Modern slavery in America

I saw the other day a prisoner strike was planned throughout the USA. Prisoners were uniting to protest slavery. Prison reform is an interest of mine, so I bookmarked the story. It's easier to blog on the desktop but my bookmarks are on my phone, so google brought up the most recent strike related story, meh. The slavery gist is there in the content, but the headline is about caging people like animals. The argument seems to mock the undocumented child separation situation at the border, considering no one wants known criminals being free to rape and kill innocent women and children.

Regardless, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery but excluded punishment for crime. Given the cost of incarcerating criminals is obscene, I don't consider their argument about working for "slave wages" sound when they cost the taxpayer a teacher's salary while not compensating those they harmed.

Prison reform is very much needed, but at the same time, I want my family to not be the victim of a crime. When I saw the news that the body of Molly Tibbets was found, I was sad. When I heard that she had in fact been stalked and murdered, I was angry. The whole immigration status of Molly's murderer is a moot point to me, for what happened to Molly and her family is horrible. Anyone capable of taking another person's life in such a manner probably deserves to be locked up like an animal. I might even turn a blind eye to such a monster being dragged out into the street and publicly executed.

I have a bad feeling that the immigration status of the Molly's killer will conflate the "build the wall" argument with prison reform. Prisons have walls. America is not a prison state. I have nothing against immigrants coming to the country legally. Maybe the porous nature of our borders gives the illusion immigration laws don't exist? If there are continuous walls, then there can be gates where documentation can be taken upon entrance. If documentation exists, then the illegal element gets eliminated.