Idea came when thinking about Bernie Ebbers recent 25 year sentence - wouldn't it be tremendously boring for an intelligent and accomplished person like him (however corrupt) to be in prison? Outside of police consulting experienced criminals on how to catch their compatriots - How to tap the experience and expertise of like prisoners rather than letting them go to waste - not only tapping the incarcerated resources but also making prison a more entertaining place? Can Ebbers be consulted for professional advice on telecoms, or analogous industries? Surely not concrete advice, but his perspective might still be valuable.
Not sure whether its legal, but if no executive power is given to the prisoner, then is he allowed to contribute/communicate in an advisory role? Perhaps the question is how to limit the individuals actual ability to influence outside events, while providing a useful source of advice.
Perhaps, too, the prisoner with a life sentence without the chance of accumulating wealth will have less incentive to cheat. However, internal motives (revenge, perhaps) may drive prisoners to give subjective, manipulative advice? Possibly, positive behavior on the prisoner's part can be rewarded by giving part of the gains to their close ones on the outside? Problem is in trying to understand and incentivise the prisoner to give objective advice.
Closest I can come to is close analysis of which prisoners might be suitable - life imprisonment, evidence of guilty conscience, close family on the outside, etc, spring to mind. And then, what sort of problems could they be usefully but safely consulted on?
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I'm not sure on the situation in prisons, but quite often prisoners can communicate with the outside world. In fact Benie's incareation might take the price of his services down. You can still write him a letter, but he can't charge you for it now.
peace,A
Although there is undeniable logic in taking advantage of the unused capabilities in prisoners, it is obviously out of synch with the psychology now in force in general and especially out of the current US administration. There have been motions to deprive the prisoners of library and educational facilities which might make them capable of integrating back into society upon their release. Beyond that, subsequent bureaucratic measures and deprivation of voting rights increses the prisoner's sense of being shunned by society and economic opportunities.
From this it is obvious that the point of prison is not reform and reintegration but mere plain punishment and vengeance. It's an expensive luxury but it seems to be popular.