Renewable Energy Powerplants: Prison "cells"

[Lightdemon]

A HUGE hypothetical here...

Would it be considered cruel and unusual punishment if we put our prisoners on electricity generating devices? Like a bike tied to a turbine or something. Of course, something more intricate and elaborate than a bike chain on a turbine. Lets just say, for the sake of argument, that it is not cruel and unusual punishment.

Would this be a good idea if this was implemented in our prison system?

Instead of community service hours, you are charged with hours of working or generating a certain amount of electricity.

Or it could be used as a form of disciplinary tool on the prison grounds itself. Like maybe you could speed up the time in solitary confinement if you are able to produce a certain amount of electricity.

With the production of electricity, at such a cheap price (nearly slave labor), I would speculate that the taxes needed to pay for the upkeep of our prisons would be curbed a bit. Also, it may even drive down market prices for electricity.


So.....Good idea, or bad idea?

 

[Simon W. Moon]

make it another one of the jobs available to them. pay them a pittance

 

[jfuh]

I'd be happy if inmates paid for their own room and board instead of having the tax payer shell out millions.

 

[UtahBill]

It takes one horsepower to generate about 745 watts. Humans can only generate about a tenth of that for an 8 hour period. So they can light up a single 75 watt lamp.
Forget about it.....

 

[rathi]

There are much more efficient ways to use prison labor that generating electricity. However, I have no problem with making prisoners work to pay off their living accommodations. They key is finding work that is unskilled, doesn't give the prisoner anything dangerous, and won't cause serious problems if done wrong.

 

[Lightdemon]

It takes one horsepower to generate about 745 watts. Humans can only generate about a tenth of that for an 8 hour period. So they can light up a single 75 watt lamp.
Forget about it.....

That's a pretty good point, I hadn't thought about that.

 

[oberhaenslir]

And they'd have to generate the power for the Electrical Chair?

.

... Would it be considered cruel and unusual punishment if we put our prisoners on electricity generating devices? ...

Who is 'we' and 'our' prisoners? In which country? And they'd have to generate the power for the Electrical Chair? For their own execution?

.

 

[RightOfCenter]

A HUGE hypothetical here...

Would it be considered cruel and unusual punishment if we put our prisoners on electricity generating devices? Like a bike tied to a turbine or something. Of course, something more intricate and elaborate than a bike chain on a turbine. Lets just say, for the sake of argument, that it is not cruel and unusual punishment.

Would this be a good idea if this was implemented in our prison system?

Instead of community service hours, you are charged with hours of working or generating a certain amount of electricity.

Or it could be used as a form of disciplinary tool on the prison grounds itself. Like maybe you could speed up the time in solitary confinement if you are able to produce a certain amount of electricity.

With the production of electricity, at such a cheap price (nearly slave labor), I would speculate that the taxes needed to pay for the upkeep of our prisons would be curbed a bit. Also, it may even drive down market prices for electricity.


So.....Good idea, or bad idea?

If it could work on the technical side, sure. But, as UtahBill said it really can't.

 

[Thoridorn]

It takes one horsepower to generate about 745 watts. Humans can only generate about a tenth of that for an 8 hour period. So they can light up a single 75 watt lamp.
Forget about it.....

There are better ways than just what you may be thinking of, say using Man power to do this,, such as the given bike example of rotation being energy they could use... maybe make them help build the things necessary for renewable energy?

 

[American]

It takes one horsepower to generate about 745 watts. Humans can only generate about a tenth of that for an 8 hour period. So they can light up a single 75 watt lamp.
Forget about it.....

So what, that's beside the point. It's 75W and we'll take it. It make them good and tired so they won't rape and riot.

 

[Coolguy]

No!

Matter of fact the the people through the government is the one that decided they need to be locked up, so the government can pay for it.

 

[1069]

A HUGE hypothetical here...

Would it be considered cruel and unusual punishment if we put our prisoners on electricity generating devices? Like a bike tied to a turbine or something. Of course, something more intricate and elaborate than a bike chain on a turbine. Lets just say, for the sake of argument, that it is not cruel and unusual punishment.

Would this be a good idea if this was implemented in our prison system?

Instead of community service hours, you are charged with hours of working or generating a certain amount of electricity.

Or it could be used as a form of disciplinary tool on the prison grounds itself. Like maybe you could speed up the time in solitary confinement if you are able to produce a certain amount of electricity.

With the production of electricity, at such a cheap price (nearly slave labor), I would speculate that the taxes needed to pay for the upkeep of our prisons would be curbed a bit. Also, it may even drive down market prices for electricity.


So.....Good idea, or bad idea?

Modern-day equivalent of galley slaves. :lol:

Couldn't we just, you know... create some mindless yet physically robust human clones to stand in for said prisoners?
I think that would be less ethically sketchy, although I don't suppose the Religious Right would agree.

 

[Lightdemon]

Modern-day equivalent of galley slaves. :lol:

Well, wait a minute there...

What about community service? Certainly, that's not "slavery."

If prisoners are forced to do community service, what difference does it make if they are working to produce electricity for the community? I'm not saying they don't deserve certain rights because they are forced into this laborious work.

What if this was the same as community service? Is it still inhumane?

 

[obvious Child]

It takes one horsepower to generate about 745 watts. Humans can only generate about a tenth of that for an 8 hour period. So they can light up a single 75 watt lamp.
Forget about it.....

Not so fast.

There are 2,299,116 prisoners in the US as of June 2007. If all of them generated energy for 8 hour period in one day, that would be 172,433,700 watts of electricity. 172 megawatts in one day. Not bad. If all of them did that for a year, that's 62.92 gigawatts. And there's another added benefit: exercise. Generating electricity AND reducing prison health care costs, that's a win-win.

 

[John1234]

A HUGE hypothetical here...

Would it be considered cruel and unusual punishment if we put our prisoners on electricity generating devices? Like a bike tied to a turbine or something. Of course, something more intricate and elaborate than a bike chain on a turbine. Lets just say, for the sake of argument, that it is not cruel and unusual punishment.

Would this be a good idea if this was implemented in our prison system?

Instead of community service hours, you are charged with hours of working or generating a certain amount of electricity.

Or it could be used as a form of disciplinary tool on the prison grounds itself. Like maybe you could speed up the time in solitary confinement if you are able to produce a certain amount of electricity.

With the production of electricity, at such a cheap price (nearly slave labor), I would speculate that the taxes needed to pay for the upkeep of our prisons would be curbed a bit. Also, it may even drive down market prices for electricity.


So.....Good idea, or bad idea?

Reminds me of the movie "Conan The Barbarian".

Instead of having a prison population that rivals the rest of the entire world's combined with a speculated 1 million innocents... we'd have a prison population the size of Califorina with 90% innocent.

 

[Lightdemon]

Reminds me of the movie "Conan The Barbarian".

Instead of having a prison population that rivals the rest of the entire world's combined with a speculated 1 million innocents... we'd have a prison population the size of Califorina with 90% innocent.

I don't understand why "innocence" or even being guilty have anything to do with this. Whether or not the prisoner is serving time for just or unjust reasons, it does not play a part in this discussion.

 

[John1234]

I don't understand why "innocence" or even being guilty have anything to do with this. Whether or not the prisoner is serving time for just or unjust reasons, it does not play a part in this discussion.

If your simply asking if it will work, then sure.
There is also a thread in here somewhere explaining how we can hook up all the female breasts and create energy from breast motion.

The issue is not whether it would work or not.
Its whether it is moral or not.

Turning our prisoners into a cross between the Matrix and the dark ages is not something I consider moral.

 

[Lightdemon]

If your simply asking if it will work, then sure.
There is also a thread in here somewhere explaining how we can hook up all the female breasts and create energy from breast motion.

The issue is not whether it would work or not.
Its whether it is moral or not.

Turning our prisoners into a cross between the Matrix and the dark ages is not something I consider moral.

How is what I am proposing any different than community service?

Or do you think that being a human battery is similar to community service?