There are a few good reasons I extend discounted rates to incarcerated authors:
- Supporting prisoners in developing academic and writing skills during incarceration helps reduce their likelihood of recidivism upon release, which is in everyone’s best interest.
- Because the United States Constitution’s 13th Amendment results in incarcerated laborers being excluded from minimum wage legal protections, most American prisoners are paid less than US$ 1 per hour and will not be able to afford my regular service fees. (See Josh Halladay’s The Thirteenth Amendment, Prison Labor Wages, and Interrupting the Intergenerational Cycle of Subjugation.)
- Due to the aforementioned meager wages, prisoners typically rely on their loved ones for financial support to cover costs of toiletries, food, communications, and other basic life necessities. Even government-operated prisons contract with the prison industrial complex companies that prey upon families of the incarcerated with all kinds of burdensome fees. As a person with an incarcerated loved one, I understand this financial burden all too well and do not wish to overburden families of the incarcerated.
Ogma Editing 