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Decarceration Means Funding The Incarcerated, David Campbell

City University of New York Law Review

While there are varied assertions as to what “defunding the police” and “reinvesting in communities” mean, I propose that one step towards this goal would be to redistribute the funds from Corrections Offices and bureaucratic management to incarcerated workers to ensure they are paid a suitable wage. If an increase in inmate pay appears outrageous to some, it is only because it entails beginning to treat inmates as full-fledged human beings and, in doing so, upsets the power dynamic between the incarcerated and their keepers.