Describe the Lease System and the Reasons That It Contributed

question 57

Essay

Describe the lease system and the reasons that it contributed to large numbers of inmate deaths. How might this have been avoided? Do you believe that it is ethical for the government to require prisoners to perform work, given that they are being kept in prisons at public expense? If so, should only certain kinds of work be assigned to inmates? Finally, given that state prisons are increasingly being run by private businesses, would it be ethical for these states to lease the work of their prisoners to private businesses as well?

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Definitions:

Unit Elastic

Describes a demand or supply situation where a change in price leads to a proportional change in the quantity demanded or supplied.

Total Revenue

The total income generated by a business through the sale of goods or services before any costs or expenses are deducted.

Downward-sloping

A graphical representation indicating a negative relationship between two variables, such as price and quantity demanded in the demand curve.

Elasticity of Demand

A measure of how much the quantity demanded of a good responds to a change in the price of that good, quantitatively expressed as the percentage change in quantity demanded divided by the percentage change in price.