why?

In the end, Labor Day is about celebrating our hard work. It’s about the contributions that each of us have made to building this nation. The policies that people like Brewer and Arpaio advocate only contribute to tearing this nation down.