Is that what I'm to understand?

I know they do for firefighting.

The prisoners have to meet really high standards to become firefighters, plus they will need to be trained. Picking produce is something anyone can do.

Prisoners are already being rented out to answer phones, etc. It's disgusting what corporations will think of to cut labor costs.

This leasing of farm labor by private corporations reminds me of warden Norton in Shawshank.

do you really think we will have humans working in fields to grow our food? Remember, a hundred years ago, most farms were worked with horses rather than tractors. Tractors were available in the 1920's, but only well-off farmers could afford them. We finally had more tractors than horses in the field in the early 1940's, when WWII absorbed a lot of farm laborers.

If it were not for the exploitation of cheap undocumented workers, we would be well on our way to developing the robots that will plant, tend, and harvest our food in the 22nd Century.

and the bathroom was the path out back.. just saying.. it has not been that long ago, 60 years back.. and no my Grandpa and Grandma were not back to the earth types.. it is just that things have moved a lot quicker than most realize.. plastics the bane of our existence.. since the 60's.. I bet you a dollar to a doughnut.. at least 1/2 the people on DU remember when paper straws were the norm not the up and coming new thing ..

But, they are the exception. At some point, perhaps difficult to predict when, we will have solar powered machines that do the backbreaking work of agriculture. It won't be convicts, and it won't be undocumented workers.

which, according to the article, relaxed restrictions on convict leasing.