Tahlia Isaac

And like you say, prison, going to prison is the punishment.

You're not getting further punished while you're there.

Getting paid a dollar 50 to work for a huge multinational billion dollar corporation to do the work that they would, if you weren't in prison, have to pay you the minimum wage to do is,

is slave labor.

We have an anti-slavery commission in this country, and we still have slavery in our prisons.

Not only that, if we were to pay people, because it's not the prison system paying them, it's these billion-dollar corporations that are skirting the fair work laws

and not paying fair wages because the people that do their work are in prison, that if we were to pay them a fair wage and we had a mandatory saving system, people wouldn't be so reliant on social services when they got out.

We would actually save money

By paying people a fair wage to do a fair job while they're in prison.

And so, yes, they're in prison, they shouldn't be getting benefits, et cetera, et cetera.

So if they're making a minimum wage and we say we're taking some of that cash, and I don't have dollar figures, but taking some of the cash for their accommodation, and then we're taking some of the cash and putting in a savings account for them, and then allowing them to have the rest of the cash so they can buy shampoo, conditioner, and food for themselves.

We're actually teaching them how, like we're teaching people who've never probably earned a wage, how to do work and how to live in the community.

And we're also saving cash when they get out.

Isn't that the point?

Isn't that the point of prison is to rehabilitate people so that they can contribute to communities.

They would pay tax on the wages, just like everyone else pays tax on the wages.

They don't currently pay tax on any of their wages.

So, you know, like the argument is, yeah, sure, they're in prison, but they're not slaves.

You're like, okay, all right.

Yeah, open prisons.