State Journal: Free labor; Stocking stuffers

A Hawaii state representative got a cool reception recently when he suggested that the state have prison inmates work for free as school groundskeepers.

Rep. Marcus Oshiro suggested the plan at a committee hearing this month, noting that the state had saved more than $100,000 by having inmates mow the veterans' cemetery in Kaneohe. He said prisoners could do the same work at schools when classes are out in Hawaii's schools, which are operated under a unique statewide system.

The committee chairman said he would like to take some time to consider the idea, and suggested that convicts and schoolchildren seemed like an odd...