State Rep. Tom Hurst wants to force criminals to work instead of putting them to death. This week, he introduced HB 2546 to require prisoners to complete at least 40 hours per week of hard labor to pay restitution to victims.
“Victims of violent crime and grieving loved ones deserve restitution from perpetrators,” said Rep. Hurst “Our state can’t afford to keep coddling prisoners who refuse to pay their debts to those they have harmed, and to society.”
Under his bill, prisoners that refuse to work would be stripped of nearly all their privileges, including the internet-connected tablets that the Missouri Department of Corrections began issuing to inmates last year. In addition, first-degree murderers that don’t work would be eligible for the death penalty.
“Most criminals desire to make right for the mistakes they have made, but there aren’t enough work opportunities in prison,” said Les Masters, who serves as the Mid-Missouri coordinator for Missouri Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty. “I appreciate Rep. Hurst’s effort to make prisoners more productive instead of killing them.”
Eighty-eight people have been executed in Missouri since 1989, mostly under former Democrat Attorneys General Jay Nixon and Chris Koster. Approximately two dozen men remain under a death sentence in Missouri at the Potosi Correctional Center.
